I just booked flights to ATL next June on VS, equip is showing A332 ops by Delta. I presume they haven't changed it yet and i shouldnt get too attached to the seats I booked on Delta.com :)

The ATL equipment swap and the new JFK flights are not bookable yet (given it was announced last week, along with JFK schedule, not sure what the delay is).

In other news, Condor adding Heraklion and Bourgas to their destination list next summer.

just adding to that PR piece re 8% increase

Bosses believe the success is a sign that passengers are becoming more aware of the routes on offer from Manchester - and that more people from across the whole of the north of England are taking advantage.

It comes as owner MAG prepares to invest in a new push to promote its airports.

This will include the extension of the ‘Fly Manchester’ campaign to win back the 4m passengers from its catchment area who travel to other airports when they could access the same routes direct from Manchester.

Launching later this month with a mix of outdoor advertising, newspaper adverts, radio promotions and online activity, it will promote Manchester as an option for long haul flights across Birmingham, Stoke, Stafford, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Leeds and Bradford.

It will also push itself as the low cost airport option across Merseyside, St Helens, Warrington and Wigan.

all damn good news although they will have to start thinking about extending pretty soon unless they can cram additional pax into the 10am-4pm slot.
Using social media there is a massive opportunity to influence potential INBOUND passengers, its seldom mentioned !

BUT on a theme Flybe very aware with feed onto Finnair one way and inbound transfers to 10 other regional airports thru MAN the other, the CEO does seem to have turned that business around !

With news that RYR are talking about a major office set up in Manchester as well, for once i'm struggling to find a negative, although I will respond skip when I get time !

I am waiting for the press release that tells us what MAN is going to do to improve it's terminals for the growth. This is very slow. You have Finnair tying up with Flybe, but what is the airport doing to attract more hubbing pax?

Just spent an hour in queue for T3 fast track security, complete shambles!

Hainan to Beijing likely to be announced in the next 24 hours.

From the BBC North West tonight tw itter:

Also George Osbourne has announced that it is Hainan that will start flights. Fantastic! Finally a regional airport with a confirmed mainland China link!

Congratulations to Manchester for gaining Hainan to Beijing, a pretty good 6 months or so after gaining Cathay and Saudia back as well.

As a Brummy..hmm ..where did I put my noose :ouch:


Nigel

Nigel,

Rumour has it that Mr Kehoe was seen with it this evening....!

Balair

About time, that's how it should be.



Excellent, keep up the good work!

What is interesting is that we are actually late with the news.

According to various sources, and available in French, Hainan actually used the launch of their Paris route on Sept 4th to also announce Manchester and a Brussels as an African transit point.

Excellent news. Well done MAN - a real feather in your cap and a real boost for our airport.

Brilliant news....

But the real work really does start now !

Robust marketing NOT just locally but across the North Of England AND in China embracing every possible strand of creativity to get these flights filled !

NOTE; that does not mean a single puff piece in the MEN but comprehensive coverage across The North Of England and Beijing announcing on BBCNWT is MORE like it!

Cheshire, Lancashire Cumbria etc ...in one hit !

Agreed, Bagso, but way beyond Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria ,etc.: parts of the Midlands through to Scotland!

Ringway has a potentially huge catchment area.

Why not Ireland too? We don't have a direct China link, MAN should be advertising this big time over here, and Cathay. Let Joe Bloggs know he doesn't need to go through LHR,AMS etc to go to Beijing or Hk, he can take a short hop over to MAN and off he goes

Fabulous news indeed, real coup for MAN. Hope the service is the success it could potentially be. Exciting times at Ringway.

Great news indeed. With the right marketing it should succeed.
Japan link next? ANA? Plenty of shiny 787's and they do fly to secondary
airports like Dusseldorf and Munich, I think, albeit with an LH partnership.
Seem to have a similar sort of development strategy to Hainan...or am I trying to get us to run before we can walk?
(Would like to see an injury time job to save Egyptair as well, he said, greedily!)

Yes, good thinking.


NH operated, codeshare with VS? Or is VS too trans-Atlantic orientated now?

Nouvelair to return to MAN for Summer 2015 operating a Thursday flight to Enfidha:

Arrival 09:45
Departure 10:45

No flight number yet.

New China bilateral in place

"The new deal will increase the weekly maximum available to both countries to 40 direct flights in each direction, and allow UK airlines to serve up to three more Chinese cities than previously."

Few more media reports about Hainan being approved for Beijing services but MAN says nothing concrete yet.

"Few more media reports about Hainan being approved for Beijing services but MAN says nothing concrete yet"

Ringwayman, are you saying MAN has officially said there is nothing concrete yet? If so, that sounds a bit different than the expectation of an official announcement soon. Do we know whether MAN and Hainan are both catered for in the new agreement and how the additional flights allowed will be allocated?

Business Desk article

"But despite the Chancellor's statement, the airport has insisted no agreement is yet in place.

It said: "We continue to discuss and progress the commercial case for airlines to connect Manchester to key strategic markets, including Beijing.”

Speaking at the UK-China Bilateral Investment Conference on Friday the Chancellor said: "We are increasing opportunities for airlines to operate more services, and to introduce new routes, between the UK and China."

Maybe MAN is still trying to get CA rather than HU. CA has the star alliance and better connections from PEK, although HU 787's are nice, but both would start with 332's I am sure.

Im assuming MAN are waiting for the optimal time to jointly announce the new Hainan route. Its definitely confirmed, as they have appointed a ticket agent and station manager at MAN, and, the Vice CEO good as announced the Manchester route was due to start 'next year', back on Sept 4th when the launched the Paris-Xi'an route.

I think George jumped the gun on this and I am firmly of the view that a formal announcement (if there is to be one) is needed before I believe it. We have been here so many times.

On other matters I still don't think TCX have got themselves sorted yet.

I am no longer sure if LAX will appear. All the signs were good but I would have thought that if it was going to happen for summer 15 it would have been announced by now. Also it looks as if BGI/ANU/UVF have been dropped at least for summer 15. I thought it was a bit late being loaded but I now see that the times when it would have operated have been allocated to a second HOG flight.

The figures for August were again excellent. I am however concern for Summer 15 overall.

ZB have their problems and are dropping flights everywhere.

LS Are also dropping flights.CDG and EGC having initially been put on sale now no longer appear for S15. Some other destinations have slightly increased frequencies from those originally published but still down from this year. Other frequencies have also been reduced since S15 was released.

EZY and FR haven't yet shown any real increase but that could change.

I know it is still early days for some but is S15 going to be a consolidation year for medium/short haul?

Hang on, so aside from Twatter, I have yet to see so much as a link to a press release despite a fait bit of google-play. Given Air China have been looking to start this and Hainan is as close to a competitor as they've got (it sits outside the CA/CZ/MU triad), are politics involved? CA seems like more bang for your buck here.

Yeah, that would be after we're sure it's going to happen, much like Delta's MAN-DTW? It seems clear someone has jumped the gun in their eagerness to be seen to be leading the news agenda perhaps.

Viscount,

I think you are being overly negative, but here goes.

You state regarding China 'we have been here many times before'. To my knowledge, this is the first time a mainland China carrier has given solid intentions of operating a MAN route. Air China applied to the CAAC in 2009, but never formally announced an intent to start flights.

Hainan Airlines have publicly stated they will start MAN flights. Im on a mobile so cannot link, but seek and ye shall find, the press releases are not hard to find and it was only this month the quotes were said from the vice CEO of Hainan. When the airline has stated intent to start for the first time, im not sure just how to quell the doomsayers.

In regards to Summer 2015, well, lets not head for the razor aisle just yet, Summer 2015 is still 7 months away, and until January, nothing is off the table. As for Jet2 ending CDG, locos shuffle routes all the time, and its not as if CDG is left unserved. Again, step away from the razors

If the bilateral is sorted that is great news good but is there room for additional flights down the line (Daily) OR is that our lot ?

Also would BHX not object as it pretty much leaves them high and dry.

Let's not bring the usual boring MAN vs BHX thing up please. The airlines will make the choices not the airports.

Not sure why it would leave BHX high and dry, I am sure they will continue to lobby for flights, however as has been stated that is for the BHX thread not here.

If it does not happen the local MP is going to have a serious amount of egg on his face though isn't he.

What on earth has it got to do with Man V Bhx ?

I would have thought it was a not unreasonable question in terms of whether this is a done deal or whether Bhx might object !

..and Edinburgh for that matter although events on Thursday may change that anyway.

I may be being dense, on what grounds could or would they object. I do not recall MAN objecting to AI launching at BHX for example.

I think Bagso means if the bi-lateral is now full then would BHX object or appeal from the point of view of wanting additional flights and/or routes.

I'm not an expert but would suggest if BHX were to do so then it would have to have a carrier 'lined up' to operate a service or at least a stong interest otherwise it's a hypothetical appeal based on a wish, a little like West Ham pushing for extra Champions League spots.

Either way I cannot see it would harm any service to MAN given the lions share of slots are taken up at the 'full' Heathrow.

Thought we established there were just enough frequencies for a 4 weekly MAN service under the old bilateral for Chinese airlines. There's 9 repeat NINE new frequencies per side.


Perhaps someone can explain in what scenario could BHX "complain" about lack of access to a non-stop Chinese service when there's more than enough for a 3 or 4 weekly service to both there and EDI?!

Also how could one airport object to another airport gaining a service if the airline wishes to operate it and the bilateral allows it, I am still at a loss to understand it.

I know in the bad old days when I first started work at Manchester Airport in the 70's British Airways would regularly object to other operators wanting to start services and cry foul to the government. But that was an airline and those days are long gone.

The bi-lateral will, I suspect remain quite prescriptive, i.e it will define specifically which airlines are permitted to fly between the two countries and which airports may be served. As such, if the changes to the destinations permitted under the greement allow only one further UK destination (Manchester) and three additional Chinese destinations Birmingham would be unable to secure a service regardless of how many additional flights are added, hence I could imagine them being a bit miffed.

From the 1st link I provided:

"The previous agreement, last updated in 2011, limited the passenger airlines of both countries to a maximum of 31 return services per week in each direction, serving up to six destinations in each country."

I was simply questioning whether the bilateral allowed for open skies insofar as anybody can fly anywhere or whether it is capped to the current figures already released for the foreseeable future.

Three SPECIFIC additional Chinese cities have been designated on the Chinese side AND clearly we are aware of London and now Manchester at the UK end.

I was merely inquiring whether London AND Manchester were the two designated cities in the UK !

Its a reasonable increase but this is a country that will have 30+ MAJOR airports in 5 years time !

That extra bilateral capacity will be eaten up pretty quickly !


============================================================ ===================

Egyptair now showing nothing on Google flights after 30th Sep !

Contracts
 

Any news on who's handling

Cathay
Vueling
Hainan?

Dnata starting next month with emirates do we think they will get anymore contracts?

Surely Cathay should of been announced by now!

There are no designated cities. The bilateral just states for the Chinese airlines:

Points in China - Intermediate points - 6 points in the United Kingdom - Points Beyond