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.

Euroboy39
 

We're given the reason that BA needs the regional feed to make the LHR routes viable, so by cutting down 1 flight a day means less feed equals more unviable LHR routes equals less profits? If 75% of passengers going to LHR/LGW are connecting, where will a lessening in frequency take that number?

Lets be honst, the routes have been cut and will never come back and for the foreseeable future no airline will be taking up the slots into man as most airlines are making cut backs, ba this week, bmi next, then virgin....

Ringwayman
 

I don't follow your reasoning.

Surely, any passengers that may be affected by the 'one less flight' will just travel to LHR on an earlier flight.

I agree with TSR2 one less grequency on a day with 9 daily flights and with competition from BMI will have little or no effect on other LHR routes.

I bet the dropped flight isnt during the busy early/late long haul departure banks?

Do BA's shuttles all operate full..........news to me!

Surely removing one rotation is just taking up the
slack over the winter.

MM

There was a little problem today (2/8) with a PIA flight.
The flight was already 40 min late before he was told bye MAN delivery to hold due to "they put the wrong cargo an the flight".:}
Flight left at 17:30 ish.
Who got told off for this????

Higher Archie. Eh? What did I say about BA? Nowt. Or Sir Gil? Nowt.

Please explain. I'm confused.

To be honest who cares whether BA run any shuttles, let alone drop one? There are plenty of better options for the majority.

Bermuda
Its well documentated on here that MA can't get a lift or escaltor to work on two consecutive days. Its all about fleecing the punters for as much as possible, rather than comfort & efficiency.

Does anybody know if Baby are to operate to LIS this Winter, or is the route Summer only?

Many Thanks

MAD and LIS are axed certainly for the winter I understand. Ludicrous, I know.

I hope they don't cancel their BCN flights, I have an outbound flight with them in January!:eek:

Ludicrous in what respect? Highly seasonal routes with not enough winter traffic to justify services or only at a level that would have everyone bleating about how high the prices are. Airlines aren't charities much to everyone's amazement :ugh::ugh::ugh:

You want services through the winter but aren't prepared to pay a fare that at least covers the operating cost of flying the aircraft.

As a broad rule of thumb, you're probably looking at £8000 a sector to cover the operating cost at a winter load factor of 70%. 150 seater aircraft = 105 pax a sector = £76 a sector before taxes charges.

Now do you see why it's actually quite a good decision and why other airlines are cutting capacity (and why 2 or 3 are going to go bust)?

To be honest, I would be very happy for WW to cut MAD and LIS this winter and whatever else they are cutting just to see that they are still here next summer.

Same goes for all airlines. During the winter let them cut what they want, it is during the summer months when airlines plow the passengers through the airport.

Look at MAN-PMI, doesn't look like a slow down in passengers heading there! FCA have many flights heading out there daily, mainly on the 757. Not to mention TOMs 763s etc.

Are we seeing any massive reductions in Charter traffic this winter. ie) reductions because of the high costs, not consolidation, or is it hard to tell? I suppose we can look at XL and MON to get a bit of an idea.

Vuelo

It'd be nigh on impossible to make any money on a part-time MAD or LIS service over the winter. Daily on EZY or IB might cut it, but not WW and they know it.

Two planes in airport collision
 

Just found this on the BBC website


Two aircraft have been involved in what has been described as a "minor wingtip collision" at Manchester Airport.
The planes, carrying a combined 287 passengers and crew, touched wings while they were taxiing out to the runway from Terminal One.
A spokesman for Manchester Airport said no-one onboard the aircraft was hurt in the collision.
The airport remained fully operational and there were no delays as a result of the incident, he added.
One of the planes involved was a Futura flight bound for Tenerife - a Boeing 737-800 - which was carrying 180 passengers.
The other, an Airbus A320, was a Lufthansa flight carrying 107 passengers to Frankfurt, Germany.
The flights were due to take off five minutes apart at 1315 BST and 1320 BST respectively.
Both aircraft are currently being checked over by the fire service as a safety precaution and will be examined by experts in due course to assess any damage.
"Passengers are currently being taken back to the terminal and are likely to complete their onward journeys later today," the spokesman added.

I don't regard having five aircraft divert into Liverpool as remaining "fully operational"... :=

LS
 

Looks like LS will be retreating further from MAN next year.

Some ? summer 09 flights now on sale.

Unless you are intending to fly between mid July and Mid September then there are all but no flights on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Viscount

Computer Program/ application / aircraft movements
 

Hi, I was at Manchester today burger bar at the aviation viewing stand and i noticed a monitor displaying real time info of aircraft as they approached the airport - height, code, type air speed. Does anyone know the name of this application?

I love the BBC report where the Lufthansa passenger being interviewed calls the Futura 737 the "Futurama aircraft.":}:}:}:}:}

strid,

It is an SBS system (google search). Cost quite a lot but absolutely fantastic!:ok:

Base Station SBS-1

Thanks MUFC