"Pot calling kettle black" comes to mind.

Just picked some friends up at T3 who arrived at 19.35 off an FR flight. No problems at Immigration control, just a few minutes, however, they then waited an hour and a half for their baggage in a very busy baggage hall. Later arriving flights bags came through quickly, eventually theirs arrived on a different carousel along with another flights bags. Not happy bunnies.

Maybe in the 50's mate but in this day and age, its called sticking up for a decent member who is a great source of proven information to this thread :=

Ever heard of Google?

I appreciate you're new around these parts, but one of the givens is that we don't need to be spoon fed or nannied.

I'm not intending on being "spoonfed and nannied", but morso critical as no source of info. had been provided preliminarily.

VLM airlines are a bunch of ...
Still selling tickets for routes that are scrapped.

Ha Ha, they were on their way back to Yorkshire too. Your companies policy of self handling does pay dividends.

you were travelling with a lanyard that uses hair straighteners??, thats not nice calling the wife a lanyard lol, only kidding. Does a lanyard mean u are an employee??

Getting a bit of a 3 way fight now. Jet2 v Ryanair v easyJet.

Wonder if anyone fancies going for a similar sounding place in Romania?

INN is very seasonal and driven by skiers between Jan and March, quite a few on package holidays. So its not surprising to see so many operators there and I think the BE and OS are pure charters, I think you can book seat-only on the TUI and some TCX services though. In the summer, GIB is fairly well covered by AGP, but has never recovered to the frequency MON used to operate.

While it's good to see easyjet expanding, the choice of routes is sometimes surprising, I agree.
Was Aarhus mentioned fairly recently for EZY, or was that a SAS slot application that wasn't activated? I might be confused.

As for Bucharest, with a second carrier starting from LPL (Wizz), it is beginning to look just as elusive as ever for MAN perhaps.

July saw a small increase in terminal pax of 0.45% which nevertheless is slightly better than the projected overall seat capacity for the summer compared to 2017.

I'd imagine airlines are becoming more wary of operating untested routes or ones percieved to be non starters. Which goes against the logic of a LCC anyway, they're supposed to be operating these crazy routes, then if they don't work, can them after a year of less

Come on Ryanair/EasyJet, where's your sense of adventure... stop relying on 'Computer Says No' and give us the new destinations!

Not until our future relationship with continental Europe becomes clearer.

I would think one issue at the moment is the exchange rate as it is very poor for UK travellers

July statistics
 

Terminal passengers - 27,928,850 +2.57%
Total (Inc transits passengers) - 28,025,758 - +2.47%

I don't want to sound tribal here, I've worked for both LCC and network carriers.

I think there some are being slightly unfair on easyJet. It's not theirs or other LCC's responsibility to boost MAN's route portfolio but to operate where the best returns are. Plus there are a number of easyJet routes that were missing from the airports network.

BIO - No airline on the route
TIV - Totally brand new route
TLV- Maintained route after LS pulled it and when ZB collapsed
BSL-Not operated since the days of Crossair
SXF-Glaring omission to MAN's portfolio
DME-Not operated on a scheduled basis for many years. Unfortunate timing given the struggling Russian economy and sanctions
SKG- Year round service to an important Greek city that is widely used by Greek locals
MRS - Don't think there was much competition ??
RAK - No scheduled competition when it was launched
GRX - No competition

The thing is, some enthusiasts are fickle. If OK, relaunched PRG, AZ began operating to MXP or LY does launch TLV, there will be many with more optimistic views.

I'm sure easyJet will continue to launch routes that are new or underserved at MAN just like they have done with the above list. I have no real knowledge of any new routes but I could see WAW as a possibility i guess now it's on the wider network.

Either way, easyJet operates more of Europes top 10 city pairs than any other airline. IMO, along with MT on long haul and BE on domestic, they are the closest that MAN has to a home carrier and they can't adequately do that by omitting the big pairings of AMS, CDG, MXP, PMI, FAO etc in a bid to ponly chasing thinner or secondary routes.

Good points there Easyflyer. I guess there is a fine balance between a route being under-served and becoming over-served, but MAN is fortunate now to have the catchment area and critical mass to be able to support multiple carriers on so many city pairs.

Many an airport would kill to have an easyJet base the size of the one at MAN, the footfall and revenue it generates through the terminals is enormous compared to, shall we say, some of the more exotic tails that turn up once or twice a day. Great to see easyJet expanding.

I agree easyflyer83, it's a difficult balance but we now have some great routes that we would never have had otherwise. Easyjet have been good for MAN however they do often seem to change plans ref. expansion late in the day. That may be a strength in terms of flexibility but it can look like a lack of commitment. The other side of the coin is that when they annoumce routes they usually stay. Overall I think they provide a great service and provide many fantastic routes. It would be great to see somewhere in NW Spain e.g. SCQ or elsewhere in Corunia however.

Correct me if i'm wrong but easyJet has never publicly announced expansion and then gone back on it. Whatever goes on behind the scenes is a totally different ball game.

Indeed, with over-supply by LCCs on the likes of MAN-LIS we risk losing TAP with their network connectivity to Africa and South America, for the sake of a few cheap seats to the villa or a city break. Got to be careful.

But surely you're talking about different markets? TAP baulking and withdrawing MAN-GRU (given you said South America) because an LCC cut the price of MAN-LIS fares would be like KLM not offering MAN-AMS-PVG because Flybe offer MAN-AMS for €50.
If TAP really has a useful market to otherwise unserved destinations then they will continue to operate, otherwise they will not. As long as Ryanair aren't offering MAN-LIS-GRU I don't see the issue.

The issue is that airlines often make more money from straight O&D traffic to/from their hub than connecting over the hub (for a given ticket). TP probably require MAN-LIS bookings to supplement anyone travelling MAN-LIS-XXX to make the MAN-LIS route work. Losing a section of the O&D market to LIS will make the MAN-LIS less likely to be profitable.

Let's not forget, however, that some airlines are able to stimulate/grow a market by adding a new destination, rather than purely taking a share of the existing traffic flying from, say, the North West to that destination by current means (indirect, using other UK airports etc). JUst because there is low existing demand, doesn't mean that it will always stay as such... but it may require a punt from the airline, using historic data from another similar route, to take the plunge in the first place.

I can see your logic there. However, companies such as KLM operate out of a major tourist city and operate a major connections business. Normally their fares are priced to keep people off short haul returns out and back to AMS with the LCCs left to pick up the tourist traffic.

What I find more confusing is that TAP offer pretty rubbish outbound connections to Brazil and quite a few spots in West Africa with lengthy layovers in Lisbon.

As others have said, when a new carrier comes onto a route already served by 2 airlines, it's the extent to which it stimulates growth as opposed to re-distributing existing business, as well as maintaining yields, which are important.
Lisbon is interesting in that as far as I know easyjet are transferring the route from LPL where it did pretty well for numbers based on posts on the LPL thread. Whether those customers will be happy to fly that particular route from MAN or for convenience choose an alternative destination remains to be seen.

More Thomas Cook - One off cruise flights? Diversions?

Over the last two days, Anchorage, Fairbanks Alaska and Hartford Connecticut have popped in to the schedules for Thomas Cook. (They're no longer showing).

Anyone have any ideas....Hartford seems most likely to be a diversion? And ANC/FAI would be cruise related....possibly planning for S19?

Thanks all.

Edit - Hartford still showing:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.gmf...0f8a0f4179.png

In all respects (other than for aviation enthusiasts) the switch to a 789 from a 777 is an upgrade rather than a downgrade

Indeed, and I think MAN is served by the higher density B77W with a whopping 412 seats, certainly I have seen passenger loads in the high 300s. So switching to something with c.295 seats is a major reduction in capacity. Perhaps 'down-gauge' is the right word?

I've had the misfortune of flying on their 777's in economy on this route rather a lot and would agree.....
If I remember rightly, EY tend to nearly always use the High Y version on the MAN route of which they have only 10 examples.
5 of these ten are the oldest 777's in their fleet and I believe the leases are up in the next year and the aircraft will be Lessor returned ASAP.
Bearing in mind some of the other requirements for the remaining 5 High Y aircraft such as multiple Bangkok's etc, it's no surprise and eventually I would assume MAN would go double 787-9 with a focus on slight yield improvement rather than sheer passenger numbers.
At peak times, flights MAN-AUH are £700+RT, but over the last year, I've had a couple of off peak flights in the £310-330 range. That's surely not sustainable??

Aaargh (shudders) 'down gauge' is not a word. And even if it was, aircraft size is not measured with a gauge :}
Seriously though, I imagine that Etihad are well aware of how many of their pax are connecting onto BOM and the new Jet Airways service is bound to impact on that.
From my perspective, the 'upgrade' on the morning service to a better aircraft would make it more of a contender for my future business

don't forget it is also a big downgrade in cargo revenue (an often overlooked side revenue). they will lose about 3xPMCs (up to 12ton) of space with 787 from the 777.

From a passenger perspective the 787 is better. Certainly in business where the 777/330 business hard product simply isn't that good anymore.

This afternoon's EY21 arrived with 412 pax and 17 tonnes of cargo. At least that one made a profit, one assumes!