...and both just temporary arrangements I expect

hope so but as Turkey is in lockdown and in Englands Red list could be a while

Remains to be seen how quick they can get the infections under control and the vaccinations up.

Hopefully it will be short stint in the same vein as Portugal.

MAG Stats April 2021
 

April 2021 Pax

Stansted – 84,553 up 517.5%

Manchester – 82,218 up 244%

East Midlands – 78 up 32.2%


12m rolling end 30.04.21

Stansted – 3,140,402 down 87.2%

Manchester – 2,899,742 down 88.8%

East Midlands – 413,340 down 89.9%


April 2021 Cargo

East Midlands – 40,439 up 48.8%

Stansted – 23,519 up 26.0%

Manchester – 3,830 up 288.2%

FR new route MAN-VRN
 

New route for Ryanair. Manchester-Verona twice weekly (Wed & Sun) from beginning of July.

Great to see some more choice on this route to what is a beautiful part of north-east Italy. Great for the Opera Festival at the Arena di Verona as well.

Emirates
 

Emirates have operated the A380 on the lunchtime flight today and yesterday,

Anyone know the reason behind this, obviously not cargo related as more goes onto the B777, and can not think many passengers, UAE still on red list? very limited restrictions into Australia/New Zealand and India/Pakistan/Bangledesh and majority of Africa on red list

All of the 777s are operating a full schedule, so some flights need to be operated by A380s. Worth noting that the A380 can carry a significant amount of cargo when not carrying (m)any passengers/bags.

Interesting MAN gets the A380 when many capital cities still don`t and also a few 777 have recently left the airline

On the face of it yes, in reality, no. Remember that MAN’s market is of a similar size to many European capitals and MAN features(d) in the top 10 routes for all of the ME3. On that basis, it’s not surprising.

It's surprising in that it routes DXB-MAN devoid of any passengers and unless the return capacity outstrips a full B77W you gotta ask why they're using an A380. It may well be for crew training as the ramp up begins? What's the MAN-DXB load factor running at for May?

Actually, in times where there is no route on the planet that warrants an A380, it’s better to send them on the routes with little to no passengers so they can carry a useful freight load. Putting them on routes where they could get a passenger load of 50-60% but on a reduced frequency, the freight capacity would be down massively. Whereas a 77W could easily carry 20-30 tons of cargo in addition to half a load, and can carry a good 50-60 tons on freight only services.

In reality, Emirates is probably wishing some of those A380s were 787s right now, but that’s what they have to play with.

In answer to your last question, this Wednesday’s MAN-DXB had 139 pax and Thursday’s had 87. For comparison, Etihad carried 11 passengers on both days.

Blue Island

Thought there might of been a mini boom in UK domestics.
The Blue Island re-introduction of MAN EXT in June was 12 x a week- now only 3 x a week.
The Blue Island planned June start of MAN-SOU also 12 x a week- is postponed in its entirety until 31st August (frequency unknown). Good news for Eastern on that one, I think.

Last time Blue Islands served MAN (about a decade ago?) they got the blues pretty quick. It's grim up north! But that was when FlyBe were around to eat their prawn sandwiches. Now the field may be clearer. I hope it works out - I wish they still had the Trislanders, though.

Long way on a Trislander and would give some serious ear damage

"The Unseen World of International Air Cargo" - with the Head of MAG Cargo.
Surely one for Navpi?
https://event.on24.com/eventRegistra...epage=register

Current planning at Cathay has the daily service from Hong Kong to resume from 31st October 2021. Of course, anything can happen between now & then.

No, they are just historical routes, and will be cancelled in due course, this summer the schedule was there as normal and cancelled prior to commencement, initially prior to each month starting, and then the whole of the summer schedule was cancelled. LHR has just ramped up to 5 a week, from the previous 5 per day, and going daily from July. Plus almost all at MAN were made redundant!
I could be wrong, and I do hope so, but don't see it happening this year. You can't even get in HKG unless you have residency, and have to currently isolate for 21 days! Plus it's a red route so only essential travel from/to the UK. You may see a few student flts, that's about it at the moment. Sad times indeed.

Sad times indeed Spanners. The info came from Customer services in HKG & the flights CX219 is bookable from that date. Obviously, they can easily be cancelled & bookings moved to LHR. (My other half lives in HKG & we've been separated for 16 months). BTW Hong Kong is on the UK Amber list not red.

Customer Services can only go on what's open in the booking system and we've seen how that rolls further out every month since Mar-20.

We can but hope, amber or red neither here nor there as you still have to isolate for e 21 days in HKG if you can get in 😮 at the moment.