Interesting reports today in Malaysian press which quote Air AsiaX CEO as declining to comment on the fact that Air Asia X will NOT start any services to the UK, either London or Manchester, this year. Still only operating with one A330 and its seems that the immediate concern is to increase flights to destinations where Malaysian tourists wish to go -- plans for flights to Japan have almost been shelved as the visa requirements for Malaysians to fly there are onerous. Talk of looking at other Asian destinations more welcoming to Malaysian tourists.

Perhaps Air Asia are waiting to see whether the UK government ever put a visa requirement on Malaysians tourists coming to the UK. That's what killed off the Air Jamaica flights into Manchester, remember; without the tourist trade the airline's business floundered.

Ryanair Weeze
 

Flight times for the new Manchester to Weeze

Sun,Mon,Wed,Fri arr MAN 1900 FR2182 dep MAN 1925 FR2183
Tue,Thu,Sat arr MAN 2030 FR2182 dep MAN 2055 FR2183

Andrew

Air Berlin HAM Discontinued
 

Had it confirmed today direct from Air Berlin.
MAN-HAM is discontinued after Oct 31st - another one bites the dust :-(

I would expect LH to upgrade and FR have launched today so no worries!

I doubt there will be any Lufty upgrade, as their timetable is already loaded for the winter. 2 x CRJ Mon-Fri & one Sat & One Sun.

FR to Weeze ain't much use if you want to go to Hamburg !!

LH may upgrade to a CR9 instead of the CR2.

I meant that is wouldn't make much difference to MAN numbers as FR have announced a daily 189 seater flight to Germany aswell. There is still a link to HAM from MAN and I am sure the demand left by AB will be picked up by LH and BD.

Is there a reason why Amadeus has registered EK17/18 as a Boeing 767-300ER during September?

I'm guessing that this is a mistake?

Cheers.

Ryan Air service to Bremen from Man, which is roundabout 60 mins. train time from Hamburg.
regards
Jubilee

I'm afraid I'd rather travel via LHR than travel with Ryanair.:(

So would I.

BA and T5 now work like a dream.

Thanks for the confirmation Mr A Tis. Apart from the what we know about the high oil prices etc, do we know why else AB are stopping the route. Whenever I have used it, it has always been busy both ways and the Paderborn route always seems quieter yet they are continuing and they use a 737-800 on that route, the Hamburg route usually is a A319 or sometimes a A320. I just hope they re-start them next summer.

I will be using Lufthansa in future, they used to use a CR700 on the evening flights and have always used a CRJ200 for the morning flights, but every since last year they are using the CRJ200 for both flights, I much prefer to 700 so I hope we get that back this winter.

I don't fancy flying Ryanair to Bremen and spending an hour on the train. It's a good job Airbus are paying for my flights!

Regards,

Mat.

Well I am using the Bremen service,but then again I am staying in Bremen.
First flight after all these years on Ryan Air.
Regards
Jubilee.

MAG Profits up
 

From UK Airport News


30.07.08

Profits are up for Manchester Airports Group - owners of East Midlands, Bournemouth, Humberside and Manchester Airport- after two bad years. The group - the UK's second largest airport owner - has reported a 16.4% rise in profits from £82.9m to £96.5m.
In 2006 and 2007, earnings were hit by a combination of passengers switching to faster trains (especially on routes to the capital), soaring security bills and low-cost flights using other local airports, most notably Liverpool.

However, after a costs squeeze and better returns from its shops and car parks, the airport has seen profits rise again. Group revenues in the year to 31 March rose from £385.5m to £395.7m as the strong retail and car parks performance offset lower income from airlines. Income at Manchester Airport rose 3.2% to £286.5m. Stripping out one-off items, group operating profits surged 20% from £75m to £90.5m. At the pre-tax level they rose 8.5% from £80.9m to £87.8m.

Passenger numbers across the group saw a 2% rise from 28.6 million to 29.2 million, boosted by strong performances at East Midlands and Bournemouth. Passengers fell by 200,000 (0.9%) at Manchester to 22 million, as pressures in the domestic market and consolidation among charter airlines wiped out strong growth on long-haul scheduled routes.

Chief executive Geoff Muirhead hailed an ‘excellent year’ and said the group was in good shape to withstand turbulent times ahead. He said: ‘I look forward with some degree of optimism for the business. We have made real progress in the past year, which reflects the hard work that has gone on in recent years.' But he said the consumer-spending-slowdown and credit squeeze were expected to leave passenger numbers and group profits flat this year.

The group is paying a dividend of £26m to its shareholders, the 10 local authorities of Greater Manchester. It represents a rise of £1m and is the first increase since 2005.


So I guess it's trebles all round......:hmm:

Suzeman

When will the annual report be available?

British Airways are reducing frequency on the Manchester to Heathrow service from the winter timetable. Weekday frequency goes from 9 to 8 a day, Saturday from 6 to 4 a day, and Sunday from 5 to 4 a day. A cot of 8 return flights a week. Gatwick services appear to be unchanged.

I read in the Daily Telegraph that Paul Charles, A Virgin spokesman is quoted as saying "We don't recognise the dismal performance experienced by BA during the first quarter. It is actually BA's waning popularity that is partly responsible for the actual sharp drop in profits."

I personally feel that many people in the regions out side the south east would agree with this statement.

It seems BA intends to withdraw another MAN-LHR flight, down to just 8 flights a day on week days. Given that LHR caters for a lot of business passengers I find it surprising that it did not decide to withdraw a LGW rotation instead.

To me this decision to withdraw the LHR flight seems at odds with BA's desire to try and feed as many passengers as possible through it's new terminal 5, even in today's environment of economic slowdown, and from December increased competition from the railways which will offer up to 3 services a hour.

Surely all this is going to do is push more of the north west buisness passengers to use other airlines and their respective hubs ,which further under mines T5 and BA.

8 flights per weekday is still more than enough to provide Manchester businessmen with a strong service! Nobody is going to change airlines over the drop of this single daily rotation. In LHR terms, this slot could be used for more high yielding routes, which has got to be appealing to BA.

Well done Geoff and the team.

Give that man a knighthood.

:eek:

Flight BA2912 inbound and BA2913 outbound to Gatwick has also been dropped for the time being.

BA Regions
 

I think that BA in the UK Regions have now completely lost the plot. Travellers to London now use the train, because it's less hassle and faster.
For international connections, there's more attactive options through FRA, DXB etc. rather than through T5
This is better for MAN and the development of its long-haul network.

Momentary Lapse; Gil Thompson was BA through and through, anything they wanted, they got. But what did they really give to MAN? (nothing) BA with Willie have now retreated to LHR. The pax flying from MAN and many regional airports, prefer to avoid 'the world's favourite airline' and travelling through LHR. Sorry Momentary Lapse, but the airline and airport business has moved on from how it was in the 80's.