It's partly for the expansion of Jet2 but its because with MAN TP by the time these routes fully come online around April/May there will be more gate space for them on T2, The loss of Monarch has slightly helped with stands i believe

I'm assuming the plan is that Jet2 will be the first airline to move out of T1 completely?

When you say 'everything'. Could you clarify please?

I believe irishlad06 is referring to all airlines moving out in the next few years, to allow the separation of the current t1 piers from the main body of the terminal, and then the demolition of the majority of the T1 terminal itself.

Hi folks
Can someone help me out?
I've got a bit of business that will take me a few times to the US over the next year.
Just weighing up my travel options, one of which is driving up to MAN to catch a VS flight.
If I do that will I get FF points with Skyteam since VS is now effectively Delta UK?

TIA

MAN Hub for Virgin if they buy BE?
 

All the speculation about a potential VS/Flybe tie-up has got me thinking about the potential for a Manchester hub. VS's main problem at Heathrow has always been a lack of slots to effectively compete with BA/AA. Delta help with this to some extent but can only provide feed from the US side. Even if they buy Flybe, there won't be any slots to build a significant feeder network apart from the ABZ/EDI flights already operated. Manchester meanwhile has no shortage of slots and alreaduy sustains a few US routes with minimal feed.

Could a split strategy work for VS, where they have a smaller LHR operation focused on Delta's hubs and key O/D markets and a small hub at MAN linking major US cities with European secondary cities?

So, the plan:

- Scale back parts of Flybe's network which are less suited to VS (domestic France, thinner domestic routes, BHX european routes etc)
- Use the spare aircraft to increase flights from MAN to secondary European cities (HAM, DUS, LYS, LUX, maybe Scandanavia?). Flybe's Dash-8's are ideal for these thin routes to feed long haul flights.
- Focus their LHR operation on London O/D with some US feed. Drop their remaining Asian routes, reduce some frequencies back to 1 daily (SFO etc) as the A35Ks arrive and/or transfer others to Delta.
- Redeploy the VS spare aircraft to MAN. Initially it would make sense to make their existing destinations year round and increased frequency, Then start looking at launching a few other select US cities (SEA, MIA, ORD spring to mind).

Could it work?

Wow, really? I didn't realise T2 was going to be big enough for that.

The actual terminal is to come down but piers B and C are to remain

Since your probably looking nearly 6-7 years ahead to when they get to working on Pier B anything could happen but, yes, you're possibly correct.

I think with the reconfiguration of check-in in T2, plus the new security there should be enough landslide space to accommodate all of the current, and some planned growth from T1. It remains to be seen if this will be sufficient, especially given current growth trends.

Hopefully not.
MAN is the home of several bits of cringeworthy infrastructure.
The Bronze Medal goes to T3.
Pier C of T1 gets the Silver Medal but......
....roll of drums.....
The Gold Medal (with an extra mention in dispatches for total disfunctional despair and grimness) goes to Pier B. No contest really - a really nasty bit of cheapass airport terminal that would be dismissed as unsuitable by most third world airports (and yes I've been to plenty).
I thought Manchester had ambition as a city and an airport. Pier B says that it does not. As the Irish phrase goes...'ah **** it, it'll be grand''

Re T1 Pier B
I don't know if the thinking has changed but what I understand was being considered when the Terminal building is eventually demolished was to use the west side of B pier for T2 flights and the east side for T3 flights. However, if that suggestion is put into practice, I've no idea how long the pier would continue to be used in that way and whether an upgrade or rebuild is likely in the meantime.

Re Pier C, isn't that being retained,at least partially, and what was to be pier 4 on T2 not happening?

Scottie Dog or roverman is more knowledgeable on this than I am, so I stand to be corrected.

Passenger segregation was well before 9/11 IIRC.
You are right though, it was fit for purpose when built.
By the late 90’s, stand 1/5/9/11 side of B pier was used predominantly by turboprops and regional jets which no doubt made the arrangement manageable.

Now though, it needs to go. It’s had its day.

That is interesting. It would mean a big increase in available check-in space/throughput in T2X compared to T2. The plan is currently to shut the existing T2 (2020-2022) for renovation once the extension opens in 2020. Might this be delayed until after the summer peak, or at least from a check-in point of view, stage the renovations?

Indeed the new pier 5 at Gatwick's North Terminal was rendered unfit for purpose almost overnight before it opened as arrivals and departures were on the same level, cue BAA's love affair with glass doors. Pier 7 at LHR remains so afflicted, and DUB's 200 gates have had an upper floor added in recent years to mitigate this. Strangley, the older LHR T4 was fine as it had been designed to have arrivals and departures on different levels. Those were different days, smokier, more expensive, a world of cassette tapes and VCRs......