PIA, HAINAN
 

We hardly speak about pia but one one question i have is the manchester-jfk flight, does it pick up fair loads from manchester onwards to jfk?
I also feel there should be a annoucment soon from our chinese friends hainan... Dont know whats holding them back...
Finally any one got pia's pax figures..

Sarah
I do not have PIA passenger figures, but I do know they can not as yet pick up passengers for JFK.


Regards
Mr Mac

They do have MAN originating passengers onboard the JFK

They do have 5th Freedom rights and usually pick up a handful of pax at MAN, no more as most of the seats have been sold through from Pakistan to JFK.

Sarah
I stand corrected, I was told by immigration officer at MAN (all be it over a year ago) that they could not pick up Man - JFK passengers, he must have been mistaken. Harer 92 / Roverman thank you for correcting me.


Regards
Mr Mac

More pressingly, they don't offer JFK-MAN and the US immigration officers may frown upon customers from such parts of the world with one way travel plans. #redflag

US immigration want to see a ticket out of the US within the limit of the visa or ESTA, regardless of point of departure from the US or the carrier.

+10 Points :ugh:

PiA
 

Thanks guys for the clarifications :ok::ok::ok:

bmi Regional ending Aberdeen to Manchester flights from end of March 2015. This will mean for scheduled flights at least they will not serve MAN. May still see them on charter flights.

Yes, the termination of Manchester schedules is now confirmed on the BMIR website. I understand that many here will be relieved that the withdrawal in question is not a long-haul service (and I don't want to see any long-hauls pull out either). However, BMI is six movements and upto 300 seats per weekday at Manchester. It is also a company which in various forms has been a major player at Manchester since the 1960's. I for one will be very sorry to see them leave.

Another contributor to this thread thinks this news is unfortunate but doesn't really matter. I say he is talking drivel.

I don't see how it matters in any major fashion...those people, and that demand, will still be there, and fly...just on another carrier.

I can see the attraction of studying human psychology. As recent announcements on this thread amply demonstrate, when new scheduled services such as MAD (Iberia Express), BCN (Vueling) and JFK (Delta Airlines) are announced the news is universally celebrated and welcomed by contributors here. Yet these are all routes with incumbent competition. However, when a carrier withdraws from a route with similar characteristics, somehow it doesn't really matter. We can't have it both ways.

BMI
 

Its always a shame when airlines withdraw from MAN however as good a heritage they have let's not pretend they are the same business they were when they were serving Barbados, Antigua, Saint Lucia and Washington DC from MAN. In recent years they have recognised that having abandoned long haul and being against competition on shorthaul with the likes of Jet2, Easyjet, Ryanair etc. they have concentrated on niche routes like Aberdeen to serve the oil industry. They could have served routes when we needed them recently to the likes of OPO, LYS or BOD but for whatever reason decided not to. With the drop in oil price investment in this area has fallen dramatically, and the route to Aberdeen now appears unviable. On top of that MAN hasn't been a priority for BMI for a long time. Oh well, when the oil price picks up someone else will serve the route.

Anyway moving on, any news on any VS expansion for 2016?

Er aren't we forgetting London Heathrow, Chicago and Las Vegas, oh and a cheecky Toronto for a short spell.

I cannot see a way that BMIR can survive as they are directionless
chopping and changing each time the wind changes.

bmir - Aberdeen

Let's not forget flybe serve the route 5 x daily on weekdays. Maybe the loss of the bmir flights may encourage them to add a frequency.

Not wishing to go off topic but BMIr should do fine in the long run as they seem to be building on a good relationship as a LH feeder airline and this seems to be where they are focusing


cs

Anybody got easy access to the overall monthly passenger numbers carried on the route to Aberdeen?
Be interesting to see how many of the combined BMI / Flybe seats currently available are actually being sat on...............
As DomyDom said, MAN has been of no priority whatsoever to the new BMI management, they have seen better opportunities elsewhere with the aircraft type they have like at BRS and in Germany and fair play to them for that.

As a result of this airline leaving, little bit more room in crowded T3 says the man with a half full glass!

Manfod
Would point out there time keeping on the route left something to be desired especially the last flight back from Aberdeen in the evening which was often late, which was why I moved to FLYBE.


Regards
Mr Mac