Never say never and expect the unexpected with the CAAC and their Chinese carriers.

The pauses may well have been internal imaginations for all sorts of reasons however Air China has just confirmed at least one of their bundle of delayed route applications (San Jose) will now go ahead and with a very short lead time - September !

So lets wait and see especially with Mr Cornishes comments !

Other China services
 

The Chinese Consul-General, based in Manchester, went further than Charlie Cornish in his address. He spoke of the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong service, Hainan starting today, and then specifically mentioned 'Air China to Shanghai' soon / later this year.

Hainan Airlines starts Manchester to Beijing service - Chinadaily.com.cn

Confirmation of those 90% load factor. Interesting that the view from there seems to be the service supporting The Midlands as well as the North Of England.

News on the terminals??????

If the Midlands start just south of Stoke, their view makes absolute sense and Birmingham is only 80 miles away. In terms of China, the distance is insignificant though the delays on the M6 result in speeds more akin to rickshaw travel than modern transport.

The Transformation Plan ( mantp ) website was updated with new material relatively recently including the fly-through video which is quite impressive. No news at this point on whether T3 can be expanded in the interim ... additional capacity is clearly required there.

Perhaps shifting BA, AA into T2 would help? When is the first phase of that due to open?

Yes, but it was established in earlier discussion that the BA Shuttle cannot move to T2 until arrangements are put in place to facilitate domestic passengers. That is a more complex task than it sounds, so it may take a while.

Very true. Might Air France KLM be first to move then?

Air France operate from T3 ostensively because they codeshare the Paris route with Flybe and KLM are there as a partner AF group company.

I really can't see T2 ever having domestic operations to be honest.

An aside can someone tell me or a least suggest why the Hainan Manchester special livery actually has a Lisbon tram in it?

Is it perhaps Chinese whippers on their next European destination?

I know this was a while ago now, but Ryanair operated their Dublin flights from T2. A route within the common travel area agreement between the UK and Ireland and as such usually classed as a Domestic arrival. What plans were in place for these flights back then? (Apologies if already been mentioned)

Irish and Channel Isle arrivals at Manchester have always processed through international arrivals for customs purposes .

Passport control is by passed in the main. however if you are from a Visa controlled entry country the passport control point can still stop you even within the CTA.

They were bussed to the CTA channel, which is located not far from the T2 bussing lounge at gate 300.

MAN-TP programme and facilities
 

The redeveloped T2 (MAN-TP) will have a domestic capability as well as (hopefully) US pre-clearance - talks are progressing with the US authorities.

Pier 1 will be complete with contact stands in Summer 2018, the new terminal building itself the following year, with a pier added every year or so after that. Build order of the piers 2, 3, and 4 is still a matter of programme refinement.

Do you know the timeframe for the new bussing stands? I presume S17 is reasonable?!?

I thought they had decided to only build three piers.

Three piers in current cost plan, fourth 'safeguarded' for build subject to traffic growth and agreement with airlines, but likely to be built by 2024. Bussing gate provision is currently planned to be on Pier 4 (2019) but under review. Some aspects of the terminal and pier layout are still subject to change as they would be with any project of this scale.

I've seen pictures of a model suggesting that pier 1 is amalgamated into a partially retained Pier C.

Looks like a general, slight, shift to the south east.

The piers are numbered starting from the north (M56), so it is Pier 4 which is indeed joined to the 1974 part of T1 Pier C, in the current thinking.