Perhaps bmi were hoping Flybe would give the route up when they took over BA Connect, however with the takeover delayed and BA Connect probably operating the route this summer, bmi have decided not to start the route?

I see SN are still holding on to a slot which shows a 0540 arrival from BRU....wonder why they are hanging on to that?

As regards BD, they might regret that decision, considering the transfer possibilities of J class pax from BRU via MAN on to their transatlantic network.

Looks like work will start on changing the mytravel checkin area in March (well above it) into the new secuirty point, also heard today that the arrivals meeting point will be revamped very soon to.

So remind me again how passengers will get from the station to T3 once the new security area is up and running?

I think, although i dont know, there will be a new walk way included in the works from behind travelex to the walk way where the staff secuirty point is, but not that far down more towards T3.

Provisional Passenger Figures
 

The CAA provisional figures for January are out, and more bad news for Ringway. The figure is 1,328,494 which is a fall of 0.3% from the previous January. The rolling 12-month figure is 22,121,150 a rise of 0.2%.
Meanwhile, down the road at Liverpool, the figures are much more encouraging. January saw 363,313 passengers, a 13.9% rise. The rolling 12 month total was 5,006,802 which is an increase of 11.4%.
40 million passengers at Manchester by 2015? They're dreaming! There are clearly plenty of people in the North West of England who are willing to fly, but increasingly they are turning to Liverpool instead of Manchester.

I think you will find that the drop in pax was mainly due to weather and the planned strike by BA ( which I know didn`t happen) but by then most people had either cancelled trips to London or onwards or made alternative arrangements, hence the reason the domestic pax are down 7% or so
So I don`t think it is all gloom and doom

Ian

PS when BA cancelles all flights to Heathrow for a day you take a big hit strait away

So what was the weather like last January? Not much different to this year, as I remember. And probably not much different 20 miles to the west down the M62 either.

Plus the LPL runway is closed at night which has diverted some flights (to MAN possibly!) which it didn't have last year.

MAN has had the "occasional" div, ex LPL......not even 1 per night.
watp,iktch

I don1t remember Manchester losing many flights last winter because of weather, but there were several days when large numbers of dometic flights were cancelled

Ian

My point exactly. Every January there are bad days when traffic is lost due to the weather. This year was no different. So using weather as an excuse for poor traffic figures is bogus, and the last resort for those still clutching at a false reality.

The truth is that MAN is no longer growing because the competing airports have reached critical mass, and commercial and operational credibility, with the airlines, not to mention better customer service and "experience" to the passengers, so between them they are now able to grow viably and profitably at MAN's expense.

MAN is now a mature airport, and should concentrate its investment on improving service levels to impress and retain its existing passengers, rather than this tiresome, endless, dash for growth at the expense of poor service and annoying its neighbours. Then it might deserve and increase the profit per pax it currently earns, rather than only gaining increased profit from increasing passenger volumes.

Just noticed didn`t make it very clear,should have read " large number of flights cancelled this year" i:e Fog in December BA cancelled all dometic flights to MAN for 3 days and also when very windy BA did the same for a day so that totals 22 to from LHR a day, somewhere between 2000/3500 pax per day on the shuttle alone which equates to about 1% of monthly domestic pax per day
The other major problem was the very late cancellation of the strike which if I remember right was last 3 days of Jan which must have had a very large effect on the flights to London. I will have a look at the CAA figures when they are published for the domestic flights and make a few comparisons

Ian

Collision at MAN today...
 

Couldn't find this information anywhere else on the forum.

A PIA 777-200 (AP-BGY) bound for JFK and a Flybe Dash-8 (G-JEDR) were involved in a minor collision just after midday. Apparently the starboard wing of the PK aircraft clipped the rudder of the Flybe aircraft as it taxied out to runway 24R. A lot of fuss regarding this was made in Terminal 2 this afternoon amongst airport and airline officials and rumours have spread that the PK crew have since been impounded. Both aircraft were parked up on the far side of the airfield close to the cargo centre when I left the staff car park late this evening.

Does anyone have any further information to add?

Anyone know if ZB are to announce some more routes ex MAN in the near future? Their ad campaign in the local media seems to imply that they are...

There were mutterings on another airline forum regarding this about a month back but so far nothing has materialised. My guess would be that any new routes will be announced for the winter schedule now, as it is getting a little late to announce new routes starting this summer. Also it's coming up to the time that ZB usually put their winter seats on sale now, so I reckon any announcements will tie in with that.

I have yet to see this ad campaign. In what way did it imply they would be expanding from MAN, Vuelo?

It's going to be up to 12 more days before the Flybe/BACon deal goes through

Does anyone know how many pax Manchester has through each terminal in a year? I suspect T1 is busiest followed by T3. Also comparing summer and winter, T3 is probably flatter all year round whereas T2 is presumably busier in the summer?
My hunch is there is spare capacity mostly in T2 in the winter but i may be wrong?

T1 for year 9, 560, 598
T2 for year 7, 559, 148
T3 for year 4, 971, 984

It looks fairly even for the year for each terminal but I will have a closer look for you

Ian

There is loads of spare capacity at T2 during the afternoons and evenings, but its gates are generally full in the mornings with long-haul. T2 can be very quiet on winter evenings, with just KL, AF and maybe KM due in and out. It wouldn't be such a bad idea to transfer a larger T1 user over to T2, but there'd be a gate problem until about midday.

I thought they were supposed to be extending T2 towards the M56 westwards, but that seems to have gone very quiet too.

No point extending it if there's no traffic to put in it. At the last count the cost was way too high, so mgmt pulled it.

They can fit way more pax in there if they can get them in in the afternoons. No point building for peak traffic if it's too empty in the off-peak.

I think the morning and to a lesser extent evening rush effect all terminals
T3 was bursting at the seems the other day ramp wise with long haul and Heathrow shuttle flights filling most of the large stands

I`m sure when the Flybe/BAcon situation is sorted the whole parking thing will be looked at and changed as neccesary, but it looks a very difficult task
as when you look at how many wide body aircraft are in between 06.00 and 12:00 it can look very full yet by 15:00 nothing, having said that Heathrow has the same problem as T3 was deserted when I was down there mid afternoon

Ian

Reply to Ian Brooks posting of 15th Feb - #53
 

"Just noticed didn`t make it very clear,should have read " large number of flights cancelled this year" i:e Fog in December BA cancelled all dometic flights to MAN for 3 days and also when very windy BA did the same for a day so that totals 22 to from LHR a day, somewhere between 2000/3500 pax per day on the shuttle alone which equates to about 1% of monthly domestic pax per day
The other major problem was the very late cancellation of the strike which if I remember right was last 3 days of Jan which must have had a very large effect on the flights to London. I will have a look at the CAA figures when they are published for the domestic flights and make a few comparisons"

Ian, since you have not come back with the CAA figures, but I take the liberty of assisting?

January passengers on the Heathrow route were down by over 19pc at 81925 - that is a loss of 20,396 over the previous year. This is the continuation of a trend that has happened for many months, in fact the 2005/6 figures for January were also down by 10pc from 114,638.

Continuing on the down side have been large loses on Edinburgh (loss of Jet2), Inverness (start or Ryanair from LPL), Bristol and Plymouth routes (Air Southwest change of routing), however it is good to see gains on the following routes:

Aberdeen - +12.25pc, 10,372
Belfast City - +32.15pc, 17,959
Belfast Intl - +17.48pc, 14,427
Glasgow - +5.07pc, 12,887
London City - +5.17pc, 9,038
Norwich - +171.683pc, 3,953 - well done flybe!!
Southampton - +5.4967pc, 14,260

So as can be seen it is not all doom and gloom. Yes, the main domestic route has been hit badly by the improvement of the service offered by Virgin Rail, but just look at VLM who have taken a knock on the Liverpool to London City route and are down 51pc to 2,547.

Sorry if there are a lot of figures and, yes, Manchester does need to pull it's finger out in regards to certain items which have already been discussed, but please keep everything in perspective.


Scottie Dog

I don't think MAN has too much to worry about. I would envisage in the next year or so we'll see a twice daily QR, EY and even a return to daily for SQ. As regards the new service from SV, I would predict this will do extremely well, judging on what I hear on the bookings front.

Short-haul, no need to worry. Jet2 are obviously very firmly established now and likely to expand further, Thomsonfl are doing well along with Monarch Sched too. I think we can forget WW, they are obviously content with what they have and seem to have no further interest in expanding at MAN.

Out of interest, when does the contract EZY have with LPL come up for renewal?

A 20 year contract was signed in 2001, so you may have to wait a little longer.

I can't imagine EZY had it in any contract that they couldn't operate from MAN or any other northwest airport as well as LPL.

Don't know was'nt there when it was signed.

I do believe there is "exclusivity" in the easyJet/LPL contract but it may be a silly thing to say but contracts have never, ever been broken have they?
-------

VLM have announced a 9th London City service starting March with retimings of all services - there are now to be 4 depatures to LCY before 8.30am (and they still show 12 return weekday services when "booking" them in July.)

A 20 year contract was signed in 2001.

SQ going back to daily in October, possibly wth 777-300 but not confirmed.

QR were supposed to be going to 10 per week last year but it never happend. Any idea why?

EY possibly changing to a larger 777. Not sure about a second daily.

:ok:

Not heard anything on the QR front for 10 weekly last year! They only went from 4 weekly to 5 weekly a year ago, with the daily services beginning March. I would have thought they wanted to see a daily service do well before either upping frequency or increasing capacity.

Instead of extending westwards, prehaps a better investment into T2 would be to improve the current standard of the terminal. At the moment Terminal 2 is fairly scruffy and barely seems to have been changed from the mid 1990's. At peak time there probably isn't enough airside seating for a fraction of the passengers that are there. This probably due to the ever-expanding 'alpha airport shopping' which seems to swamp the area that was once seating.

Looks like virtually nothing will be spent on T2 until after the massive T1/3 revamp, so looking at 2009 at the earliest I should say.

PIA increasing their flights to 27 a week from March.

All B777s.

Two more Houston rotations and an Islamabad. :ok:

"Looks like virtually nothing will be spent on T2 until after the massive T1/3 revamp, so looking at 2009 at the earliest I should say."

Investment in T2 has been on hold for the last few years ever since T2 phase 2 was floated. It's a shame for the team there that they'll have to wait even longer for more security capacity, more airside seating, more check in on the right level, etc. etc.

:ugh: :ugh:
:ugh: :ugh:

And T2 can be the busiest somedays especially Saturday Mornings 8 - 12pm, It really does take the hammer and strain in Summer.

I was surprised that when T2 was constructed they didn't build a 3rd level
with extra PAX seating, and the like mixed in.

Personally I prefer T2, And it does look dated back to the 1990's.

I like the Raddisson thou.

Regards.;)

T2
 

All the focus on T2 at the minute is converting landside to airside, similar to the project in T1. This will be where the money is spent before any other expansion is considered. Plans are being put forward as we speak, with the possibility of the works starting this September ready for completion before the start of next summer.

This will see security being moved upstairs to where the Atlantic Suite currently is, with the current landside concourse becoming airside. I've also heard that Alpha want to move their duty free shop into the area currently occupied by security, thus giving them a larger outlet and freeing up space around Gate 210.

The specifics of this project are still be to ironed out but it is extremely likely to go ahead, the only real question being when. I think September is a little ambitious. I'd say around this time next year seems more realistic, ready for completion by Summer 2009.

New route announced by ZB today. Murcia 5 x weekly starts Feb 2008. Not over imaginative but nice to see Monarch expanding from their number one base :ok:

Very interesting!

MAN biggest LC airline
 

Which LC is the biggest at MAN?

Around the UK we can tell who is the biggest LC at each airport, such as:

LTN - EZY
LGW - EZY
STN - FR
LBA - LS
NCL - EZY
BFS - EZY
LPL - FR
BLK - LS
CWL - WW
BHX - BE
SOU - BE
EXT - BE
EMA - FR
BRS - EZY
BHD - BE

But which is the largest LC carrier at MAN? ZB, LS, BE or WW?

Personally, I think it is:

1. LS
2. ZB
3. WW
4. BE

But I can see BE moving into 2nd or even 1st upon the BACON takeover.

Anybody know the current standings?

Cheers.