Anyone have any idea what was up with Virgin 76X today? Squarked 7700 on the way in.

Design Competition Launched
 

This will be for the next stage of design building on the agreed concept.


Place North West | Airport starts design contest for £1bn transformation

Virgin
 

According to airlive it was a medical emergency

having read up on that article about the Stafford plans to extend the London Midland service from Crewe, I'm really keen for this to happen. Whilst only a once an hour route, it starts at London Euston and would give MAN a direct train to London and all the stops along the way. This would be a real bonus for MAN IMHO.

Although most people would opt to change at Piccadilly for a faster journey but having the London Midland service wouldn't be a bad thing.

At risk of sounding like a train spotter though, the Midland Mainline is actually the route between London St.Pancras and Sheffield .

Flybe increasing MAN-AMS from 2 daily this summer to 6 (yes 6!) daily this winter.


Deps at 0630/0750/1055/1335/1515/1650.


With KLM at 5 daily, Easyjet up to 3 daily means that at 14 daily, MAN-AMS is now the highest frequency route.

I wonder who'll blink first?
Actually that's a lie.......I think I know this one.

flybe need to stop letting the goldfish do route planning.

Flybe......are they mad ? :confused:

Actually there's probably a brief window of very competitive fares from MAN to AMS, might even do a couple of days there myself hmmm

MAN-AMS 6 daily on BE !
Is there likely to be some sort of codeshare to sustain this ?



cs

Are they (Flybe) Nuts? There are still many unserved niche routes they could serve out of MAN (Seville, Lyon, Bordeaux or even the RYR vacated Bremen) - would make more sense than going head to head with KLM/EZY on AMS or the Lufthansa DUS services.
Even if they carry full loads to/from AMS I can't see how they are going to make any money out of it.

Bremen is only temporarily unserved. Ryanair resumes MAN-BRE for Winter season with 3 x Weekly Tu/Th/Sa ops.

Worth noting that while the frequencies are not great and winter only, Lyon and Bremen are still served ex MAN (doubly worth noting that Lyon this winter has 4 weekly flights on 4 different carriers).


However, Lyon could do with a year round operator. Hard to believe it used to be up to 2 daily and now relagated to just a ski flight.


Bremen, while returning this winter I suspect was dropped to make way for Stuttgart, but hopefully Ryanair keep it for the summer too.


Seville has always been a gap in the network, but with Jerez also no longer served, Seville could be a good gateway to the area, with Faro and Malaga being a bit of a trek.


Bordeaux is a shame is no longer served, France in general seems to have dropped in capacity over the past few years ex-MAN, flybe being once the strongest operator of many routes.

Im not sure what frequency flybe operated MAN-DUS last winter, but, they increase that route to 4 times daily up from the current 2 daily offered in the summer schedule.

Do we know the KLM times for winter?

Looking at Paris, there are 7 flights shown on the flybe web site, 3 of which presumably are operate by AF, although it's not obvious from the flight numbers.

Is there any possibility there is code sharing with KLM on the AMS and some of those flights listed will be KLM a/c? Just a thought.

There are 6 daily to Aberdeen & 3 to Inverness and Edinburgh and Glasgow are both only 3 x daily. I was under the impression EDI did much better than GLA.

The KLM/BE times on AMS do not tally up, and I, sure Ive read that KLM unions do not allow more than 2 codeshares to one country (happy to be corrected if thats not the case) so, BE/KLM couldn't codeshare on MAN-AMS unless that ruling was ammended anyway.

If the slots were available I would have thought that a return to the MAN-Frankfurt route would be more lucrative for Flybe than flooding MAN-AMS. The prices that LH charge, particularly when on a 1 or 2 day midweek trip are eye watering!

Thanks to MANFODs observation, MAN-CDG also increases too.


So, in summary for flybe so far:


MAN-AMS from 2 to 6 daily
MAN-DUS from 2 to 4 daily
MAN-CDG from 3 to 4 daily (not including the 3 AF flights)

Flybe Winter
 

Good summary, LAX LHR

Good spot regarding EDI, Manfod. As a former frequent user of the route, a reduction to 3 per day will really hurt some former colleagues. I must note though that I had started to use the train rather more of late, which would be really competitive if they could find a way to shave a further 30 minutes off the journey.

Based on the CAA stats for March & April, those Scottish schedules make little sense. Inverness was up considerably on the prior year (only 2 x daily?) and EDI also showed increases. EDI was 10,800 and 9,700 pax while INV was just under 9,000 pax. GLA on the other hand carried less than 4,000 pax in April and a fraction over in March, some 25% down on the prior year. It's surprising therefore that all 3 routes will have the same frequency.

As a comparison, BHX-EDI showed 26,000 pax in March and nearly 23,000 in April and GLA was 19,500 and 18,500. Aside from any issue of differing business links, it perhaps highlights the relative distances and times from Manchester and Birmingham by road/rail compared to air, which makes the former a more doable option from here.

easyjet celebrated their 10 millionth passenger through Manchester today.

It's a pity we didn't see them at MAN 10 years earlier but that's a great milestone. And their 9th based a/c arrives shortly I believe.

6 daily to AMS? Some bargains to be had there this winter I wager. Are Flybe simply making use of the E190s they haven't been able to get rid of?

Or, have they taken leave of their senses ?

LAX_LHR - Worth noting that both Jet2 and Monarch start flying to Lyon from December.

Not really that much new. Only difference is that BE flights will carry a EK code. You have been able to book for example NQY-DXB for some time, only Ek website would until now sell you a mix of BE and Ek coded flights.

Regardless it's still a good move.


cs

Is it exclusive to MAN or will it be on all UK/ROI flights that EK operate from airports served by BE?

BHX and GLA also

China
 

The very complex nature of Hainan appears with the addition of A330s to Beijing Capital Airlines that intend to launch to Helsinki & Copenhagen.

Beijing Capital Airlines to be China's seventh airline to fly long haul, planning European routes | CAPA - Centre for Aviation

It seems very complicated to me, but maybe Hainan's hesitation to Manchester is related to the restructure of previously domestic only, Capital (?)

It does sound complicated although Hainan have opened or announced a number of routes since MAN was first mooted. Hopefully we've not disappeared off their radar altogether but have just been put in a rather long 'hold'!

Does flybe actually carry any of its own passengers at MAN anymore?


They codeshare/interline with Cathay, Thomas Cook, Air France, Finnair, Etihad and now Emirates to name but a few, in an 80 seat dash-8 makes you wonder what volume is left after that for flybe to sell themselves?!?


Whats left into MAN then seems to be in aid of their domestic hub operation, so, realistically, not a lot left for MAN O&D traffic.

...which was ultimately one of the downfalls of the old BMI domestic model

surely it's a good thing that Flybe are helping MAN's passenger numbers by bringing in connecting passengers. I can't but think that Bournemouth wouldn't have been launched and would survive without the extra pax that connections bring for example and flights like Exeter have been seeing a lot of growth haven't they?


I know what you mean with regard to passengers wanting good value flights ex-MAN for business and leisure trips alike but I really see all of these codeshares as a real bonus for MAN and I hope that Flybe keep added seats and routes.

BOH connections
 

Are any external connections actually available from BOH with Flybe? Looking at the Flybe booking engine, only a few internal connections are available through MAN/GLA. As far as i can see, there is no simple way to book a connection including another Airline with flybe? No AF through CDG, KLM through AMS and so on....

would through respective airlines. So EY website, EK website etc....

More investment flying in to Airport City as US organisation backs shed - Manchester Evening News

Great 1st part headline
More investment flying in to Airport City

Shocking second part
.......as US organisation backs shed


The business writers at the MEN really do have the ability to produce creative eye catching headlines do they not !

Completion by January however !

I thought the building work had already been started and if it goes up as fast as the DHL it was quick as it is mainly wharehouse space with offices on top

Ian

Come along Mr Shed on a Pole - tell all....;)

Shed is exactly what we in the logistics industry call a warehouse, it is not a detrimental term.

Thankyou for giving me the credit.

Yours Sincerely,

Warehouse-on-a-Pole. :-)