5 or 6 Jet2 aircraft to go fron T1 to T2 will help matters

Aren't TCX penciled in for a move to T2 when the new extension opens ? - even with TCX/Jet2 moving Ops to T2, parking space will very limited across the airport for next summer. No doubt there will be further increases from RYR/Jet2/CFE/TCX etc.. in due course too.

As a consumer in the north-west, I don't feel today's announcement is as good as what everyone is making out. None of these are routes that Easyjet haven't served from the north-west before, or currently do.

Take for example Lisbon. That route actually has Easyjets highest load factor out of Liverpool (I know its not the be all and end all but a good sign of its success). They now appear to be discontinuing it from there and moving it to Manchester, where they will take on TAP and Ryanair. Not only do I have one less airport to choose from when flying to Lisbon but there's a risk TAP could reduce its frequency/withdraw.

This is nothing new, and a similar pattern with Bordeaux, Innsbruck etc. As a fare paying passenger I just feel competition and choice are being whittled down from this region a little bit each year (even with Blackpool closing a few years ago, not Easyjets fault!).

I know why they do it, get more of a monopoly on something you can charge more per seat!

On the other hand, as for Barcelona, Faro and Lanzarote, I think it might just make prices more competitive between Jet2 and Ryanair. Not likely to affect any legacy or smaller carriers. In that sense I suppose that type of competition will benefit the local consumer.

TUI have announced that they are starting direct flights from Manchester to Aqaba, Muscat, and Langkawi in Malaysia, I would imagine that LGK would even a seasonal destination, unsure about the other 2.

The CAA report is crap, i.e. so poorly written that it boarders on arbitrary. However, it seems MAN clearly has or has had issues with the handling of disabled passengers. It is also pretty clear that the airlines are probably even worse. I would guess that there are some airlines that are much worse than others and are also much less likely to be willing to pay for quality service at an airport. Smaller airports tend to do better, and this may be because they are 'minimum gauge' on the service, where as the larger airports are much more dependent on specific staffing levels. Incidentally, this isn't a survey and the CAA doesn't make directly, accessible reference to the passenger satisfaction survey results for individual airports, just the industry as a whole.

Northsky I think you will find that most of those routes were ex Monarch ones and have been crying out for someone to step in and take them on,
Easyjet were trying to get them up and going this year but it proved just too difficult so this should put us back where we were before the demise of Monarch
I am suprised they are moving the Lisbon from Liverpool but maybe they think they can make more money or they had a gap to fill

Ian

All depends on what MAN does with their capacity declarations. If the terminal is oversubscribed at specific times then some flights will have to move to other times. Incidentally, T2, according to the ACL S18 start report, is nowhere near it's declared passenger capacity for any point in the day, both arrivals and departures and 60 and 120 min capacities. T1 and T3 have times when they are either are or, very briefly, just over their capacities. Of course the MAN may be declaring way too much capacity, especially if the next phase is more disruptive.

EU1107/2006 removed the responsibility of PRM provision from airlines individually - who used to be able to contract with any of a range of competing suppliers - and handed that responsibility to airports, who by and large have contracted with a single supplier for their entire PRM requirements, the costs of which are then met by a PRM levy on every passenger's ticket. All of the airports assessed in this year's CAA report have a monopoly provider for PRM assistance so it's a level playing field - and one backed by EU regs - in that respect. I think there are a couple of airports where the operator provides the service with its own staff, but for the mostpart, it is contracted out to third parties who are then managed (or not) by the airport operator.

Having flown through MAN T3, EMA and STN all in the last month, there is a common theme through all three of a total lack of customer service. For balance, I've also flown through GLA, EDI, LHR, LGW too, all of which have been far better. I find the MAG airports to be poor in comparison. Security queues at all three are routinely longer than anywhere else; they are still paying people to shout at you for daring to look at your mobile phone when in the lengthy queue; there is a lack of airside seating particularly in MAN T3 and even basics like cleaning and toilet checks are poor - EMA this week was a disgrace. I don't know if they have someone in MAG responsible group-wide for security and customer services, but if they have, the individual needs to be replaced by someone competent. Other airports are managing infrastructure and big construction projects well, alongside delivering a customer experience on a day-to-day basis. Grand though MAG's future plans are - and I'm sure they will improve things - there are still several million passengers going through their airports in the meantime for whom the experiences are pretty grim. I'm not surprised they're bottom of every league table going - it reflects the customer reality of all three airports today.