Just thought I would announce that DL is to increase the ATL capacity when on the 25th October, a 767-400 will leave ATL for MAN.

Good to see the route finally increased but as we saw this summer, nothing is certain!

Viscount 702, I can't give you any information regarding the airfield. It was mentioned in a development meeting I attended a few weeks back and there are plans afoot with regards to improving taxiways etc but there are people on here who know and understand far more about this than me. Maybe they can give you some insight.

With regards to the extension of T2 'West Pier' it looks like I may have contradicted myself slightly. The go-ahead has been given to extend the pier down to Stand 219, so that Gates 216, 217, 218 & 219 will all be connected by airbridges and will form part of the terminal building. By go-ahead, I mean the project has been put forward to the board of directors and they have approved it. However, work on this project probably won't start until Winter 2009/2010 because of other schemes going on elsewhere. The retail and security development in T2 needs to be finalised first, otherwise the scale of building works would be too much to maintain the operation efficiently.

Manchester
 

MACC is moving to Scotland.

Anybody heard of flybe dropping FRA later this year?

Delta have the ability to match aircraft to demand. The 777 was great for spotters when it plowed the route, but tour operators filled it to the brim with Y class families off to Orlando, often meaning many J class seats were filled with upgrades.

The 763 has been the absolute optimum frame for the route. The 764 in Int'l config is a sensible progression.

You have to hand it to Delta. They have stuck with MAN through thick and thin, often coming back for another try, unlike others.

Plus, the MAN staff are fab (I know you read this site D !)

Stoney

I was one of the many people put on the T7 to MCO via ATL. Fantastic bird! Hope the aircraft returns to the route in the coming years. I know we have the PIA, EK and SQ T7s but I would love to see other airlines (*cough* AA *cough*) introduce the aircraft on their long haul programmes from MAN.

I'm guessing Spotty M might be Monarch......three spots above the "M" logo anyone?!

Seven brand new routes for a new season would be quite an expansion from them given they have traditionally been relatively slow and steady in terms of expansion, so I would be surprised.

EZY
 

Although EZY timetable shows daily MLA flights to end of Summer.No Mon, Weds, Fri flights are showing in October on booking system.

Anyone no the reason

Malta is not as popular in autumn/winter?

Ian

Pie in the Sky - well no actually?
 

:=
:O

Well Momentary Lapse and WincoDinco, shows how much you two know?

The demolshing of T1 was / is still a consideration by MA. Yes it would mean a little disruption, but what is required is thinking outside the box. Construction of the new terminal would come first, behind the present Multi-storey car park, to include the rail station & bus terminus. Only when that is complete and open would you then close & demolish the present T1. The current Piers would be left short term to accomadate pax transferred by bus from the new term. Gradually the piers would be reduced once new apron was down on the site of the present T1, along with new piers.

The construction of a new ATC tower starts imminently, so that is not a problem is it?

The Manchester Area ATC set-up closes in 2009 / 10 and moves to Scotland ( So no more "Manchester Control" on the R/T - it'll all be "Scottish Control " around these parts - bloody diabolical - Salmon & his cronies!!)

As for offices for Airlines and the Airport, there is more than enough space already available in the office block at the Rail station and just a short hop away more office space is lying empty adjacent to the new Ringway road.

"Not Economic", someone quoted! Really, - I wonder if it was considered Economic (obviously it was ) way back in the 60's when T 1 was first planned & then constructed? When any ordinary punter wandered around that "Vast" concourse" he / she saw maybe 50 pax at a time??

What I can't understand, and maybe some enlightened member can tell me, is yes the Pax figures and movement figures have decreased slightly this past couple of years, but they are still where they were in 2004, but everything then was rosy, lovely profits being made, everybody was cock-a-hoop. Now it's doom and gloom, reign back on investment, let-down your staff by trying to outwit them with new and inferior contracts, and what seems like no long-term plans anymore - well none that last more than next next lot of pax figures!! Yes inflation has risen over that period and consequently costs have gone up, but so have charges, so have retail rates, and now no more CAA RPI minus figures to be obeyed.

Anyway, that's my last and final say on the subject.:hmm:

I'm thanking you

Adola ( Mr. or to some SIR !!).:E

U2 is probably still working out plans for thier operations from October onwards for *all* of their destinations - when they put the GT routes on sale, nearly everything was until the end of September.

As for the pax going elsewhere, could it be that they are going elsewhere because they are going to places which currently do not have a MAN run, or if destinations are the same, the timings from other airports is better than that currently offered at MAN.

Menzies have won the Easyjet contract for MAN.:ok:

T7???????:confused:

Is this the text generation gone mad?

Would the extra tap on the keyboard to type '777' really hurt that much? :yuk:

Viscount

MA extended the west apron, infilled the B1D area and added new stands in the passing bay nr T3, all within the last five years.

Adola

You don't know how much I know. More than you, I bet.

Building a new T1 then demolishing the old one is technically possible (what isn't?) but farcical, expensive and risky. Yes they might keep the piers as stands, but by the time you've left circulation space for a/c and handlers and buses they'll be laying concrete at a postage stamp sized piece at a time, which is expensive, lengthy and leads to an inferior product at the end.

And at some point they'd need to close the piers to fill in the gaps in the concrete so the combined capacity of old and new T1 will be nil for quite a while. Where are those movts going to be handled then? Customer service anyone?

And is there enough space between S200 and T3 and the rail station to get meaningful taxiways in and out to the new terminal, which is going to be a compromised site to start with?

The office block at the Station is empty because there's no demand and the rents are far too high. That's also why Oly House is full of MA staff; because the airlines left there too as the rents were too high. Most MA staff don't even need to be on site (eg HR, Finance, Payroll, and mostl of Group) - an HR officer could be 100 miles away but would be contactable by phone or email.

MA doesn't do risk, so I suspect they'll order a feasibility study to get high order costs then bin it because it's too expensive, complicated, lengthy and most of all risky.

Finally - so they're putting up charges eh? That'll bring the airlines back, not. The whole point of CAA regulation was to protect customers from monopolistic price increases. Now there's viable competition from other airports the regulators have rightly dropped the monopoly issue but it's up to the free market now. Put the costs up too much and airlines will continue to walk.

Better to keep a lid on costs and charges (like any business) and focus on better customer service for the existing customer levels. Why is continuous passenger growth desirable? I really can't understand seeking more when the investment costs are so risky and the current service levels are still so poor.

Bring on aviation fuel tax I say.

A little good news
 

New routes for the summer programme:-

Loganair - Three per day to DND (Dundee) using SF340
SATA - Weekly sched service to PDL (Ponta Delgada - Azores) with A320s
TACV - Twice weekly to SID (Cape Verde) on B757-200

Also todays Volga Dnepr IL76 visitor will return on 16Feb, Qantas will drop by with their QF002 LHR-MAN-BKK-SYD on 25MAy (B747-400) and Flybe are to add in some extra French regionals (LRH/BES/RNS) peak summer only.

Seats/movements still down on last year though. :(

QF2
 

Why will QF2 be calling into MAN in May?

Momentary Lapse.

I believe that the extra stands on the west apron are really for cargo.

As to the stands near T3 if you are talking stands 58 and 301 to 304 weren't these built and then abandoned. They no longer appear on the airfield charts as stands

New Routes
 

Are the new routes confirmed as none appear on any website and there are no announcements anywhere that I can find.

Viscount

Airport pax figures
 

Can someone remind me how to find the monthly pax etc figures on the airport website or intranet
It was posted on here a while back but I've lost my note with the instructions on.

Thanks
AE

Traffic Stats
 

Go to About Us at the top then Archive followed by Traffic Stats

New routes
 

Flights are approved ACL slots. Don't know why QF are flying by ..... will ask around.

Cheers,
:)

The extra stands are for anything, not just cargo. Because of the distance from the terminal, they are frequently used for night stoppers and long stoppers which don't need bussing. These new stands however do have some tie downs for B747 freighters which are in short supply on the rest of the apron stands, hence the fact that these types are often seen up there.

Just as a matter of interest, the B1D area infill for stands was looked at in the 1970s with the Trident as the design type. Needless to say it wasn't done then.

Suzeman

the 5 new stands on the west apron all have tie down points for cargo aircraft they were also designed for B773 and A346 because they will not fit on any other remote stand except stand 80 (taxiway papa)

:ok: rampman

On the lastest figures it would seem that QR had a drop of 24% in PAX to DOH in January.

EX figures are also flat and have been for a bit.

EY do seem to be gaining maybe at the expense of QR

Overall the increase to the Gulf area seems to be slowing is it because the market has now reached what might be the appropriate level for the time being or are there other factors

Can anyone give any explanation

MLA under GT goes/went to 3 times weekly over the winter months anyway. When GT announced daily MLA last summer, we thought (GT crew) thought that it was a bit of an over kill but there were the bums on seats and thats what matters to U2. However, in the winter loads tail off and 3 x weekly is a sensible option.

Thanks Rampman and Suzeman for clarifying my point about the west apron.

They may be used for cargo (indeed some were designed for the larger a/c and with tie down points) but by doing so they release stands nearer the terminals for pax a/c, which were previously blocked by cargo a/c.

So MA providing them has increased overall stand capacity, which was my point.

Cheers!

oasis
 

does anybody know,if the oasis flight Hong Kong-Düsseldorf-Manchester really starts in august:confused:or is it still just a rumour?
thanks for your reply.

oasis
 

Nothing confirmed yet, the website is still unchanged. For the record it says...

In the near future, we will progressively launch new direct services between Hong Kong and the following cities :

• Chicago and San Francisco in the U.S.
• Berlin, Cologne/Bonn, Manchester, and Milan in Europe
• Melbourne and Sydney in Australia

Oasis
 

I have written to Oasis three times now (as a potential passenger) asking if services are likely to commence by January 09. Oasis have not even had the courtesy of an acknowledgment to any letter let alone a reply. From this I take it that a service from Manchester is not imminent.
Not a way to treat potential customers.

Easyjet on Manchester Belfast
 

Hello all,
I read in one of the aviation magazines, think it was aviation news, that Easyjet would base 3 x 319s at Manchester on launch of its new base. It also said that the airline would be launching a number of new routes including Belfast. Does anyone know if this is so, I cant find any information online to this end.

It would be a surprising move as havent known them to target Bmibaby routes.

Regards
EI-BUD

EI-BUD It will be 2 aircraft for summer 2008 operating the GB routes with nothing new until winter 2008

Ian

to TSR2

For what its worth I also emailed customer service (number on website) and had a reply within 48 hrs suggesting that a significant number of LGW originate in Manchester (..so whats new) and that they were looking at a potential MAN service. No timescales.

BA
 

It seems BA are keeping a codeshare on all ex BACON routes for the time being.

They'll probably try and buy out flybe in a few years. Then they get the routes, the revenue and the market share with little of the costs that the old BACON operation carried. They're like goldfish that way....

Virgin Atlantic
 

Does anyone know if Virgin Atlantic have any further routes planned for MAN. They seem to be doing very well with what they do so far.

That is just what I was thinking.

BE get Loganair and BACON, turn them into a profitable and lean working machine before BA add to their 20% stake (I think?!:confused:) and hey presto!

It would be an excellent plan for BA which would give them back the regions aswell as LON, but have the regions had enough of BA? They have let them down on many occasions and would the public from Wick down to Newquay appreciate DH4s and E195s in BA colours? Personally I would love it as my airmiles would go sky high:ok: but don't know about anybody else?

Comments...

On the VS debate, there were rumours of MAN-PVG but it was abit of a random route to select. I wouldn't be surprised if the next route would be LAX or something like that where non-stop are not available.

When the 787s arrives, maybe MAN will get some or a 343 taken off the LHR rotations.

Some more changes to the S08 timetable. There are some changes to the SAS timetables for their three destinations.

Stockholm has twice daily 736 during the week with 1 Saturday and 1 Sunday rotation again with the 736 during the early summer months. This then becomes once daily Tuesday-Friday with two flights on a Monday and no weekend flights. Again with the 736. This is during the height of summer. Returns to MD80/736 ops in September.

Oslo remains the same except that the 734 will be replaced with new 738s on the Sunday rotations.

Copenhagen, again no frequency changes but the Thursday evening A319 will become an MD80 and the Monday evening will become and A319 instead of an MD80. During the final weeks of the summer season the A319 will move again to the Saturday morning flight.

I know this is abit random and not very easy to understand but we know how much airlines change their frequencies and aircraft types. Hoepfully this will help somebody wanting to book onto an MD80/A319/736/738 or someone wanting to get on an SAS 734 - better hurry up!:ok:

QR pax figures
 

viscount 702
The reason QR figures are down is possibly because they have effectively cut out travel agents by 1.reducing commision to nil.2.posting public fares which are the same level as the special netts given to consolidators.
3.failing to standardise their flight times ex MAN causing long waiting times in DOH.
They have also re-hashed their Frequent Flyer rules and down-graded people from Silver to Burgundy.!!
:hmm:

Oasis Hong Kong
 

Currently due to start services via DUS on 01 June. In at 0900(L) and out at 1255(L). Terminal TBA.

Have slots for a daily op, but expected 3 to 4 a week to start with. With 363 seats, I wonder if they're going to sell the MAN-DUS sector?

All of this still to be confirmed ...... nothing definate yet.

Cheers,
:ok:

QR