'Runways UK' [Davies Commission] Event at MAN.
 

As you all know, the AA&R moderators have made it clear that long postings are not welcome on this forum. Especially if they contain rubbish and drivel which mine probably do!

But seriously, I have posted a very comprehensive account of the afternoon's proceedings at the 'Runways UK' conference on solutions for future runway capacity in the UK. It relates to MAN, but also references most other UK airports as well.

I am respecting the moderator's instructions not to post a monster six-parter (which this one is) here on PPRuNe. So if you are interested in reading about yesterday's debates, speeches and Q&A's please consult the skyscrapercity website. Once there, search for 'Manchester Metropolitan Area - Greater Manchester Transport Projects - Airport'. See pages 343-344 on the 'Airport' thread.

Hopefully you will find the whole summary over there. Not suitable for those who like soundbites and quick reads!

In the sense that countries that can only support ONE route to a UK airport will choose LHR, and MAN has got good links to LHR.

Clearly where countries that can only support TWO routes to UK airports, the other will normally be MAN, which doesn't have rwy capacity issues.

Shed, although 4,000 miles away, just to say I appreciated your detailed reports on that other site of the Runway UK Event.

Like some others, I'm surprised more forensic questions appear not to have been addressed and at the apparent movement of emphasis of the commission's remit from UK Air capacity through capacity in the SE to maintaining the UK's Hub capability.

Look forward to an official announcement by MAN of its infrastructure development plans and what it means in terms of incremental capacity increases at various stages.

Bagso when you say "best domestic connectivity" by a mile, what do you mean? Flybe? Because their reward scheme is poor and their not a proper network carrier, and their strategy changes by the week.

Their plan to replace new Embraers with second hand DHC8-Q402s does not endear them to a lot of people either. Bagso it's not slots that grow markets, that's putting the cart before the horse.

To be fair, there were speakers present who spoke up strongly in favour of developing the regionals including MAN. Charlie Cornish (obviously) and Sir Richard Leese were prime examples of this. One of the key concerns I actually came away with was the unquestioning adherence to the green agenda by all the senior figures involved. There appears to be total devotion to "tackling climate change" and imposing carbon emissions limits. This nonsense (sorry, it really is) could strangle the life out of aviation growth. Yet we have had NO warming for eighteen years now. When are these guys going to notice real-world evidence?

My main message to all those discussing the Davies Commission on here is quite simple. YOU have the right to make an official submission to the commission yourself. Using the online portal is the simplest way to do this, but more traditional options are available as well. Contributions are actively encouraged. So make your views known directly to Sir Howard and his team, not just those of us who read aviation websites.

I plan to put a response forward myself, but first I want to review a couple of the sessions which were videoed for upload onto the 'Runways UK' website. Hopefully these will appear over the next few days.

Suggest someone starts a new thread specifically to discuss the Davies Commission.

Yes, it's about choice for the punters: whether it's by road, rail or air within the UK, or a choice of hubs (including LHR) for air pax going abroad, and all are equally valid.

If it's a question of changing in LHR, FRA or DXB, then all flights will be via a hub and NOT point to point. CX's MAN-HKG feeds its HKG hub (e.g MAN-HKG-PVG) as much as BA's MAN-LHR feds its LHR hub (e.g. MAN-LHR-PVG).

Apart from the no frills carriers, there are very few point to point flights.


Imagine if every single one of these routes had point to point flights, there would be loads more than on the hub and spoke system.

Hub and spoke means fewer flights overall yet the environment lobby (sic) are against, you couldn't make it up.




It's just a device to scare people and to increase taxation. If they were serious, there would be a much better example set by government, business, politicians, the establishment, and the "movers and shakers". It's a case of "do as I say" not "so as I do".


Suspect that most of the Commission's work is done, but it's got to be padded out till next May because of (1) it can't report till after the election because of long grass and kicking cans down the road, and (2) the stupidity of fixed parliaments that has prevented an early election, so it's 6 more months of coalition squabbling (yawn).

Would expect it to be a good read, but you won't be able to bung it on here.

Excellent report(s), Shed, thanks for your efforts, full of useful information. It's a disgrace that you cannot post them on this forum.

Thread drift AGAIN - why not start a Davies commission thread & post all this stuff on there?
I thought the Mods made it clear to keep it to rumours & NEWS on MAN not on deliberations & essays.

Sounds very much in the context of MAN to me. I may agree that it might not be the most exciting read but to start saying that it is thread drift, when it's is the context of MAN, is a bit silly now.

30 odd hours until the first Cathay arrives. A water cannon salute in the dark will be fun. Believe the outbound is completely full.

Seat availability J6 W5 EY0

J6 C6 D6 I6 W5 R5 E5. ;)

Looks full down the back but not where it really matters, although still pretty healthy for the first one. There are FIVE awards seats available to book now in JCL now with BA EC for tomorrows outbound, which while that is somewhat concerning it is in line with the usual CX trick of releasing unsold seats for awards a coupe of days out. I regularly get CX F seats on LHR-HKG vv this way.

Oh dear its gone tech!

Done on purpose so the welcome can be done in day light :}

A/C is B-KQO, which if I am not mistaken is config 40 Business (39 sold) 32 Premium Economy (29 sold), and 268 Economy (full). Not bad I'd say, although following days are not quite that full. Wonder how much cargo will be going on aswell ?

Update : in the air now 1 hour late, so will so be at MAN before 7.

Fixed now, left an hour late, airborne 0202(HKG time) eta 0648 for those interested. 248 pax.

Icelandair add a 4th weekly flight on Sundays from 6th September 2015 confirmed in their booking engine.

Cathay
 

Unfortunate about the tech delay but CX357 is well underway, obviously heavy having only reached FL320 four hours after departure. Looking forward to a nice heavy departure off RWY 23R tomorrow lunchtime. Since SQ put in the Munich stop we have lacked a really long sector out of MAN, I think Virgin's LAS is the longest and that is a summer only trip.

Did CX357 get a water cannon salute? I recall someone refusing as such due to not wanting to repeat the exercise with de-icer.

Nice welcome by Manchester weather. Thunderstorm 14 miles out (woke me up!), hail & ice. Welcome to Manchester! Wrap up warm, unless you're Northern.

The clap of thunder over, what seemed, directly over Hyde made me jump under the covers wondering what the hell had happened when it woke me. The CX passed over soon after.

Beijing launch soon

Charlie Cornish says the Beijing route should be announced in next 2 to 3 months. He's also said... "a direct flight to Shanghai from Manchester is likely to follow the Beijing link."