Any news yet of a replacement carrier for Manchester-Gatwick? Very surprised nothing has yet been announced.
V.

I did tweet BA about them pulling a popular service, their response being that it was for commercial reasons. I have noted that LGW is having some new summer services using the 734.

Also tweeted Virgin with a hint that MAN - LGW could be a good move for them.

Is this True - Air India 787 service?
 

The following post was shown on another forum that lists new services for Manchester:-

New Service - Saturday 05th January 2013
Arr: 19:00, Dep: 21:00 - Air India Boeing 787-800 Commences Service 2X Weekly In replacement of Bangladesh

If it is true it will beat the Thomson 787 as being the first to operate from Manchester with the aircraft type.

I thought Air India were trying to off-load their B787's due to their financial situation.

Agree, there are three 787's waiting to be delivered to Air India as soon as they can work out bridge financing to pay for them..But it's on the web forum that i read this morning, as shown above..

Three 787 already delivered - one landing at Dubai as I send this message.

Be interesting to see if there is anything in this story....

Suzeman

Quote: “New Service - Saturday 05th January 2013
Arr: 19:00, Dep: 21:00 - Air India Boeing 787-800 Commences Service 2X Weekly In replacement of Bangladesh”

Quote: “I thought Air India were trying to off-load their B787's due to their financial situation.”

Quote: “Agree, there are three 787's waiting to be delivered to Air India as soon as they can work out bridge financing to pay for them..But it's on the web forum that i read this morning, as shown above..”

MAN-BOM on AI? Would say not a chance, good though it would be to have more long haul ex-MAN (or BHX, GLA, etc.. for that matter)!

AI are in dire financial straits. Would expect it to be likely with 9W if at all.

Suspect that the likes of EK, EY, QR and TK already have this particular traffic sown up!

PS nothing about MAN on the AI website.

european130,.. Re Air India

Jeez seem some far fetched rumours for many UK airports but this wins first prize !.

No ones heard anything yet this is only about 7 weeks till launch ?

Manchester had a joint press conference with Jet Airways 2 years ago and I would not be surprised to see them start out of MAN if they have the planes and money in the next 18 months.

Hope AI prove me wrong.

Nigel

Air India
 

The Air India story looks highly improbable on a number of counts. I can't see how a service presumably to an Indian destination replaces one to Bangladesh.
I'm not well up on the geo-politics of the region but I do recall an acrimonious spilt of what is now Bangladesh from India in 1970/1. Possibly there is still some tension between the two neighbours such that a Bangladeshi would prefer to avoid travelling via India, and if there is no direct service from MAN anymore will choose another route such as via London or the Gulf hubs.

The 'replacement' theory may just be a bad translation or whatever, but there are other reasons to doubt the truth of this story. Never say never in this business, but as a risk assessor I would have to say highly improbable.

If anyone is trying to second-guess Air India forget it - see this article

AI may fly Dreamliner to San Francisco

One, it is the aviation minister and not the airline CEO and two, it is further from Singapore to SFO than direct using the distance calculators I have found (and others) on the web.

This debate has been lifted from another forum and it is quite amazing but should not be surprising when coupled with the 787 delivery saga .



Pete

Quote: "I'm not well up on the geo-politics of the region but I do recall an acrimonious spilt of what is now Bangladesh from India in 1970/1. Possibly there is still some tension between the two neighbours such that a Bangladeshi would prefer to avoid travelling via India, and if there is no direct service from MAN anymore will choose another route such as via London or the Gulf hubs."

Bangladesh seceeded from Pakistan in 1971, it was the former East Pakistan. India and Pakistan were at war at the same time. In the early days, therefore, relations between India and Bangladesh were very cordial, who knows what there like today.



Quote: "One, it is the aviation minister and not the airline CEO and two, it is further from Singapore to SFO than direct using the distance calculators I have found (and others) on the web.

This debate has been lifted from another forum and it is quite amazing but should not be surprising when coupled with the 787 delivery saga ."

On reading this post, did a quick check on great circle mapper as it's a northbound(ish) heading from India, wheras Singapore is southeast.

BOM-SFO: 8,406 mi.

BOM-SIN-SFO: 10,882 mi.

A lot of extra miles to pick up some 5th freedom pax!

Suspecting that it may be shorter than via SIN, did another check on great circle mapper:

BOM-LHR-SFO: 9,854

Then read the article which mentions 400 pax/day between DEL and SFO.
That fills the plane easily, so no need for 5th freedom pax ex-SIN. From DEL the nonstop route is shorter.

There's probably similar pax numbers from BOM and BLR (IT/silicon valley business) as well.

Incidentally, 9W were/are(?) doing BOM-PVG-SFO, which is 9,301 mi. according to great circle mapper.

Just checked the website that was showing the Air India post this morning into Manchester, and it is no more, nothing now showing.......rumour put to sleep.

EasyJet to fly Manchester to Moscow, Prague and Thessaloniki from spring 2013

Cathay, come home!
 

It's official : Cathay's CEO says they are planning a return to Manchester with passenger services, but we'll have to wait for the A350, as Spanners has suggested on this thread several times.

Cathay eyes new European and North American points with A350-900

CX at MAN?
 

In 2016? I wouldn't hold your breath.

I must say that have actually put it in writing

2016 is when CX orders are due for delivery, however I have heard that CX may be buying into some earlier production slots, but don't hold your breath.

Interestingly I heard that a strong case/presentation was put forward very recently on flying to MAN with the 777, the response I'm told was - not in the current climate in Europe, we will not start any new services to Europe in this economic climate. :{

As I said previously, if someone else was to start a service to the region, CX would react very quickly, until such time we must wait until 2016. :zzz:

Still very quiet about possible replacement carrier for Manchester-Gatwick.
I have read elsewhere that since the announcement by BA of their decision to suspend the route loads have been healthy!!, I know that doesn't mean yield has improved. Maybe it has been helped by improved timings for day trips on certain days of the week. Still have a hope they will reconsider but I appreciate that current environment means tough decisions.

V.

Has MAN added a smoking area to T3? I know T1 & 2 both have relatively new, primitive smoking shelters.

Looks like EasyJet have sneakily dropped Bodrum from Manchester.