What has that got to do with Bangladesh Biman's B787 operations?

East Pakistan / West Pakistan? Too soon?

A colleague coming out of Manchester this afternoon said there seemed to be some excitement re BA shuttle with Fire Crew attending and remote stand ? Any ideas on cause of the excitement as it was given increased spacing with other flight holding so I thought maybe break issues.

Cheers
Mr Mac

Confirmation.

Bangladesh plans to further expand operations to Rome FCO as it will use the airport as a refuelling stop on its services between Dhaka and Toronto YYZ. Currently, the carrier utilises Istanbul IST as its stopover point but has signalled plans to transfer to the Italian capital instead.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines now serves three destinations in Europe with Rome complementing London LHR and Manchester.

Just another loss to the British economy then . So so good at poking ourselves in the eye these days

https://shows.acast.com/green-list-t...-for-the-skies

Interesting interview with Simon Calder today.

Main Takes ;

320k pax this week end

Every month busiest since Oct.

Expecting busiest summer ever.

22m within 2 hour drive , catchment doesn't overlap with LHR. (Yes that tag line is back) 😁

11m in 1hr catchment

New security scanning machines this summer.

Loves competition with Liverpool and LBA.

200 destinations

Competing with likes of Copenhagen and Milan for Bangkok service.

Lots of tfr traffic today.

54 of 55 airlines moving to T2. Be interesting to see how that works ?

RYR remain T3

Intrigued he mentioned Bangkok.

As a side note ....
//www.agbi.com/retail/2023/09/middle-east-shoppers-surge-at-bicester-village

CheshireOaks is actually larger, you would think it would be a larger attraction than Bicester but you do wonder if CheshireOaks is geared up for massive foreign tourist influx.

Ryanair to remain at T3

Navpi
Slightly different shops between those two outlets, all discount but brands differ, with one being a little more expensive.

Cheers
Mr Mac

Bicester is the perfect location for the daily tour buses from London to and from Shakespeare land . Functions just like those Turkish tour buses to Cannakale and Ephesus that dump you in Denizli industrial estate carpet warehouses for hours. Drivers and Tour operators receive knock backs for the captive trade generated.

Rutan 16
A quick check on stores confirms the Bicester outlet has higher niche stores and products, or should I say perceived to be for me. For example Breitling Watches and Alexandra McQueen clothing are both very expensive items.

These sort of names attract a number of people especially from Far East and indeed China to shop there. it’s location also helps as you say.

Cheers
Mr Mac

Maybe the Trafford Centre or Manchester then 😁
Btw both brands are freely available in Selfridges in the City centre and the Trafford centre.

On a theme why not have Chinese students from Manchester University Liverpool, Uni, Chester Uni as hosts working P/T thee places TC, CheshireOaks etc.

Bicester has Chinese signage etc and appears more geared up to the offer and appears more receptive re governance, hosts etc.

Swap medieval Chester or North Wales Castles for William Shakespeare and job done.The Chinese love English Literature.

Last time i went to The Lakes i popped into a couple of locations featuring Beatrix Potter. The World Of Beatrix Potter at Windermere was absolutely rammed with Chinese tourists, i counted 10 coaches in the coach park all with Chinese script in the drivers windscreen, there were 2 more at Hill Top House where she lived further up Windermere. Two more arrived as we left so they were coming and going all the time.

We have a multitude of attractions up here but in my view simply don't have the guile to exploit. No doubt they all came from London.

It needs joined up thinking between the Chinese tour companies and our tourist hotspots plus airlines, MAN airport, coach companies, retail outlets and hoteliers to provide an over arching offer that fully competes with London.

10 years back and before the dreaded C word struck , Wendy Wu Tours (largest agency in China), were going to buy a hotel in Manchester as a Northern transit point for Chinese tourists. The idea was bringing in pax to LHR to see attractions up here and Scotland but then depart from MAN, with same in reverse.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/chinese-entrepreneur-unveils-plans-hotel-7763546

it needs that sort of re invention.

It can be done and should be done. There are so many places that need to be pushed like Chatsworth, Lyme Hall etc etc

Out of curiosity I have just been perusing the Visit Britain website in various European languages (sadly Chinese is beyond me!) and unsurprisingly it is overwhelmingly London centric.

The only way for England outside London to punch to its weight is for the mayors and local authorities to join forces to sell England from Birmingham northwards agressively. Waiting for Visit Britain to do something isn't the answer. Interesting the Yorkshire website is pretty good, proving that it can be done.

It's Japanese tourists who frequent Beatrix Potter attractions. Her books are massive in Japan.

These were definitely Chinese, but happy to take Japanese as well 😁 this from a few years back...

Every year more than 70,000 visitors from Japan flock to the Lakes, many because of its links with Beatrix Potter, creator of The Tales Of Peter Rabbit, which are enormously popular in the far east.

Thai already serve Copenhagen and resume Milan in July.

Thai has served CPH-BKK for a long time. I flew that route two years ago !!! (It was £1,000 cheaper in business class from CPH over flying from LHR). Cheshire Oaks is rammed everyday- not sure there is capacity there for even more "shoppers".

Is Cheshire Oaks an arboretum? Do they have other species of trees???

https://avherald.com/h?article=516c9dfd&opt=0

Definitely popular with the Japanese too. Was there a few years ago standing in a car park outside the shop at the southern end of the Lakeside and Haverthwaite steam railway with our 2 dogs when about 50 Japanese tourists got off the train. Next thing I knew they had surrounded us (at a respectful distance) and were taking pictures of the dogs. Some even got brave enough to come and pretend to pat them (they were still a few feet away)! Seems that a golden retriever and vizsla are unusually big dogs for city dwellers over there!

Sorry - bit of a thread drift there!