There is more to selling HUY than it first seems, according to the MEN today.

Manchester Airport secures £1bn boost to buy Stansted | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk

MAG, together with an Australian Investment Group are looking to bid for Stansted.

Let's hope the bid fails. Having lost a fortune @ Humberside I don't see the benefits here. Last time they splashed cash out to buy other airports, they took the eye off the ball @ MAN & let the infrastructure deteriorate.
Stansteds' appeal has peaked so why take on a huge liability?
Spend the money on MAN & make it the place that everyone wants to go to, so there's even less of a need for Stansted to even exist.

I saw a few one day a couple of years ago, EK777 first caught my eye taking a short cut over Salford Quays, turned on to finals about 5 miles out, but that was some serious wx avoiding. Pilots refused to go 10 miles, can't say I blame them, cell looked pretty mean. Great spotting for me though :)

Like many others on here I suspect we are all totally lost with this one.

MAG was "essentially" set up by the various councils in the Manchester area to operate invest and expand Manchester. It went off piste a few years back buying initially East Midlands, then Humberside and then even more bizarre , Bournemouth.

With expansion of cargo facilities at Manchester limited there was no doubt some sense in buying East Mids....But Humberside and Bourmenouth ?

And now the current airport directors are on an excursion to buy Stansted, a busted flush if ever there was one.

It was built as Londons 3rd airport but not one major airline has moved from LHR of LGW since it opened.

It got lucky as it opened as final development coincided with the locost boom. Even there there were alleged rumours of massive subsidies (unsubstantiated of course), to entice certain carriers in. Those discounts (if they existed), stopped and in the intervening period it has lost massive amounts of traffic regardless of the economic outlook. As soon as slots appear elswhere flights shift.....

Air Berlin moved en masse to LGW, Easyjet have also moved many of their flights, even shifted some to Southend.

The place is run by Ryanair who as the largest operator must surely have some influence over fees etc , upset them and there is nobody left !

With massive investment required in Manchester to make it one single terminal and therefore more attractive as a major transfer hub, why on earth are MAG looking at investment in an airport which will not benefit anybody in the Manchester area by one iota.

Using this mentality why not take it one step further, buy Stansted but then sell Manchester ?

They could then rename M.A.G. ...S.A.G.

Given recent traffic levels at Londons "so called" 3rd airport it seems a rather appropriate acronym !

Back in the day, East Midlands and Bournemouth Airports were put up for sale by their owner - National Express, if I recall correctly - as a package deal. The two had to be purchased together or not at all. Hence, Manchester Airport ended up owning Bournemouth Hurn by default when East Midlands Airport was the true object of their desires. A kind of large-scale 'buy one get one free' deal!

Like most posters here, I sincerely hope that MAG does not pursue the proposed Stansted acquisition. I can just see Ryanair playing games with services ex-MAN/EMA/BOH to pressure MAG for cheap fees at STN where it is more difficult for them to walk away. And as others have pointed out, STN offers little of substance for an investor beyond it's frightening dependence upon the most ruthless low-cost airline in the world. Not great for profit potential, and assured high fixed costs. A money-pit. Money which cannot instead be put to good use at the group's other airports.

The only rationale I can see for MAG buying STN is to beef up the group's profile as a potential takeover target in the future. Certain well-placed executives would likely do very well financially based upon such a scenario, but my guess is that the Greater Manchester public would not. Let's save the investment funds for Manchester Airport, please.

Finally, if MAG needed to raise those additional funds at all, it seems very unwise to have rejected Abu Dhabi's proposed involvement. The Emirate's relationship with the Manchester area is already well-established and proven, and includes substantial investment in the region by E t i h a d which is of great significance to MAN's future prospects.

This whole Stansted takeover saga is shaping up to be the most calamitous single misjudgment to afflict Manchester Airport in years. If we can all see it, why can't the MAG management team? Or maybe their agenda on this issue is at odds with the interests of the Greater Manchester public?

That is very true. However BOH had huge potential for property / industrial development on the old BAC site which was also attractive.

From the MAG website
Aviation Business Park

Powercut
 

Brief powercut at approx 0650. Was prepping for a boarding at gate 213 and the lights dimmed for a split second. Baggage belts all went down and T2 check in went completely off for a split second. Seen screens showing next info for monarch departures at 0810 as fuel supply has been cut off.

Anyone know if whole airport was affected or was the powercut just T2?

One of the Premier Inns near cargo was still out at 0810 when I made a failed attempt to buy a coffee from the Costa in there. Sounds like the airport's generator kicked in to cover their own needs.

Looks like it was everywhere.

Flights delayed after power surge causes system failures at Manchester Airport | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk

Suzeman

I'm currently sat on a ZB A321 on a stand at T2. Seems only T2 affected as we are apparently shortly going to push back and taxi over to T1 to take on fuel.

July Traffic Figures
 

MEN take on the increase in July reported earlier.

Sun seekers boost passenger numbers at Manchester Airport | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk

No mention of freight which was only down by 4% so a better performance than recently. Movements show a marginal increase.

Suzeman

I agree with you shed...

utterley amased this isn't getting more comment

MAG was set up by the local "GTR Manchester Councils" to operate , develope and invest in Manchester Airport, for the benefit of the NWest.

It is now in effect being sold off to a private investor Australian, with absoluty no interest in Manchester who are simply using the MAG as a vehicle to buy another airport 200 miles away.

And note this is an airport which Manchester business,and Manchester MPs fought so hard against expanding in the eighties, when it was decided to build yet another London airport, , the fear being expansion would suck in yet more demand from the regions.

Looking from the outside this appears to me to be a sell off by stealth !

Worse still instead of selling to ETIHAD who would have ploughed billions into Manchester "regardless" of the Stansted deal we are going to end up with a majority shareholder whose only interest is buying and therefore investing in Stansted, otherwise the deal is off,

...that can be the only conclusion as they have stated as much as a condition of sale.......!!!!!!

The impact of the power cut was minimal, other than the fuel issues.

All the T2 and remote hydrants were off with the exception of west apron near stand 60. Some flights were towed over to T1 for fuelling and others sat it out in T2 until the fuel came back, about 10am

Re Stansted:
As long as everyone involved in the negotiations gets a cut - whats the problem !
Viva la Capatalista.....

MM

Morning All,

Can anyone please point me in the right direction to finding some figures for month on month freight tonnage for Manchester

Many thanks

Rob

Rob

All you ever needed to know ....The flown cargo figures are in these monthly statistics.

Manchester Airport : Traffic Statistics

Suzeman

Poor Updates at MAN this morning
 

Here at the Airport meeting relatives off Small Planet from Kos, the arrivals board shows its still scheduled to arrive at 3:50 - the fact that its 4:51 and my Sister has already called me from Liverpool where it diverted over an hour ago! All the other flights that have diverted overnight are still shown as estimating at their original time (most are in BHX and one in LBA). Think that an Airport of Manchester size should have somebody on a night shift that can update those screens to show Diverted........ Watching FR24 and the long hauls are now decending MON A330 and TOM B763, be interesting to see what happens to them and if they are reported correctly on the screen.

Well it does state:

"While we make every effort to ensure that this information is as accurate as possible, it is provided by third parties and we publish it as supplied to us. We are therefore not able to verify its accuracy or completeness and shall have no liability for any loss or damage incurred as a result of relying on this information. You must take appropriate steps to verify this information before acting upon it. It is important that you check with your airline to confirm your flight status. "

directly underneath the times. If the third parties don't update, then it's not the airports fault that wrong information is displayed.

Flight time information, ETAs etc, is processed at MAN by a system called Chroma. The airport owns and operates it but is dependent upon information being inputted by airlines, handling agents and ATC which then drives the displays at the airport and on line.

8 diversions due to fog this morning. Is the CAT3 ILS not working on 23R ? or WIP going on?