A380 Trials
 

The A380 has been penciled in for trials for quite a while, they are waiting for the new reconfigured stand 12 to be completed then the aircraft must do a few days of ground trials to ensure the stand / facilities can cope. i.e. 300 - 400 pax at gate 20 !! (yeah right!), testing baggage handing through terminal and loading onto aircraft, towing & pushback tests etc.....

Stand 32 is the alternative stand for A380 ops, im not sure how things are progressing with that one....

The test aircraft will be an Airbus tester not EK's own.

Gate 20 - Yeah Right!
 

Gate 20 can barely cope with a 737 so can't se it could cope with an A380!

Try the end of B Pier for a more acccurate location for the new A380 gate.

Vuelo

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong but isn't gate 20 a coaching station? If I am correct, then technically, you could fit any size of passenger load through it - althought admitably it might be a slight squeeze.

Perhaps mantug01 was implying that passengers may then be bussed to gate 12 for an A380.

Yes you are right, I had gate 21 in my head for some reason.

No A380 operator would want their pa bussed however.

One of the 80 stands can take the 380. It nearly did two times because of the snow at LHR recently!
I can just imagine the chaos if one (or two!) turned up and they had to de plane all those punters down one set of steps on the lower deck onto buses!

rgds Dr I

Manchester Airport - the decline
 

It is the worst airport I have ever had the displeasure to visit, have the managers ever actually walked around the terminal, nothing works,lifts,escalators are never turned on, constant pre-emtive threatening pa's banging on about how your luggage will be destroyed etc,arriving in the domestic you will threated by the "re-entry is NOT allowed", having put ridiculous automatic triple exit doors which do nothing but hinder your exit with bags, there is still a bloke the other side of the doors ! The place is a disgrace

Well said Nilco, I couldn't agrree more! What until the Millenium was a first class, developing international airport is now little more than a "teminal" in fading decline. I acknowledge that the new security areas are an improvemnet but those apart and having used all three terminals in the last 12 months there is absolutely nothing to commend Manchester Airport to the travelling public. The new airside shopping area in T1 is an incomplete desolate wilderness - the floors are half finished as are the ceilings which reveal a depressing display of pipe work - if it suggested that building/redevelopment work is still ongoing why isn't that evidenced by explanatory notices? I frequently have to connect between T1 & T3 - until 12 months ago that was through an inside passageway - now one is faced with a cold, dismal meander along the outside of those terminals. Then look at the landside facilities - now there are barely none and for those of us who are unfortunate enough to have to wait for arriving passengers we are faced with dirty and worn out coffee bars. What was once promoted as England's Northern Gateway is now best avoided!:ugh:

This is from the BOH thread.........

"The £45million redevelopment project was boosted by an extra £13million cash injection from owners Dorset Airport group"

Make that the Manchester Airport Group whose main emphasis s/b Manchester right ?

..........so thats where all the money is going !

The new re-configured stand 12 once open will be on the only stand on T1 that is fully able to take the A380 size wise. Stand 32 will fit it on, just about but their are a few tweaks that need doing first.

The plans were to park the A380 on stand 12 and bus... yes Bus all the pax to/from the terminal. For outbound pax this would include a nice trip to gate 20 (downstairs overlooking stand 21)

The passengers will be unable to exit B pier and walk over to the new stand as this would invlove them crossing the only road between T1 & T3 as this is being moved to the head of stand. No airbridges were allowed as this costs money!

I totally aggree that you would have to be mental to park an A380 on stand 12 and bus them, but thats the plan! I doubt the business class pax would be pleased with that. No A380 operator would put up with that for long.

Daynehold
 

I totally agree with you. Until the revamp it was poss to get a pint before security which meant that Mrs446 and I could slope off for a ciggie while avoiding the overpriced "shopping experiences". Now we have to go airside before we have had sufficient nicotine intake or sit in crappy overpriced coffee place with inattentive staff and no atmosphere. I will no doubt take some flack from the health thought squad, so be it. Some other pillock will probably say "Well dont use M/C". I dont usually but I use wherever flights are cheapest, prefer LPL.
I know that pax numbers are far from combarable but managers should go have a look at AMS, they know how to do it.

M/C????????:confused::ugh:

M/C = Manchester = Manc, it's the shorthand we use round her, even on letters.

Hope that helps.

Sorry, my mistake I thought this was an aviation forum and the discussion was about MAN. It's the internationally recognised 3 letter code for - Manchester Airport. It's what we use around here.

Sorry to butt in. :E

M/C is a person who presents an event or something along those lines.

MAN, EGGC, Ringway Airport or Manchester International Airport are all names of the airfield that serves destinations across the globe.

Does that settle it?!:\

Anyway, does anybody know what a/c the main charter carriers will have based at MAN this summer such as MON, TCX and TOM? Thanks.

Is [or was London "Croyden" Airport.....] if you mean Manchester, then that is EGCC.....:E

If the depression gets worse, do you think the aiport would actually consider closing T3 for a time to save costs? It must be very expensive to run with dwindling passenger numbers/loss of BD USA/not much retail etc.

Below pasted from another thread, isnt this just sweet justice to BA that used the old yield chestnut to move the aircraft to LGW from MAN



"Actually, the BA LGW-JFK loadings are extremely poor, Although the back end seems to sell very well, the front end (Yield end Mr Skipness) struggles to sell at all. Average bookings for first class are about 1 per day, club class averages about 12 seats/day (Config for J class = 48), in other words, about 1/4 full. Just for comparison - the average load in J class for the MAN-JFK was about the same, i.e average of 12/day (config for J class = 24) or about 1/2 full"

Don't panic Mr Mainwaring !!!
The loss of one flight a day ( BMI transat) is hardly reason to close a terminal.
T3 remains pretty busy with Flybe, Easy & Baby the main users & there has been little change to their flights, if anything slightly up.

MAN777,

Do you honestly think Skip will answer this one. You know he wont have anything bad said about BA or any airport in London.....heavens forbid if they ever pulled it

Shyted

Gatwick long haul yields are poor in comparison with Heathrow. They suffer from being so close to Heathrow. I honestly am baffled why BA brought this route back but hey ho. If you really want to know, I reckon they will axe it after the summer as they will also be launching another London-New York connection from LCY. Perhaps it was a slot sitter?

Route for route, when BA transferred traffic from LHR to LGW under Ayling to create the "Hub without the hubbub" concept, the yields dramatically fell as a lot of the traffic at the pointy end stayed at Heathrow and flew with someone else. Hence they were swiftly moved back round the M25 leaving a small fleet of 777s at LGW on leisure routes only.

I was commenting on the fact that in economy LGW-JFK was expensive on the day the chap quoted. The flight will probably still lose money if it sells out all summer unless loads up front pick up.

You need to read my posts more clearly, I am pretty pro Heathrow and BA, but they're far from perfect...... As for long haul outside of Heathrow in the London area, it's a dead duck outside the leisure market. Delta are known to be getting out of LGW as soon as they can secure more slots at LHR leaving only US Airways.

The real truth is that BA wanted out of Manchester. The odd thing is that so many people still care, tis just a business and the competition has MAN pretty well covered where the routes are viable. And for the record, I used to love MAN, not so much now as it's gone downhill a lot in recent years but it's a great part of the world, I used to work there.

Is Gatwick really such a dead duck when it comes to non leisure Long haul its reported on another thread that DL/NW yields and loads have suffered since moving from LGW to LHR and that they are cutting flights from LHR now.

Yes massively so. The only cuts so far with these guys were that NWA's new LHR-SEA was withdrawn after the traffic never materialised.

I actually think that BA MAN-JFK was a good route but BA being the massive internal contradiction that they are I can see why they axed it as it was a real oddball route at the end.

Had the pleasure of a Man - Dublin day trip today, on the return we had to do a go round from about about 1 mile out, as 23R was blocked by a Beech 200.

Took this photo and thought I would share it as it highlights the extensive apron work on stand 12 (A380 stand)

Thanks Ryanair for the £2 trip and scenic hold over Liverpool and long final approach over Derbyshire !! Bargain !

Pier B work on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Cheers for that MAN777. Are they opening up the entrance to pier B or will you still get to it round that labyrinth? (I wonder)

On my latest trip to EMA ive noticed they have a smoking area airside, although caged in its a welcome relief.

Seen as MAG own EMA..or so i read and with all this development going on at manch, why havent they done the same?

I did send an email which was replied to saying they were 'looking into it but couldnt guarantee'

I believe the smoking area airside is going to happen at MAN but the powers that be are still discussing a suitable location.

Somewhere in Cheshire would be nice !:)

Kenyan B737 again
 

Sorry for being an anorak, but it is a dull day that needs brightening up !

The latest Kenyan airways B737 was delivered through MAN this morning.


The delivery crew must have made some friends on the last visit !!! Apparently they were showered with MUFC gifts on the last visit.

photo here


MAN Reports

What type of plane will I be on?
 

On 29th May, depart at 09:00 with First Choice to Sharm.

Any ideas what aircraft type I'm most likely to be flying on?

Thanks:)

Ryanair to reduce MAN to DUB due their cutting back at Dublin

Ian

Couldn't help but notice a Blackwater Aviation Casa 212 at MAN the other day. Seems that certain intelligence agencies seem to love MAN don't they?

Have a feeling the "special" Casas have used other UK airports in the past, so why MAN at this stage?

£1 rip off
 

Noticed that T1 has had vending machines installed now for security clear plastic bags. £1 a pop. I assume T2 & T3 have the same now?
Be warned, take your own bags or be ripped off !!

SQ are to reduce their fleet by 14% and many say that it will be the 777s.

Will this mean the end of SQ at MAN?

Not totally, yet, but they are reducing to 3 times a week from May so it ain't looking good.

Gutted for the fabulous MAN sales and airport staff. :(

Mr A Tis
 

Bargain at £1. Available in all good newsagents at £1.49.

Shame to hear about SQ if it is true but may pave the way for a 3rd EK flight, in fact I doubt it would make a difference anyway...

Does the 767 ever operate to SSH from MAN?

it is a shame, everyone works damn hard to get the flight out on time every day it really would be a shame to see these great people get the chop!

re SSH, the flight was operated by a 767 the other day actually, but is very rare.

If SQ think they can shuttle MAN Pax to London to fill the A380s they should look at what happened to QF and Malaysian passengers after they left.

MAN passengers voted with their feet and moved to Middle East carriers and Euro hubs, there is no reason why anything will be different this time. SQ you will loose !!

We DONT want to use LHR !!!

Absolute bollox, they haven't decided anything that far ahead on any route yet. You've either made that up yourself, or whoever 'told' you did. I'll go with the former myself.

Are you sure you didn't see an email about a possible diversion again ?. :rolleyes:

Terminal 1 Departures/Arrivals
 

Had the unfortunate trip through Terminal 1 arrivals and departures today whilst on a trip to and from Dublin...........struggled to find the gates through the Cosmetic Counter!!...what on earth are they doing with the place?...when is it going to be finished?....whole place looks like a massive building site and arrivals isnt much better.........should have started afresh and bulldozed the place.........signage all over the place.....no good just papering over the cracks.......oh yes and the car parking was a bargain £23....for 61/2 hours........onwards to JOHN LENNON!!.......