Must be a lot of parked a/c at MAN right now, as NOTAM issued no diversions unless in an emergency due to lack of stands until 11am tomorrow. Is there widespread fog forecast tonight maybe ?

There are a lot at present due ski flights not yet started.
16 Jet2 based at present of which only about 5 operating during week
just pick on 1 airline and then you have Thomson, Monarch, Thomas Cook
Ryanair, Easyjet and Flybe

Ian

"Lack of stands"?
05R/23L doesn't usually open until after Sunday lunch has been served, so there is your available diversion parking.....on the taxiways between left and right and north of R/W 1. If necessary, tow all of these already parked a/c out of the way. It's not rocket science.

Runway 2 and southern taxiways are having repair works this weekend whilst closed.
Southside not favoured for diversions due to the number of tug, bus, slow EBTs pulling steps, and general vehicle journeys required to cross Runway 1 - best avoided. Also lack of any floodlighting, difficulty in positioning steps and equipment, I could go on.

There are so many based units that just sit about. Led to believe there are 14 LS's right now alone, in total there could be 30 a/c sat about all winter ! Makes you wonder, knowing this will be the case, if a storage area out of the way somewhere would help and be simple / cheap to do ?

Let's not forget though they do pay to park, so having them there is certain revenue, versus not having them there and creating space in the hope of getting a few diversions every blue moon instead. It's not 1970 anymore when mass diversion days were common. I'd go for the guaranteed revenue all day long if I had to chose one or the other.

Surely in these days of information technology and ACDM, EGCC is aware of the number of a/c which have filed it as an alternate?
Or is that too much to ask.
In the 1990s, it was not uncommon for long-term parked a/c to be re-positioned, to free up stands for impending div-arrivals. I seem to remember 3 in the engine-run bay on several occasions.
Also, if, (as was suggested here before), the airport had invested in multi-storey car parks, (which would also serve the impending 'Airport City' development), it would be able to use the apron for the purpose it was intended for.

Probably no extra multi storey car parks in centre as there will be major changes soon when terminal changes are confirmed and there is no point in putting one up to be pulled down again also T1 car park will need to come down anyway.
There is a major car park under 23R approach nearly finished (9000 cars) and a multi storey in Airport City to be built. Some of the stands have been handed back for aircraft parking this winter.
We had this argument last winter about diversions and it has been made clear it upto the handling companies to tell the airport what they can
or will handle so before that is confirmed there is no point in saying yes
unless it is an emergency for what ever reason.

Who's going to pay for these aircraft to be towed around willy nilly on the off chance the airport gets a divert?

If I was airline A, I'd be pretty pissed off paying £400 to have my aircraft towed into the test bay and back to accept a divert from rival company B.

It just isn't practical

I remember them parking a bmi A330 and Monarch A320 in the engine bay one night in the early 2000's.

The tug crews always sound pretty busy during the evening moving based aircraft off stand and moving remote or hangars and it`s not a 5 minute job as someone is on aircraft plus tug crew then they require steps moving at both end of tug journey.

Monarch look to be transferring some Cosmos charter flights next summer to Small Planet Airlines. Chania, Kos and Heraklion are all now operated by Small Planet Airlines. Preveza and Rhodes have transferred to Monarch scheduled. Corfu and Skiathos not served next summer.

Cosmos Charter Flights 2015

Tuesday P73788 0915-1515 1630-1840 LGSA
P73974 1300-1900 1950-2210 LGIR

Wednesday P75790 0740-1400 1500-1730 LGKO

Schedule likely to change as same flight times and numbers as Monarch charter for 2014 but provisionally looks as though Small Planet may have more flight from MAN next summer.

[QUOTE][ Is there widespread fog forecast tonight maybe ?/QUOTE]

Got it in one I suspect. Before we left for some winter sunshine, I saw that fog was forecast for the SE for Sat night/Sun morning. Whether it materialised, Ive no idea.

If there were no stands available, I doubt it got as far as the handling agents saying 'No'. Sounds like it's going to be a quiet winter for diversions!

New Ryanair route from MAN - 2 weekly to Chania LGSA

MAN based A/C

FR 2821 0700-1310 Tue/Sat

Odd but the extra FR flights to SNN on Mon Weds Fri no longer appear in the booking engine.

Why do a/c continue to file EGCC as an alternate? The situation there (lack of resources and/or lack of space and general low cost environment) must be well documented by now.

They may have been taken out temporarily due to an press conference in Shannon tomorrow, where there seems to a fair few rumours that some UK expansion will be announced.


The extra MAN flights would make sense to be announced in the bigger picture I would guess.

BBC News - Cathay Pacific and Flybe air link deal welcomed

Great news that this should appear all over Scotland and for once not the M E N where you are essentially preaching to the converted.....

Future Plans
 

I was involved with moves and proposed Terminal changes up until about 6 months ago. It seems to change almost weekly as soon as a plan is announced it seems to get shelved.
Proposals were ...... T2 Extension to start winter 2014 as a matter of urgency. Included in this was a domestic area (nope not a clue where it will go) specificly to move B.A over there with there buddies AA/USair.
Originally when Ryanair moved to T3 one of the things that was brought up was that they like to have between 12-16 a/c as a based fleet, and that they should look to the future with this in mind, a plan was drawn up to accomodate this, but will probably have changed by now. It did involve a lot of remote parking for other operators.
The plan at the time was to extend T2 so that it could take about 20 million pax, and then drop, and rebuild T1/T3 together. As it stands the last plans showed T1 being dropped and a hotel being built on the current tower area, which seems to be inline with the diversifying into retail aspect of the current management. I.e the Trafford centre with a captive audience of pax and incidental parking for those infernal flying machines.

Good news indeed, however how will this work practically? Cathay is to be T2 and Flybee is T3, will there be the option of bussing airside or will transfering pax have to go landside and then go through security again?

ZFW

The future plans are really interesting although perish the thought they can be discussed here.

Do you think that layout will actually take capacity up ?

Some positive comments on https://twitter.com/manairportPRESS from today's RunwayUK event at MAN.

Sir Howard Davies...

"It's crucial Stansted, Birmingham and Manchester develop more long haul routes."

"Capacity issues at LHR and LGW offer opportunities to regional airports through passenger and destination growth."

"No new capacity in London and South East until late 2020s."

More tweets being added all the time. Worth watching...

Manchester does seem to be doing quite well with long-haul at the moment, but is there room for more?

That T2 terminal extension would be very usefull indeed, as would many other bits of infrastructure. Not to mention a remake of T1/T3.

Heathrow is limited by runway capacity, I would hazard a guess that manchester is limited by ground-capacity. Both terminals and taxiways.

Long haul certainly is good.


Terminal capacity in the morning is now what is desperately needed.


Ryanair has already been turned down for 10 based next summer, constant 'no-Div' notams, Cathay/Singapore having to fight for gate space and only 1 A380 contact stand.


Lets hope MAN act soon....

Some of us have been concerned for some time about MAN'a capacity issues at peak periods, notably mornings, for terminals, taxiways and stands. I realise the airport can't build plenty of suplus stands on the off chance they get a few diversions, but the present 'No divs except emergencies' notam surely indicated there is an issue.

It is also strange if the current infrastructure plans are continually changing as others have suggested. Refined, yes, but from reports on here, it appears there has been some drastic rethinking. I gather that T2 is first for expansion but I'm still not clear what the plans are for T3 - to be extended, demolished or what?

Regarding Ryanair, I recall MOL commenting when the airline returned to MAN, that they would expand as fast as MAN wanted them to. I don't think Easyjet have been constrained at LGW with what 60 plus based a/c so it's unfortunate if RYR really did want to base 10 a/c here next summer and were told it wasn't possible. Mind you, an increase from 6 to the rumoured 8 would be very acceptable if MAN can manage that!

Ryanair were 7 based in summer 2014, so next year would only be an increase of 1.


I

Sorry hang on.

MAG have said to Ryanair "Sorry you can't have ten based aircraft." It's a bit Monty Python, just imagine that meeting for a moment. We are the Knights who say "no"....
That's a serious claim about Manchester Airport or ramp gossip?
Cos if that were really true, would MOL not be crucifying them in the media? It's not beyond the wit of someone with a degree of ambition to solve that problem. Buy a handful more busses and job done, remote off stand summer parking isn't maxed out like winter time.

Further to the earlier posting regarding Small Planet flights for Cosmos Holidays.

Currently they are showing flights to Corfu (Monday) Chania and Heraklion (Tuesday) Kos (Wednesday) Zante (Thursday) Skiathos (Friday) and Kefallinia (Saturday & Sunday) according to the booking engine, so not sure if all of these will operate ?

Small Planet had operated in Summer 2014 to Chania, Kos and Skiathos from Manchester(for Olympic Holidays ???) so not sure if these will combine next year ?

However, it does look as though there will be additional flights to go a small way to making up some of the lost Monarch Airlines IT passengers.

Skipness, I did say "if" based on what has been suggested here and on another site regarding Ryanair wanting 10 based.

Apologies LAX LHR if it was 7 based this summer. I've seen both 6 & 7 quoted and couldn't remember whether or not there was an increase in 2014.

Just looked at the Ryanair site for August, and it seems there will be 8 based aircraft.




8 aircraft are needed on Mon, Wed and Sat, with 7 on Tue, Thu, Fri and Sun.


There are also some increases for at least August on:


MAD: from 5 to 6 weekly
LIS: from 4 to 5 weekly
CFU: from 2 to 3 weekly*
BUD: 3 to 4 weekly
BGY: from 7 to 8 weekly
FAO: from 10 to 11 weekly
ALC: from 10 to 12 weekly
ACE: from 3 to 5 weekly
AGP: from 10 to 12 weekly
TFS: from 7 to 8 weekly
BZR: from 2 to 3 weekly*


*Im sure CFU and BZR were only 2 weekly this summer but someone can confirm.


Reductions:


WMI: from 3 to 2 weekly
REU: from 2 to 1 weekly


Not loaded yet:


PFO, BIQ and BRE.


All based on 10-17th August.

FR

CFU was two weekly this summer so was WMI. BZR was two weekly also this year. It was only showing as two weekly for S15 a couple of days ago.

Be aware that FR are adding some extra flight purely in August for some destinations which can distort the overall picture.

In light of reports of 8 frames I haven't checked the full timetable as yet

I was aware that Ryanair are adding peak capacity in August, hence why I said.


Ive checked various dates in May, July, August and Sept, and most days do indeed see 8 based needed.

There is a lot of speculation as to what is happening to the terminals at MAN, does anyone have some facts on redevelopment?

LAX-LHR

Sorry missed your reference to the August increases

Runway event UK

WHAT ...Sir Howard Davies somehow advocating greater use of Manchester etc ? It must be me, I got the firm impression he was totally and utter dismissive personally. Same old agenda !

In actual fact he said that regional airports could assist ""temporarily. In other words the current expansion at MAN may be short lived AND we will have it all back down in London when we get RW3. Well ta for that.

And what of another comment he made, long haul from Manchester and indeed regional airports in general is more "environmentally damaging".....

From Manchester you can get anywhere in one stop, is that any seriously any worse than one stop specifically via LHR ?

The Q AND A really needed to be longer and more forensic. At not one point did he refer to the meteoric increase in long haul routes/frequency or capacity at Manchester since his commission first sat. I find that incredible, so much for all these airlines migrating to AMS, FRA and CDG !

SEE Sir Richard Leese comments for a more balanced view !

One other small point when the floor suggested SHD look at a proposal by UKIP (who are actually against expansion in the SE ) he suggested "he would examine the detail". I would prefer Manchester to win more routes based on merit and factual evidence.

It just seemed bizarre that centrally placed Manchester with its huge catchment and the best accessibility of any airport in the country and who were after all hosting the event, somehow failed to really communicate that message to the gallery whilst a random question seemingly put forward by a minority party was considered worthy of further investigation !

What's a FRAME ?

Bagso, did nobody think to question Davies as to why more longhaul flights from Manchester were environmentally damaging but more domestic feed from regional airports to LHR would not be?

Is he still blinkered that l/h flights from Manchester, or BHX for that matter, are always half empty while those from LHR are always overbooked?

Where does he say "more longhaul flights from MAN" would damage the environment. Can someone share a link?
Ta

manairportPRESS @manairportPRESS · 22h 22 hours ago

SHD: "Redistribution of air traffic found to be less efficient in regards to carbon emissions." #runwaysuk

He has actually said this 2/3 times BUT I did not think he would have the brassneck cheek to repeat it at an event hosted by Manchester itself.

....as if we can't have it no one can.......!

Council leader slams expansion plans for Heathrow or Gatwick and calls for investment in regional airports - Manchester Evening News

Where we be without Council leaders and made up words? Well, better off usually.....
Main point is that unless airlines can make money with splintered operations from a multiplicity of regional airports they'll focus on hubs to get the benefits of scale. KLM UK to hub AMS is the best example.

It's a choice between one hub or t'other, let's not dress it up as something super worthy. Changing in London is the same as changing in Frankfurt or Dubai, except via Dubai has a bigger aircraft on the first leg. It's all politics really at the mo. It's one load of airlines promoting one hub over another :) Only the likes of Norwegian and Thomas Cook / Thomson do proper long haul point to point.