Went through T3 passenger security the other morning. No queues, plenty of staff and not a problem, except the staff were all totally miserable and up their own posteriors. Couldn't have been more rude if they'd tried. Manchester at it's very best. Once again.

I'm a regular critic of the facilities and service experience at MAN but I speak as I find.....on my first two trips so far in the New Year I can honestly say that I have been through security in less than 10 mins on both occasions with no dramas - of course it's the quiet season but it shows what can be done.
I'm still not fond of the 'threats': 'you will be delayed by 30-40 minutes' that sounds like a policy to me - which would be unacceptable.

By the way the shouting has been toned down somewhat in recent times...maybe they read this stuff and have moderated their nonsense. However if you really want to hear some full-on security queue shouting, try any US gateway airport. They are the masters at that.

Can anyone shed some light on this?
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...-year-15685902

We have the walkway tunnels so this really isn't needed is it? And wont they just get caught up in the traffic around the airport anyway, would perhaps take longer than walking from the station.
If something like this was to happen wouldn't it be better to go along the lines of what Heathrow have done with the T5 business car park

Love to know everyone's thoughts
Jetaway

@ Jetaway

It does raise an interesting point. From the start, there will be an increase in traffic, that parts a given. ONce the sceheme fully kicks in however, i can see this being slightly more beneficial.
In particular, the 'convoy plan', where if all the cars are autonomous, they can drive a lot closer to each other and when the front 'pod' wants to brake, all the others will get the same command, so it would almost work like a train. Compare than to norml driver who have to leave a larger gap inbetween cars to allow for reaction times.
Another big concern would be the price. I could see something like this being a lot more expensive, at least from the outset than driving to/from and parking, maybe something reserved for business/ first class pax only?
At the same time, it's nice to see that MAN is looking to the future and embracing this new technology, which as a fan of autonomous vehicles, i applaud them for

Only one trip in the New Year (5-12 Jan) so far, but I did travel out on the 27th of Dec and back on 2 Jan. Completely different experiences. However, they matched the ones I have had all along. The Dec trip was through T1, shouty security, some disorganisation, but slightly improved on my prior trips through there. Returning on a domestic arrival was, as always, as shambles. The Jan trip was T2. No shouting in security, the woman actually helped consolidate trays for our family. This was almost the same experience I had with my two trips out of T2 last summer. Only main difference was no line this time vs <5 min in the summer. This may be because all of my T2 flights are after the big TUI and Jet2 rush (10:30-14:00 departures). It might also be because T2 is never as close to saturation as either T1 or T3 are. Arrivals back in, almost exactly 1 hour from walking off the plan to walking in the front door (40min drive included). No wait in immigration, got all of our bags well within 10 mins of hitting the baggage claim hall, first one in less than 2 mins). MAN is very much an airport of 'diverse' experiences T1 is really a kludge, poor out and in, T3 is swamped in departures and international arrivals, but a breeze for domestic arrivals, and T2 is generally quite pleasant, even with the construction.

Bizarrely, last night it was 20 minutes quicker for a US national to get into the UK than UK nationals. Only 3 in the non EU queue and Border Force didn't (don't) allow any of the EU lot to claim that they were 'nearly' not EU. Some tried but were sent to the end of a very long queue.

BA Shuttle reduced
 

British Airways are reducing the MAN-LHR service for Summer 2019 from 8 to 6 per weekday, and just 4 or 5 at weekends. This must be the lowest frequency since the 1970s. BA will now have fewer daily flights at MAN than Lufthansa if you discount the seasonal City Flyer schedule and Sun Air, which are not really BA flights. I don't know what the driver is, slot prioritization at Heathrow or just declining market-share at MAN. Are other BA domestics being cut back?

I thought it was obvious, MAN is building its own network so reducing the need for people to travel to LHR to connect.
ETH & JEI being the latest long hauls ex MAN

Slot prioritization would appear to be the driving force here. ABZ and NCL are also seeing a reduced frequency. BA at MAN is predominately LHR transfer traffic and BA have figured that they can get away by reducing frequency but maintaining just slightly less uplift (Higher seating configs). The argument that MAN doesn't need BA because of our own growing Intercontinental network does not really hold up as has been commented, the likes of KL/AF/LH en all have maintained frequency.
The schedule for winter 19 is showing 8/9 daily at the moment. Expect that to be reduced too. As for Sun-Air, with RYR starting BLL, they'll probably not be around for much longer unless they can maintain the corporate contracts.

I don't think they are cutting back domestics as it sounds like these frequencies are being transferred to INV seeing as their frequency goes up by almost exactly the same amount that MANs is reduced in the same timeframe.

I fully expect additional China - LHR services before any Manchester announcement but Hainan starting Shenzhen - Dublin from next month says to me that China - Manchester expansion is not something that is going to happen!.

INV is the only BA domestic route growing this summer and it's getting a new nightstop (slots for which have come from reducing LHR-Helsinki to one a day - Finnair must be delighted and are planning more widebodies into LHR, now flying both the morning and evening HEL-LHR-HEL rotations). ABZ, GLA, MAN and NCL are all losing frequency to LHR this summer with between one and two daily rotations cut from each route. The main reason is to free up slots for Newquay-LHR Flybe service which BA are obliged to do under the competition remedies for the acquisition of bmi. There are some other factors as well including a bit of long-haul growth and extra frequency on a couple of European routes but the domestic cuts are pretty much all driven by the need to release slots to Flybe.

I suppose you could indeed take it as a sign of maturity of MAN's own long-haul network that the feeder service to LHR is less and less important. Another reason is likely to be continued loss of point-to-point traffic to the train network.

I've seen that happen a few times, but usually, they will work UK/EU/EEAs into the mix, even pausing processing other passports for several minutes. Sounds like Boarder Force decided processing overseas first was the way to go this time.

I dont think it would work from Stockport the Council need to pull their finger out and get on Tram/Train link from Stockport to the Airport it would make life alot easier for passengers. I think this could work from the car parks with the MAN TP this would be the perfect opportunity to implement something along these lines. The experiment at LHR shows that this works. But on guideways rather than the open road there are just too many things that could go wrong.

A few further PAX numbers to show how the trend is going.

ETHIOPIAN IN OUT
15/1 102 56
16/1 76 61
18/1 68 55
20/1 104 61

JET AIRWAYS
14/1 252 248
17/1 239 251
18/1 225 229
19/1 230 238
20/1 253 244

As you can see ET a bit slow to establish but slowly moving in right direction, no worries at all with Jet, just a question of when frequency increases and upgrade to B773.

Also heard a whisper that Oman are looking at 10pw later in year poss October. Would make sense as the route is performing very well with a 2 class 787 30 business seats and approx 250 economy, freight is good as well.

Thanks for the pax numbers. Jet Airways seems a massive success with a ready made market whereas Ethiopian needs a lot of work and/or de-linking

While waiting at T2 arrivals you can literally see that the Jet Airways check-in desks are very busy.

Wonder how long before someone starts Delhi if the market already exists?

Jet are carrying big transfer loads, sometimes more than 100 pax per sector. Mainly connecting with Virgin both ways to USA, but also on to others at MAN. Ethiopian are picking up a little transfer traffic too, despite the Brussels stop.

Ethiopian used a 772 today rather than the usual 788.

Jet Airways remain on a 332 for the foreseeable future.

Interesting. Where are the Ethiopian connecting passengers coming from/going to? Lufthansa?

I don't have access to the what connections are being made generally, only the numbers of transfer pax on particular flights. The Jet - Virgin thing is common knowledge due to the sheer volumes and the arrangements which have been made in T2 to transfer between these two carriers.

Someone posted above that Jet was a B777-200 today. I think they mean Ethiopian, Jet has no MAN flight on a Tuesday.