Being an employee of Ringway let me set the record straight Ringway is not going bust, it does have problems granted but closure of the business has NOT been discussed, we have to recoup lost money, in terms of getting better profit from the workforce and streamlining the business so we can compete at Manchester, we have 5 major contracts that are commited to RHSL for a further three years, the problem all companies are having at Manchester is the airport itself is allowing company after company to start up operations hence completely flooding and choking the life out the industry.:ugh:

I had some work to do at MAN yesterday and had the oppourtunity to walk around the 3 terminals and with the exception of of T2 the place is a complete dump!

The toilets alone are unnaceptable and are like somthing I would expect to find in an airport serving a 3rd world city.

Without doubt overall the worst airport in terms of facilities.

What ridiculous and ignorant comments EC-ILS. MAN's terminal 1 may well be old, T3 overcrowded, and both get a hammering every day by thousands of people. No different to Dublin or any other large airport within the British Isles.
Kind of speaks for itself. What were you expecting? An Olympic sized swimming pool?:ugh:

As we "only" got the Commomwealth Games, woud he settle for that size?
watp,iktch

Jongeman
Your defence of MAN is admirable. :D
Had EC-ILS visited on a wet Wednesday when the terminal is full of buckets collecting rain water, I suppose you'd have told him it was an expensive water feature? :ugh:

That sounds like where I work!! I kid you not

Ian

That insults the infrastructure of many third world country's airports.

I would much rather pass through the airports of Nairobi or Lima than Manchester any day!

I can offer no defence of the toilets and agree that they are bordering on 3rd world facilities. Extremely embarrassing and the forthcoming refit of all toilets facilities at MAN is not a moment too soon.

However, I will ask that you consider this. The state of an airport is not only determined by how well it is looked after but also by how it is treated by the passengers. And the way I've seen some people treat the facilities when travelling through the airport is absolutely disgraceful. I won't mention specifics but certain passengers from certain airlines are worse than others. They have no regard for other people and treat the place like a dumping ground. So you could spend hours and hours of each day cleaning and maintaining the toilets but they would still become a disgusting mess.

Provisional October figures
 

I will leave Ringwayman to make his usual informative report of the passenger figure breakdown, however the following are the provisional airport throughput figures...

Movements - 18519 (-2.8). Cumulative totals - 207615 (-2.6)
Terminal Passengers - 1995608 (-0.6). Cumulative total - 21887313 (-0.7)

Interestingly as a comparative the Liverpool figures are:

Movements - 3766 (-5.5). Cumulative -45826 (-6.5)
Terminal Passengers - 458946 (-0.4). Cumulative (5426314 (+10.5)

What has suddenly happened at Liverpool to effect their figures??

Ringway
 

Aeroflot freighter
 

Has this freight service bitten the dust? A Ringway site reports this as being "non op" for the last 10 days.

Always thought they might be better off trying a pax service again ;)

Saw it a few days ago, not sure what day.

Aeroflot
 

Currently just weekly. Supposedly increasing to 4 per week effective 1st December.

Thanks for the Aeroflot information folks.

Any whispers going around on who might have applied for what slots for next summer yet???

U2 have applied, but not sure on which routes.

I passed thru T3 a coupla days ago during the evening peak.

I was very unhappy with the experience and smiled to myself that getting on a knackered old BA 734 was actually, in comparison, a relief.

In comparison with BAA Security, MAN checks were scant. The staff looked unfocussed and bored.

The lounge was overcrowded and clearly too small for the numbers of pax at peak. Wonder what the Fire Cert says?

A number of shops were closed and all the other retail outlets had long queues. A Boots outlet is being built which appears to remove the last bit of daylight.

The Male toilets smelt so bad I retched whilst using them.

The FlyBe announcements were made by a young woman whose voice sounded like a car crash.

The gate area was freezing cold in comparison to the stuffy hot lounge. Wonder why I have nasal problems today?

All the vetical surfaces in the building were either dirty, chipped or otherwise discoloured. The advertising lightboxes were so bright they hurt my eyes.

The airbridges were dirty with litter strewn around and evidence that the damp worn carpet had not been vacuumed for quite some time.

None of the staff with whom I spoke and offered a friendly "Good Evening" responded.

Manchester Airport occupies a special place in my heart. But it is the Airport of the last century not the current one. It used to win awards hands down and be staffed by people of warmth, committment and enthusiasm.

Those old enough will remember the hairdressers inside the Gents in T1.:ok:

Loo of the year award? Yup I think the whole place could win it now.:{

Sir George Cayley

Well, things have obviously deteriorated a LOT since the last time I through T3, where I found security at least the equal of any other UK airport I've passed through - and are you talking about the BA lounge? Easily the equal of T1 at LHR in my experience, which along with the rest of T1 shows that BA can't wait to get to T5...

Not a great experience then Sir George??

Mahan Air are scheduled to restart their Tehran service tonight. Looks like they've finally sorted their problems out.

:confused: Looks like I spoke too soon, tonights flight now showing as cancelled despite showing as on time earlier.

Provisional October International Figures
 

In the absense of any data from Ringwayman, I thought the following might be of interest. I have tried to exclude routes that have been stopped or just started.
Winners (Longhaul scheduled) -
Lahore - +72% 3092 pax
Abu Dhabi - +54% 13071 pax
Islamabad - +44% 13659 pax
Dubai - +24% 40613 pax
Atlanta - +20% 12541 pax
Newark - +15% 19149 pax
Philadelphia - +13% 13313 pax
Doha - +7% 13475 pax
Chicago - +1% 23398
Losers (Longhaul scheduled)
Bridgetown - -4% 8483 pax
Las Vegas - -4% 11142 pax
JFK - -6% 18688 pax
Singapore - -20% 12570 pax
Karachi - -29% 1778 pax
Damascus - -48% 446 pax