Manchester to Muscat is planned not confirmed. The service is not yet open for reservations.

But surely we can all agree that with Muscat, the airline confirming they will start the route is a lot more certain than just your average run of the mill rumour?

Let's hope we have a Regional UK Powerhouse rather than just a Northern (Manchester) Powerhouse.

The first thing she should do is scrap HS2 and put the money into improving the lot of the long suffering commuters travelling between the UK major conurbations.

This is the next best thing to having flights on sale...

Oman Air To Fly Daily To Manchester | Oman Air

Hey I have news...

The fortunes of Manchester Airport and Westminster are inextricably linked !!!

IF EVERY MP in the cabinet represents London or the
S EAST how on earth can they have a glimmer of what's going on up here ?

It's not politics.........

it's actually just common sense !

Leeds/Manchester/Birmingham/London ARE major conurbations between which people commute, many daily.

But it isn't the 'Northern (Manchester) Powerhouse'. It is the Northern Powerhouse, and it promotes the integration of major cities across the North. The benefits envisaged if the project ever reaches maturity (in light of recent events) will be felt across the North from Liverpool along the M62 corridor to Hull and up the East Coast to Newcastle.

The concept has also been rolled out to other English regions. You may wish to google the 'Midlands Engine' and the 'Anglian Powerhouse' (Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire). For self-evident reasons Scotland, Wales and NI already have political structures which serve the same purpose.

Your wish has already been fulfilled!

Slightly strange wording which I've highlighted, but I guess it's fairly definite.
"Oman Air, the National Carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, confirms, based on the requests for information received, that it intends to start operating daily flights from its hub in Muscat to Manchester. The new service is scheduled from April 1st 2017"

Philbky, I am more than aware of that. I used the word improve.

The rolling stock used between some of these cities is nothing short of disgraceful along with the constant delays that beset the working day of many a commuter. My train of an evening has been on time twice in 14 years! The present rail operation needs to be improved and made efficient throughout the country before spending money on the HS2 fairytale.

New 3 weekly Kraków route from Easyjet. Flies Thu/Thu/Sat and already bookable from 1st November.

Ametyst1, why spend money on sticking plasters when a whole new system would improve speed and comfort between the cities? The French, Germans and Italiuans did it. Oh, sorry, forgot, we don't like Europe.

Because the money saved by scrapping HS2 could be used to benefit several communities throughout the country instead of a vanity project that only benefits 5 cities/towns in the UK.

It is not about being anti-European. The countries you mention are a lot bigger than the UK so high speed rail brings real benefits as greater distances are covered by TGV, ICE etc.

Let's not get into an HS2 debate. Suffice to say the direct/indirect benefits of any project are not the same thing and are difficult to quantify.

BA294 ORD-LHR planned into MAN at 1000. Operated by G-CIVS B744.

Flight will terminate at MAN, so, G-STBG B77W will operate the BA1398 to collect the ORD passengers. G-STBG due 1115.

Conspiracy theory #1
Testing Manchester's ability to handle 2 large BA planes at the same time. :ok:

Scrub that. It's going to Shannon, according to BA website and certainly heading that way.

Perhaps you've answered that yourself Betablockeruk with your later post? Or it could be he just wanted to land at the nearest available airport.

Looking at his route MAN was way off track

Ian

No idea if it has implications for MAN as no details are given, but this was in Delta's Q2 earnings announcement earlier:

"With foreign currency under heightened pressure from the steep drop in the British Pound and the economic uncertainty from the United Kingdom’s decision to exit the European Union, Delta has decided to reduce 6 points of U.S.-U.K. capacity from its winter schedule. "

Think they mean 6% of capacity.

Delta only serves MAN-JFK and the back end of last winter saw them go 5 weekly B767 and it remains 5 weekly B767 next winter, so officially, no change for MAN.