Yeah, fair point - movements aren't as down as much as seat capacity.

MAN gets the A350-1000's as well, though the "beachfleet" ones in the leisure-heavy configuration.

Two A350-1000 a day at present at least some days

The thing is, us Northerners are canny, we know value for money and we can smell a rip off. I recently flew to Australia and back on SQ out of MAN. Great flights and on-board service. I looked at Premium Economy but it was twice the price of Y class. I didn't even bother looking at Business. Even on a long trip like mine the extra I would pay for the marginal benefit of a premium seat would buy me not just a lot of beer, but another whole holiday. Who in their right mind is going to do that? Airline X may lose out on my bum in their pointy end big seat, but airline Y gets my bum as well, on another flight. So everyone's a winner. Let the southerners pay lots more for their seats, I'll drink their health with a beer on the money I've saved. Savvy Northerners don't need a Clubhouse. There's Wetherspoons!

But not eveyone has to pay for their own ticket. Quite often it's their employer. Even in the North.

Yes we can be quite canny like you say, but taking the Singapore example, I was looking at flights next year to Houston to join up with a cruise from Galveston. Most 1 stop flights I was looking at around £600ish in economy. And then I found Singapore were selling premium economy for £1000 return.

Sure it's £400 more but to me, as the flight is part of the holiday and I'm able to adjust my budget to pay this extra then yes I will go premium. Not all Northerners like to save money this way, some of us like to splash out our hard earned cash on little luxuries....

Indeed, however a combination of the post Covid realisation that with Teams and Zoom many meetings can be conducted without the need for an air ticket and the almost obligatory corporate "net zero" policies mean the amount of ɓusiness travel is down and likely won't recover to pre-covid level. As technology develops it may indeed decline further.

Yes, my previous post was a little tongue in cheek but not altogether untrue. Northerners are more likely to be paying for their own air tickets, the funding being more a result of self-employment and entrepreneurialism than government and corporate travel accounts. You only have to take a drive around places like the commuter towns of Cheshire, bordering Manchester and Liverpool, plus parts of those city centres now, to see that there is no shortage of wealth in areas of the North. The people who drive the flashy cars through Alderley Edge will be sitting in the pointy end of aeroplanes, no doubt. I would venture to say that premium travellers being mainly business travellers is no longer true. I think they are just as likely to be baby-boomer leisure travellers with big pensions and property wealth, taking those dream trips abroad. Certainly that was the view of the Emirates staff in MAN a few years back when I was working there.

I’m quite often on EK and Singapore out of Manchester and Business cabin is still full generally, and I have noticed it filling up post Covid.

Teams / Zoom I find are ok for pretty general discussion but more important stuff definitely needs a visit in person we find. As for who my fellow passengers are I would say a mixture of business and high end holidays traffic and indeed there has been the inevitable football players and families occasionally though the only ones I remember was Ferdinand who had family with him and Nanny, who was excellent,

Cheers
Mr Mac

I stand to be corrected, but they are not all being replaced. Some have been removed completely and only a handful are being replaced. On the plus side, they have fixed the escalators to/from the Metrolink in the station, these have been out of service for about a year.

I know we always want more, but I have to say after the fiasco of the last couple of years, since the changes at leadership level with Ken o’toole and Chris Woodroofe taking up new roles, things seem to be actually getting done at MAN. Yes they could be getting done better or quicker, but at least they’re getting done.

We’re also getting some freight back which is great, and I’m sure more new routes and airlines will follow over the coming months both PAX and freight. I’m just curious to see what the next steps are after pier 2 is built. T1 mothballed yes, and a lot of remote parking and bussing is inevitable but I can’t believe that pier 2 will be the end of the airside redevelopment. I just hope this positive momentum leads to further improvements and opportunity!

You are correct in that the current travelator’s between the station and T2 will be replaced between now and summer 2025.
As the skylink will close next year between T1 and the station, obviously these won’t be replaced.

Concerning the station itself, I’m not sure who is responsible but I know it’s not the airport.
For the metrolink side of the station maybe it’s TfGM…?

Roverman.
Drinking at Spoons isn't savvy, it's self abuse! 😁

It the airport responsibility, they own the site - it is partially managed by TfGM but they have been clear that MAG is responsible for the infrastructure of the bus side of the station. Not sure of the railways side, I'd guess a combo of Network rail & MAG.