Have I missed something .....MAN to Chicago? BA daily? Since when?

Eh? How did you not hear about it? British Airways began it just over 2 years ago, by ending one of their popular long hauls out of Heathrow, and moved the 747-400 to Manchester. It night stops here and is the most punctual long haul flight that BA operates because its now the only one that doesn't originate at the worlds most congested, delay-ridden airports; Heated Throw and Gatwick.

Every passenger that gets off at Chicago is able to reclaim all of their bags - again, because its one of the only long haul flights that doesn't operate out of the worlds largest baggage storage facility.

The 747 it uses has got pretty good First Class and Business sections. If you book in advance, you can get a pretty awesome deal!

:};)

Good bye BA long haul ex MAN.

:} WincoDinco, nice post! I guess that they're actually referring to the AA flight which I believe BA codeshares on. As the original poster stated, clever way of twisting things.

Thought that was too obvious:* What about the code share on the 1503?

...and even the Manchester Evening News is slagging off BA....

...yep strange but true, it even mentions the numerous objections that BA filed against the numerous foreign airlines who had applied to serve MAN !

I need to go and have a lie down in a darkened room.

"Passenger yield was reduced and the route was no longer viable," a
BA spokesman told ABTN. "Increased competition is a factor, and there
were not the passenger numbers to sustain it."

Brilliant, they continue to hold onto the "Stupid Comments from the Airline Industry" trophy for another month. I thought our airlines were a mess, but we can't touch BA.

I for one am a very patriotic man and feel BA are making this country a laughing stock!

World class terminal from the world hub - a magnificant building in a magnificant city operated by a bunch of people not able to run anything!

Yes, I understand that we all want rid of BAs messing around at MAN which I totally agree with but for the airline to cock up on numerous occasions the new announcement with all the crap with it really does show how much of a disgrace the carrier is to the UK.

When onboard the service is of the highest quality and the staff are superb. It really does have the prospect of being the world's leading carrier in many fronts but when those clowns are at the top, it is like a handicap on the airline.

We all want NCL, GLA, EDI, BFS, MAN, BRS to be BA long haul bases but it is never going to happen. I for one would love the major airports in the country to have non-stop flights by BA to destinations across the globe but it isn't going to happen. BA are focused on London, but the irony is that to fill their planes leaving London, cities such as Glasgow and Manchester need to supply the passengers!

I must say in their defence though that they do offer a superb service from their base once taken off. I flew on business last summer to the States and when I arrived I was asked how my journey was. My answer was 'Fantastic!' His reply was 'BA?' Outside of the aviation circle BA still hold a high class name which I think they deserve as their crew and the 000's of employees that work for them try their very hardests and the monkeys controlling them are the real problem.

I for one am glad to see the back of BA at MAN on the long haul front but if they were to return with real conviction (never going to happen) I would welcome them. For now, I am happy to use the foreign airlines and VS and BMI.

Good luck to all carriers at MAN and I hope non take the same route as BA have done. You can promise what you like, but you will only be liked if you live up to them. Sorry BA - grab your coat.

Out of interest where do people think BMI, Virgin or Jet 2 would get a take off and landing slot into JFK from?

May I just point out that until the Bacon sell off to FlyBe the JFK service was actually a regional Bacon flight and not BA mainline.

It only became "mainline" as a result of the sell-off.


So BA didn't waste much time in chopping that once it was theirs!!

It was only a recent BACON rasher, Previuosly it was mainline B767s, TriStars, B747, B707s and VC10s.

Bagso

Can you point me in the right direction for this comment please? I can't seem to find it in the MEN website and it would be very interesting to see exactly what had been written. This is, as you say, very unusual. And most welcome too.:D

Thanks

Suzeman

Correct....on a Multi-stage flight...
BHX-MAN-PIK-JFK......:O
I remember the Ads...."BRUMMM to New York :ok:
Bin the "Shuttles" too...slots could be used by more "adventurous" airlines
watpiktch

Ba Man-jfk
 

As BA have termed the service MAN-JFK as suspended, does this mean that they will retain the slot at MAN and JFK preventing another airline using it?

Just looked this up in the BA Corporate Dictionary - It is defined as "cancelled,binned, permanently withdrawn,terminated,chopped,removed forever and killed off"

So no.............it's gone :{

BA(BOAC)equipment MAN-JFK
 

and before VC10 were the props Britannia and DC7C which routed LHR(North),a collection of tents on the north side ! MAN/PIK/YQX/JFK(Idlewild) daily and ALSO LHR/MAN/PIK/YUL

Parky 747
 

I would guess the slot at JFK is not available as that will be used by BA for the LGW service. The man arrival and departure slot will probably still be available.

ZB
 

Winter 08/09 has not yet been released.

There are however many flights in the booking engine.

First glance on what is there looks disappointing and seems to be a reduction on last year.

Viscount

European Slot Allocation regulations have a "use it or lose it" provision, so they cannot hang onto slots at MAN that they do not use. This provision is specifically designed to stop airlines hanging onto slots and not using them, thereby preventing other carriers from using them.

Suzeman

BA New York
 

In the long history of BOAC/BA Manchester-New York the service was once suspended and then re-born. BA183/182 was flown by VC10s and 707s until 1981 when it was dropped. BA then dropped their last remaining Atlantic route from MAN (to Toronto) in March 1983. I remember the gloom that hung over MAN at that time - Laker had gone bust and we faced a future without a long-haul scheduled service. Just when all seemed lost a big red and brown Kangaroo leapt to the rescue. As BA bowed out Qantas arrived, heralding the most exciting era in MAN history -the 1980s/90s long-haul boom. BA had a change of heart and returned to the JFK route in Summer 1985 using KT (British Airtours) Tristars at a three-per-week frequency. From this inauspicious start the service grew to daily, using the newly acquired BCAL 747s on LGW-MAN-JFK, then DC10s and finally a dedicated daily B767 whch has run until now.

So you never know, although there's no doubt that airlines are less willing to fly marginal routes these days and I do fear that we have seen the last of BA international services from MAN. Until? - who knows what this notoriously cyclic industry may hold for the future. MAN is a wounded giant, but not dead, and beginning to re-develop into an airfield better than anything outside LHR for long haul and hub operations.

Sunday 25 May 2008AircraftICAO TypeAirline/OwnerType/OperatorFlight ID/ATCETAETDInformation-B744Qantas AirwaysQFA220:5022:30-

Does anyone have more info on this parrticular predicted movement, taken from the RR website?

BA press office confirmed to me yesterday JFK slot being used for LGW flight

Hi Suzeman

I actually bought the paper so havnt checked the web.

I was over in hometown Monday and picked up a copy, it was by one of the opinion writers page 8 or 9 something like that, but like an editorial comment over 1 page..... but to be honest I do not get the MEN very much so not sure who it was.....!

He was suprisingly well informed and knew about blocked applications etc etc.

If you remind me FRI when I am back home I will check it out, I am currently working away til then.

These articles are from MEN Online:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....w_york_service

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....take_off_again

Hi Bagso,

The Journalist is Ray King. I cannot see a link to the web version and have saved the article for a mate to read.

Viscount...
 

With regards to the ZB winter schedule, the reduction in frequency on some routes has come about as a direct result of new routes that were not available last winter and an increase in frequency on established routes from last winter. These are:

GIB - New route, operates 3 x weekly
LCA - New for winter, operates 3 x weekly
MJV - New for winter, operates 3 x weekly (didn't operate Nov, Dec or Jan during W07/08)
ACE - Increased to 4 x weekly up from 2 x weekly during W07/08
AGP - Increased to 12 x weekly up from 10 x weekly during W07/08
BCN - Increased to daily up from 6 x weekly during certain months W07/08

Decreases are as follows:

TFS - Reduced to 6 x weekly from daily during W07/08
ALC - Reduced to 6 x weekly from daily during W07/08
LEI - Reduced to 3 x weekly from 4 x weekly during W07/08
MAH - Will not operate. Reduced from 1 x weekly during W07/08

In line with W07/08, PMI & IBZ will not operate Nov 08 - Mar 09.
FAO remains 5 x weekly in line with W07/08.

ZB
 

FlyZB

Thanks for the update.

AFAIK MAN not yet released and what is showing may not be final unless you have other information.

When I first looked certain destination were not showing and what was available seemed to suggest greater reductions than you have now reported.

Interestingly, the TFS on SAT, LEI on SAT and ALC on Weds showing now as sold out rather than no flight. Could these still be added.

Viscount

MAN winter routes are released as I just booked AGP-MAN-AGP in December.

Well they haven't announced anything but as IB says, the routes are on sale. Strange, unless they were released prior to LTN, BHX & LGW but I don't recall hearing that. Maybe they're still tweaking the schedules and as a result have added frequencies over the past few weeks and will perhaps change the flights around again prior to releasing them.

I doubt that those flights are really sold out. That has happened to me once before on an AGP-MAN flight about two years ago. I booked it, it then showed full in the system and a week later they emailed me to say that the flight was no longer operating and I needed to choose an alternative. What is a little odd though is the fact that having been increased to 9 x weekly for the summer, TFS is reduced for winter. I would have thought there would be more winter demand to the Canaries and this is shown by the increase in ACE flights to 4 x weekly from October. 12 x weekly for AGP is also quite an ambitious winter programme especially for December and January. We shall see...

ZB
 

If you remember they never announced the summer flights either. They released LTN,BHX and LGW but never said anything about MAN.

The MAN ZB flights were not bookable at the beginning of the week.

By releasing now, they can pick up bookings before WW, EZY and LS reveal their programme.

Maybe the MAN routes are so popular that ZB don't need to advertise them!

They needn't worry about LS. They'll probably operate the usual poor excuse of 2 x weekly AGP etc. Think it'll be a very quiet winter as far as they're concerned. WW and certainly EZY may have the 1 or 2 things up their sleeves though.

MAG to sell HUY
 

MAG have put HUY up for sale. Cash in the bank for a possible BAA airport purchase maybe?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/7367258.stm

Or storing cash for the lean times ahead - following Martin Lewis's advice and reducing debt :D

MAPLC bought HUY thinking it was the cool thing to do, then suddenly got the chance to buy EMA (getting BOH for free - lucky them) though they paid well over the odds for it thinking they'd spoil any other bidders' chances. Pity there weren't any. :uhoh:

Having bought those two, they realised that HUY was a bit embarrassing but had to be seen to hang onto it to save face. I'm surprised they've waited this long.

I wonder if they'll offer the former MAPLC employee and HUY's MD, Rob Goldsmith, a job within MAG, or will they leave him out in the cold?

HUY for Sale
 

MD HUY, Rob Goldsmith, has already been appointed as MD BOH. He did his best to bring traffic to the airport, but in the face of the competition from Robin Hood and EMA, it was a massive task, especially in the loco world.

MAG bought HUY to appease John Prescott who was DPM at the time, and to bring political favour. That worked, but with no realistic future growth, time has sadly run out.

It's hardly likely that the returns from the sale of HUY will fund the purchase of LGW, maybe a few lawyers only!

Uncertain times for the good people who work at HUY, I hope all works out well for everyone's future, either in MAG or with a new operator.

Don't tell me you are all surprised at BA pulling the plug on the JFK route? They are nicknamed 'London Airways' for a reason! They have no desire to direct customers away from T5. As for the slot at MAN - they will probably put a extra LHR rotation in. Like what bmi have done recently!! ;)

Well, you saw the BA 777 that came a croper at LHR had only something like 138 pax from PEK. My mate has just been on LHR-ORD with BA on one of their 3 daily rotations, less than 80 pax on board-J class almost empty. So yes, far better BA keep all their ships down at LHR on all those lucrative routes down there.
Back to MAN, anyone any idea how much of a slump there will be to the "old" landside shops now that they are all airside ? Must be hundereds of landside staff now with no access to the likes of Boots ( all airside now) etc I know alot used Boots not just for sandwiches-but also presciptions as Boots collected prescription from surgeries too.
I guess Spar in T3 may have to open a second till !

To BA's defence, you have only picked out 2 flights there.

IF BA were only flying 80 pax on all three BOS flights they would surely reduce the route to 1x daily?

Alot of BA flights fill out, especially going East.

BA's planes are full of people who hail from

all corners of the country but I have not seen

any guns being held to the travelling publics

collective 'heads' to make them travel with

them.

BA is not a national airline after all and it makes

good logistical business sense to funnel all

traffic through one departure point ie: London -

the epicenter of the country.The monopoly on slots

held by BA at Heathrow is another matter - long since

glossed over by the ruling liberal elite.

They are as keen as MOL on keeping a tight ship

which is what the shareholders want at the end of the

day.All hail to the shareholders for they are king!!

T5 was a bit of a shocker though and it might end up

that it wasnt BA's but BAA's fault - the damage has been

done to the brand and compensation will be millions if

proved to be - as well as BAA loosing one of its clutch

of airfields.

MM

Mr A Tis...
 

Once the redevelopment of T1 Arrivals is complete (Mid June I think), there will be new landside shopping facilities down there. It's been a while since I have seen the plans but I believe there will be a Boots, larger WHSmith, Greggs bakery & a small food court located in the new arrivals shopping concourse. This was included in the arrivals redevelopment plan because prior to its inclusion, there were no planned facilities for landside staff or passengers on delayed flights and the airport (eventually) recognised that they needed to make previsions.

The same style of redevelopment will also occur in T2 Arrivals, albeit at a later date. I believe the plan for T2 will include a Boots & a 24-hour Spar in addition to the current WHSmith & food court.

According to the hoardings in T1 arrivals, it says the redevelopment of landside arrivals will be open in Spring 2009

In the meantime, there is Burger King & a pasty van. no Boots.