Yep...the next subject could soon be BMI, BMI, BMI !!

Meeting due 5th Nov - your guess as good as mine as too the subject :}

As nice as the regional cities of the UK are, you have to recognise that London is not just the capital of the UK but also a truly global city. It is a mega city alongside New York, Tokyo and Paris. Therefore BA, plus BMI and Virgin Arlantic, will always make more money out of Heathrow than anywhere else.

There are horses for courses, Heathrow has it role and Manchester has its niche.

Some posters on here are spitting out there dummies
a bit far.........

Surely if all the MANchester-centric people on here are
right to bemoan BA's tactics,it will not be long before
a new/better operator starts some L/H from MAN?
You protest too much and show how hurt you really are
by BA turning their backs.They are a capitalist
pig of an airline and anything they want to happen ...will.
Why can you all not just accept the situation?
BA are just a product of our society.........in which
to lie and deceive to achieve a goal is the aim.

MM

Is everyone on here really that bothered that BA has pulled one flight from Manchester.....just one flight - JFK...

I knwo over the years lots of other flights have gone by the by but that's life aint it!!

Lots of things change.....

Seriously now....can we move on to something else? PLEASE!!!

hear hear envoy 320. lets move on from ba. any one got any good news about man?

Skipness. Bit bemused. Glad to hear the shuttles are considered to essential to prop up BA's flights out of LHR. However, we don't want them, we don't want to fly via LHR, and judging by the reduction in pax on MAN-LHR routes that seems pretty widespread, we are not pawns in BA's master plan, we have many other better options. Just like EK and SQ picked up the pax to Australia from QF when they thought we'd all get on a shuttle to LHR, Lufty/KLM/AFA/EK/USA etc will pick up transfer pax from MAN who cannot fly direct (which personally I find rare).
Though I am amused at the thought that BA really thinks we're all going to fly via one of the western worlds worst airports, that obviously being LHR.
There will always be L/H from MAN. There is a lot of it now, it ebbs and flows but it will always be here. BA's tawdry little knackered old 767 is a nothing. Personally I wish BA would leave MAN completely, take the shuttles and just go, not needed anymore. The multitude of foreign carriers here do the job of air transport considerably better, and MAN will carry on. Outside of LHR the aviation world does not revolve around BA.

Autoglide you are taking this way too personally. Let it go, if people want to fly BA let them, if they want to fly one of the alternatives that's fine too. Still nice to have one stop access to one of the biggest international networks in BA from Heathrow. I'm sorry people seem to be taking this to heart.

By the way, I'm a Scot not a Southerner. I remember BA having a big base of 748s and then ATPs at Glasgow, then a TriStar to JFK, a 767 to JFK, a 767 to Newark, a 757 to JFK / BOS, and finally back to a seasonal 767 to JFK. That was a route they never got right in eight years of operating!
All gone now.

As are all the staff at Speedbird Benbecula, Inverness, Sumburgh, Stornoway, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Birmingham and Manchester. Some moved on to the companies that came after BA on more realistic terms and conditions. ( also T & Cs that seem to wither as competition intensifies alas ). The sad fact is that to survive in a viscious market, BA retrenched to Heathrow. Tragic but necessary if you know how God awful BA internal structures are.

BA
 

Mickyman.

Never thought I would ever agree with you, but there's a first time for everything. Keep it up:ok:

Skippy.

This is the Manchester Thread and to expect people on here and the rest of the north west to accept everything that BA throw at them and still
fly BA via LHR at the expense of Manchester is ludicrous.:confused:

E.F.

Not quite sure what that has to do with a regional longhaul route but I take your point.

Now that is just plain wrong!

Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester all have Cranebank's finest hard at work on the ramp and (1) hangar. :ok:

Today's Independent has Simon Calder calling for a rebranding of a certain airline. But I guess the more laughable thing in the article is the BA spokesman comment's which are "We are fully committed to Manchester, giving customers in the North of England access to our worldwide networks at Heathrow and Gatwick with around 200 connecting flights a week".

I've already said about why BD and VS aren't in a postion to go into a bout of MAN expansion. Athough certain rumours now suggest the big BD pull-out is not going to happen, but a bit of a rebranding exercise which will see bmibaby disappear into regional/mainline operations plus a PR exercise about them being MAN's airline (the third one to claim that after EI and BA!)

I've worked at Manch for 40 years, and when I arrived , I "heard" that BA said that "There will NEVER be a viable daily Trans Atlantic Service from Manchester".
Having seen the comings and goings, perhaps what was meant was, "There will never be a viable BA daily TAS from Manch"..
Eons ago, I stated [and was castigated for it] that the "Shuttle" was the worst thing that could happen to Manch.
As to the JFK....several friends who booked MAN-JFK were offered upgrades and all sorts of "goodies" to fly the Shuttle to LHR, and on to JFK.

Autoglide, I do not know how many times you fly BA, but British Airways is my first choice when I want to fly even if it means connecting through Gatwick and Heathrow. I have never had a problem with BA which is more than I can say for my experiences with Emirates (Yes Emirates!!!!), KLM and Air France.

And before criticising "the Western world's Worst Airport" I would look closer to home and get Manchester Airport to put there own house in order. No airport is perfect. However, Heathrow's Terminal 5 is now an absolute dream to fly and transit through

And before anybody screams, I do not work for BA, or BAA, I am not BA public relations, I am a passenger who likes the service and convenience of British Airways. There are millions of us you know!

Interesting now it looks as if it will be LH who have the say about BMI as Manchester is a major player with Lufthansa

We wait with baited breath and hope all works out well for all you guys/gals
always pleasure in dealing with you when I was in travel business

Ian

The LH takeover of BD, I feel, is a great move for MAN. Unlike BD, LH seem to like developing MAN and I can see them expanding the longhaul side - maybe even in co-operation with VS, as suggested in the MEN tlast night.

Airport chandeliers restored - News - Manchester Evening News

Now that's airport news! :ok:

Quote
However, Heathrow's Terminal 5 is now an absolute dream to fly and transit through

Reply
It may be now, But when all the Olympic flights come in, It may not be??

There's a 1,000 sofas in T5.:zzz:

True, LH have an Exc track record, And I am sure they will be good for MAN.

LH seem to have the money to do it.:cool:

I flew Manchester to Heathrow yesterday with BA and there were plenty of seats airside. They do not provide much seating landside but that is to discourage passengers from dwelling in the landside area and to go through security asap.

As for 2012, Heathrow will see some increase but not much as it is pretty much full to capacity anyway and the passengers will be travelling through all terminals not just T5. Anyway, I understand that Stansted will be the designated Olympic Gateway for the Athletes/Olympiad charter flights.

Olympics capacity
 

The bulk of the inward traffic for the Olympics will come over a relatively short period of time - e.g. a month, with the outward traffic concentrated a few weeks later. I would guess the UK Tourist Board will be trying very hard to encourage visitors to stay a little while before / after and see some of the UK - so this might spread the traffic out a bit.

In addition, it's commonly observed that when the summer Olympics comes to town, tourist numbers are often down, not up on the previous year. The rest of the world thinks 'City X will be jam packed and overpriced with the Olympics - let's go somewhere else this year and avoid the rush'

I would expect many people resident in the UK who would normally be abroad to stick around in the UK for a good part of the Olympics - they'll go away before or afterwards instead - similiar to Germans in 2006.

Further, is it really so bad if airports in the UK for a short period of time are operating at slightly over-capacity ? LHR managed to do so for years ! To spend billions to reduce delays with a non-recurrent cause averaging maybe 2 hours per passenger when the extra capacity might not be needed until 10 years later is, in my opinion, a waste of money.

Taking the opportunity to take the disciussion away from the worlds favourite...

SQ have no intention of going anywhere near T1 for a good while. I am told MAG haven't bothered asking them for a while now 'as they know what the answer will be'.