It's being built right now.

Yes the A380 will be able to taxi its self onto stand 12. There are a few taxiway restrictions but its mostly fine.

As for how aircraft park, read the Visual Docking Systems section of this:

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP637.PDF

Stand 12 will have SafeDock
B-pier (T1) has mirrors and PAPA
C-Pier has PAPAS

On a recent visit, I was told that the external dimensions (height and width) of the A380 Pier at MAN will not change to start with. Work is only on the airbridges and internal cosmetic pier improvements.
Will the evening 777 also use Stand 12, or stay on the other pier?

At MAN, I have also seen AGNIS guidance systems and staff on the ground guide aircraft onto stand. There seems to be a real mix of options... though I believe that the CAA is requesting only a single point for the pilot to observe in the near future. (e.g. no AGNIS and PAPA/mirrors)

EK 777s will start to use stand 12 towards the end of August. Assuming it's finished. :hmm:
Also heard that the start of 380 ops will be put back a week. Not sure why.

Can someone confirm yes or no if Ryanair are returning to Man and basing aircraft there. Where is this info coming from, any info from Ryan themselves?

Tender, utilities: UK-Manchester: passenger boarding bridges and stairs for aircraft | PublicTenders.net

The above link states info about a contract for the replacement of airbridges at some stands at Pier C T1, stands 28, 29, 30 & 31. I think they all need to be changed, including the one's on Pier B stands 4, 6, 8 & 10.

How does MAN expect passengers to walk from the new lounge in T1 all the way to the end of Pier B gate 12, no travelators in Pier B and it's freezing in the winter and to hot in the summer, air con seems to be on all year round and no heating in the winter. What's happened to the plans to re-build Pier B? Come on MAN, major international airport needs decent terminals, inside T1 looks great outside something from the 1960's.

Change
 

More change at MAN to follow no doubt with the announcement that Andrew Cornish MD is moving on. Don't think it can be denied that the airport has made great progress under his leadership.

Yes it can..!

Lets hear it then...

Transaero
 

Transaero will operate a 747-200 in to MAN, expected to arrive approx 1500 on 15th July to go in to maintenence. Aircraft regn is VPBQH.

Who does 747 maintenance at MAN?

Or is it a paintshop visit?

Airlivery has a VS 744 in being repainted.
Many years ago, Ffv/FLS used to do 747's but no idea now.

AFAIK MAN currently has four methods of stand alignment.

AGNIS PAPA - Fairly outdated technology but still does the job! Simply a neon tube behind a board with holes cut in it for various aircraft, when you see the tube appear on your aircraft type, you stop.

AGNIS Mirrors - Pretty much a mirror which reflects down to the nose gear

'Traffic Lights' - Not sure on the technical name, but as it says basically just a board with a traffic light type layout which is controlled by someone at the gate.

and finally an airport ops marshaller.

I believe that due to new EU regulations airports can only have two forms of alignment systems now so the Traffic Light system is in the process of being removed at MAN.

Hope that helped

The Transaero ended up at Filton as they allegedly owe money to MAN and so they might have had it impounded.

Ringwayman, that's interesting..
But have I missed a trick because they haven't had an aircraft into Manchester since 2008, does it date back to then ?

This morning's Thom 532 to Bodrum should have departed @ 7AM. Stuck in lounge and told there will be 9 hr. delay. Any details anyone?

Prestonian
 

Probably something to do with the late arrival of the aircraft from Holguin which is currently 24 hours late. Perhaps they are using the Bodrum aircraft as a sub for the next long haul flight of the late aircraft. Its just a thought.

I noticed a TOM 767 parked up all weekend at NCL, wonder is this having a knock on effect?

Great Outbound, Shocking Inbound
 

Just got back from AUH on Etihad and, once again, found the inbound experience at MAN to be terrible. I really like the improvements outbound, the queue for security moved at a constant walking pace when i left, a speed i have never seen in any other airport, and the revamped T1 departures is pretty good all-round.

However, inbound is still very poor. Firstly, we departed into Pier B and had to take the down-the-stairs-up-the-stairs route across the outbound pax. One passenger fell on the steps. We then took the narrow corridor with hoardings on one side towards immigration. I say towards immigration because the queue started before we got anywhere near the immigration desks. It was so long that pax were merging from two routes into a melee of a queue that was about 15 people wide. We were then patronized by firstly, the immigration officer coming and moving all non-EU pax to a much, much, much smaller queue inside the hall and then the automated message over the tannoy telling us about high demand and all the desks being manned. What i don't get is if the airport has lost 4-5million pax pa, why are the queues still this long? What would 'high demand' have looked like at the airports peak? Furthermore, the man from immigration then came along and told us more staff had been put on the desks. So the tannoy was lying to us when it said all the desks were manned.
After queuing, getting my bag was swift as it was already going around but then we had to squeeze through the U-Turn in the corridor between the baggage hall and the arrivals area. One person caught their bag on a corner, another paused to look at the duty free and the rest of us got blocked!
When you then get into the arrivals area, the route through the waiting families to the exit is too narrow and full of 'stuff' and if you want to get the train (like i do), you have to go outside to go back inside which is annoying if it's raining and you don't have a coat because you don't need one in Abu Dhabi !

I know the immigration officers are not the fault of the airport but get it sorted MAN. A new Pier B is a must if it is to serve A380's and that should be just the start.

Sounds about right for MAN, pax have lots of time on the outbound to spend money, but are just rushing through to get out on the inbound so arnt spending money. Therefore Arrivals is a lower priority for them.

I also agree Pier B needs to be improved urgently, I would not want to be an F class pax traversing that pier, but than again thats just me.

I didn't think EY used B-Pier at MAN?

In fact, I thought that 777s had to use C-Pier.

Gavin C:

I agree, T1 outbound is pretty good, arriving is awful. This is one of the reasons scheduled carriers still at T2 are refusing to move over to T1.

Personally, if I can do so, I avoid any airline out of T1.

Returned onto gate 6, pier B this week. Decorators were in painting the pier internally,
and the floor looked as if it was being given a make over. Followed the crowd from the
Emirates flight,took about 1min to clear passport control, with all desks manned.
Nothing wrong with the stairs after the flight,after being sat down for several hours a bit of exercise wont do any harm. I am sure that if you need assistants, you only need ask.

As for the exit after customs, if was twice as wide people would still cut the corner and bang into others, they seem to forget other people are exiting at the same time.

The actual walk outside arrivals to reach a lift or the escalator for the walkway is about 5 yards without cover. I have not checked, but you could do this by turning right after coming out of arrivals and access the walkway internally some years ago.

My only gripe would be my walk to the car park bus stop was exposed to the elements, however they had erected a bus shelter to wait in. Gee that was lucky.
Jubilee.

PS this is in response to post Gavin C.

All this talk about having to use steps and having to walk outside? How the hell do some of you guys survive in the real life? Get real.

Pier B woes
 

Manchester airport's Pier B is seriously past its useful life. This pier is good only for one thing, that is, it should be condemned.

It reminds me of a 1960's council accommodation both inside and out. If it had a voice it would asking you to help it get to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland.

I arrived from PMI onto this pier last week. If I were the representatives from Emirates I would have serious concerns about the standards of this pier.This pier is wholly unfit for purpose and as for taking Emirates flagship A380 operation from 1st Sept, well it makes T2 look like 5 star luxury.
It is most certainly not up to the high standards required by Emirates for its Y pax let alone J and F.

Let me summarise, I say summarise but really it's a long list.

1) Polystyrene ceiling tiles missing in many sections of the pier, cables visible and hanging down

2) Multiple floor standing a/c units all along the pier with giant plastic breather hoses hanging out of the open windows, if it didn't look so bad you'd laugh, I confess I did!

3) Failed lighting

4) Carpet that is dated and severely stained in many places, needs to be ripped up and replaced

5) The whole pier was generally filthy, the dirty, stained carpet was in dire need of being vaccumed. There was general detrius all over the floor, window ledges and stairwells.

6) Flashing, noisy fruit machines, like the front of a housing estate pub

7)Worn seating along the pier and a high density seating area nearer the terminal.

8) Toilets that are like walking back in time to 1988.

9) No shops, coffee area or bar.

10) Water collection buckets on the floor

11) When arriving you have to climb steps, walk along a bit, before descending steps, before re - ascending steps to get to the lengthy queue at immigration

One can only imagine the horror, a full A380 waiting to board, along with 2 B757's and a couple of B737's. This just will not work. In fact I'm surprised the good old 'elf and safety brigade haven't thrown in their tupence worth on this subject.

Perhaps we should start a petition, the subject :

We the undersigned are regular users of MAN airport. We are sick and tired of having to use Pier B and being treated to a less than 3rd world experience.
We firmly believe that the Pier has come to the end of its useful life. It is an embarrassment to MAN airport and the NW of England. It is no fit place for any traveller in 2010 let alone travellers on the new A380.
(Now the Ronnie Reagan bit)
Mr. Cornish.......tear down this Pier and rid MAN airport once and for all of this monstrosity that is both outdated and a woefully inadequate carbuncle.:D

Names:

Freeway

So this apparent very poor Pier B somehow always escapes the judges when prizes are awarded for best airport. What do they do with - employ Star Trek transporters so it materialses at competing airports?! We have an apparent mind set of certain peope to just denigrate for the sake of it...even to the extent of ignoring a post reporting on pier B this week. If you don't like it, please use other airports.

Having flown back into Leeds, Liverpool and East Mindlands in the last few months as well as Manchester they are no better in their arrangements for arrivals. Pier B has had its day but its no worse than a lot of other arrivals areas.

Freeway
 

From your detailed comments, you obviously went round looking for fault. It's a functional airport terminal not a 5* hotel.

Freeway
 

I tend to agree with TSR 2 that you may have been over-critical, but have you sent your complaints to the airport? Things like a carpet clean are easily remedied.

As for the air-conditioning units, I get the feeling you may have complained it was too hot if they weren't there. Very un-British weather last week.

There is work on currently being done on the air conditioning on B-Pier which is the reason for the portable units, but it really does need pulling down. I was stuck on the pier with a TCX B767 on stand 6 and couldn't get past due to the amount of passengers.


I hope when the A380 is on stand 12 that they only park small aircraft on the remaining stands!

I think many of us would agree that pier B isn't perfect and it would be great to have it replace but there's no need for exagerration. Plus why do people cite EK and EY? Have you seen some of the dives they fly into?

To the critics of pier B, on my earlier post I stated that it was in the process of being decorated, and the floor was being refurbished. Just wait for the end results.
The steps are their because in this country arriving and departing passengers are not
allowed to mix. Having used Manchester 6 or 7 times this year mainly on pier B, you can see the progress made,it may appear to be slow but it is improving.

Just be thankful you are not arriving in Liverpool, where the walk from the aircraft to passport control can be lengthy, and all outside with little shelter. Just great when its cold and wet.
Jubilee

Keep to the topic and cut out the snide.

AA&R mods

I had a similar experience when arriving at T1 in May, but like pwalhx says, it’s the same everywhere. I'm airline ground staff at Leeds Bradford and it is extremely frustrating when dealing with inbound flights as passengers just want to leave as soon as possible, but there is always a queue. I was surprised and slightly pleased when I saw the queue at Manchester in May as I thought it was just poor organisation at Leeds.

We have had several feedback sessions at Leeds from some of the ground staff to out managers/airport company managers and as the situation at Manchester has proved, when dealing with the UK Border Agency, there is naff all anyone can do about it. It reflects very badly on the airport operator but at the end of the day if it was up to any airport the queue would be non-existent. The UKBA seem to do what they want, when they want. On a personal level at Leeds (and I’m sure at Manchester) they seem to have all the desks manned at the times when only one or two flights are being processed at the same time, but when it comes to peak passenger flow the border staff seem to go somewhere (!!) I do however think that the general arrival procedure at Manchester is fairly good, I have never not had a queue but because of the expanse of the terminal the queue is constantly moving.

Flown into MAN T1 twice in the last 10 days. First time, 30 min Q for the Border agency, today only 5 minutes.
Having said that, I've also had two bad experiences at the super efficient Munich airport this week, which were completely inadequately staffed at passport control. The only difference being, there is zero queue management at Munich. I'd go for the Manchester queue any day.

Mr A Tis -

Interesting observation you make there. I have also passed through MUC on four recent occasions (2 x Arr, 2 x Dep). On one of the arrivals there was a time-consuming bus transfer involved, and on the most recent departure we were kept in a dismal holding area for ages because there was nobody to staff passport control for the early flights (SIA328 in this case). The wunderbar airside facilities are only wunderbar if you can reach them! But they are very wunderbar then! However, kudos to the four bored German passengers who found some stray wheelchairs and proceeded to race each other around the floorspace for 15 minutes of (completely unchallenged) gleeful squealing!

At the ultra-modern state-of-the-art airports at Abu Dhabi and Shanghai Pudong I have recently experienced immigration delays of 60+ and 90+ minutes respectively. And on two recent transfers through Dubai I experienced the longest airside bus transfer ever. (Actually I rather enjoyed the impromptu comprehensive ramp tour, but that's just me!).

I do not mention these occurrences to complain (well OK - except for the MUC holding area - really dire!). I do so to illustrate the point that even in the world's most modern no-expense-spared terminals these same problems still occur as a matter of course. Manchester is worse than some but better than many (and it is comparatively rare to be bussed from an international flight at MAN). Manchester has also had to contend with stringent new security directives imposed on a knee-jerk basis by the state over recent years. Considering that the buildings were never designed with these requirements in mind, MAG have actually done pretty well in adapting the place to cope as smoothly as it does.

Queueing, and security/immigration delays happen at every major airport. MAN is not exceptional in this regard; even the new showpiece terminals around the world face the same dilemmas daily. I guess we'd better stop moaning, show some of that famous British stiff-upper-lip and just get on with it!

By the way, good to see you're still traveling extensively, Mr. A Tis! Do stop by to compare notes sometime. You know I do a mean glass of Vimto!

All the best.

SHED.

MAG don't help the situation with Border Control in T3 either. With all the refurbs and rehashing, you would think they could have found room for an Iris machine to be fitted. That would ease queues there somewhat. Border Agency staff say there is no room for one in their present confines.

Time for a fresh start guys. We do this from time to time and feel free to start another thread and title it MANCHESTER - 8.

A gentle reminder too, that you all signed up to follow PPRuNe rules. We find from time to time that some people think they can say, do or behave as they think fit. It will be no surprise that we don't always agree and will delete, edit or remove a post or thread. Oh! And please keep to the topic.

This thread will be around for you to refer back to.

PPRuNe is here to enjoy and we hope you do.

AA&R Mods.