An unusual working today, A330 G-MLJL has been on TCX2416/7 Manchester - Kos. Assuming there must have been something wrong with one of the 767s ?

Standing room only
 

CX358 departed today with 345 pax on a 340-seat aircraft. Plus a big load of freight. Must have been some toddlers on laps on that flight.

J040 W032 Y268 +INF 3 +JMP 1 +CRW 1

Long flight on a jumpseat ::eek:

Cathay Pacific
 

I did write few weeks ago that flights are full till end of August according to cx.. with some flights already full on set days during Easter....
They need a expansion ASAP as cx are loosing tons of passengers that have to make alternative decisions...:cool:

Based on the CAA provisional stats from January (I didn't note December), the LFs I reckon have been as follows:

JAN 84%

FEB 87%

MAR 88.3%

APR 87.8%

MAY 80%

JUN 91%

Are these the sort of levels CX would normally look at increasing frequency, especially if forward bookings are very strong, and of course subject to the yield being achieved, freight carryings and aircraft availability?

Can you make any general comment Spanners without disclosing any confidential information you may be aware of?

As regards pax having to take alternative flights, I assume the main concern for CX would be if pax were switching to other carriers rather than flying via LHR if seats were available, especially if it was business travellers at premium fares.

Flyertalk has info from "company documentation" regarding CX A350 routes for the 1st 6 aircraft:

Auckland
Milan
Dusseldorf
Zurich
Barcelona
Tel Aviv

Logically, you'd have thought MAN was in the grand scheme of things for being 1 of the initial batch of A350 routes seeing it's been mentioned since 2012. However, you do wonder if it's a increasing frequency with 77W for the time being and then switching to the A350-1000 from 2018 given that this version won't have F class but I haven't located what the capacity will be though I imagine it to be less than 340 seats.

Cathay
 

Airlines update and adjust their fleet plans constantly, for example if fuel costs remain low for longer than expected, or demand is more/less buoyant than expected. Just because MAN isn't now listed among the rumoured first six A350 routes it's not necessarily bad news.

Three of the routes getting the early A350s are currently operated by 77Ws, so there is an opportunity to redeploy those 77W aircraft to increase frequency to MAN or any other routes as Cathay sees fit. On the other hand Tel Aviv and Barcelona are new routes, and there are also some long in the tooth A343s, 772s and 744s to be retired and replaced on routes like Auckland as new aircraft are delivered.

The first CX A350s will have 280 seats in three class (0F/38J/28W/214Y). So if those load factors and cargo from MAN are better than CX were expecting when the route was launched, the 77Ws could be around for quite a while ! No doubt all will be revealed soon enough.

Why downgrade to an A350 if they're filling a B77W, unless of course, they are looking to increase yields?

MAN would be daily on the A350 making weekly seat provision slightly higher than the 4 x per week 777. It's basically 7 x 280 = 1960 instead of 4 x 340 = 1360 (in each direction)

The load factor out of the UK for the last week was 97%, with the last 10 flts out of MAN at 100%!

Being reported elsewhere that FlyBE have made the following change to the (excessive) winter AMS schedule:

Also I am booked on the IB express MAN - MAD flight on a wednesday in March. I got an email today saying that the flight was cancelled and I had been rebooked onto the Tuesday flight. On checking the flight is now offered only twice weekly on a Saturday and Tuesday (down from 4 x weekly).

Yes, IB Express look to have dropped the Wed. flight from winter schedules.

It seems strange to have the 3 weekly flights in Sep/Oct operating Tues/Wed/Sat. I'd have thought Mon/Fri/ or SUN would be a more popular day than mid-week. What was the original 4th day of operation? If it's a reflection of forward bookings it doesn't show optimism, but then haven't Ryanair increased frequency to Madrid?

MAN was exceedingly busy when I looked in between 07.30 and 09.30 this morning, as you would hope and expect this particular weekend. The queue for AA's ORD and JFK flights reached back to the flybe and Air France queues from the other direction. Didn't understand the AA procedure for check in as there were several staff to help pax with the machines for boarding passes (presumably after, or at the same time as the initial security questioning) but then only one person seemed to be dealing with the bag drop at the desks.
With some 400 pax for the 2 flights, not surprisingly the queue appeared to be moving pretty slowly. The PHL flight is separate desks and at 07.45 it was early for the queue to have built up.

In T2 by 09.00 the United queue backed up to a very long line for CX where check-in had already started (another good load Spanners?) and one of the screens above the United desk showed "Flight oversold, see Agent". Not sure if it applied to the EWR or IAD as well. VS/DL very busy but well contained in a separate dedicated area.

Great to see MAN so busy, and despite the long queues it was by no means chaotic with no sign of undue impatience or frustration by pax.

CX was 100% full again.

There are some busy flights going east at the moment due to the scout jamboree in Japan, there are literally hoardes of them, and have been for the past 3 days. They have travelled using Air France, Etihad, Cathay and Qatar mainly.

In terms of Iberia, loads are quite weak over the winter, shock horror considering they are pretty much head to head with Ryanair for timings and miss a good chunk of their connections from Madrid by the time the flight arrives back. I am told that there will be a time change and increase back to 4 weekly for the summer timetable.

Ah, that would explain why I saw so many scouts in all 3 terminals, including a group for the CX flight. One of the leaders was helping to segregate the group from the United queue next door.

it was actually 101%:E

One wonders from where all those CX pax have suddenly emerged.

MEBs ?
BA ?
KL / AF / LH ?

Or are they migrants from across The North who previously drove to London ?

Good querstion Bagso.
It must rate as one of the most successful start up routes of any airline anywhere.

There was talk not so long ago about Singapore & Cathay dropping capacity into Moscow & reallocating elsewhere, anyone any update on those rumours?

Interesting question Bagso.

From the airport's perspective they will want as many pax as possible using the CX flights to be new customers who previously didn't use MAN at all.

From CX 's standpoint, they will be hoping for pax transferring from other carriers irrespective of what routing they previously took from MAN or from another airport.

The outbound loads at 100% is terrific, but inbound loads also have to be put in the mix of course for overall LFs. Have they been encouraging too, do we know?

And don't forget Cargo as well.