Cathay and Air Mauritius to pull out of MAN

[Bally Heck]

Yesterday's MAnchester Evening News reported that these two airlines are to leave MAN.

A Cathay spokesman said "No passenger figures are available, but we do know the route was not making a profit"

Cathay staff however are being retained at Manchester.

Is this a result of the Cathay pilot's actions or a permanant withdrawal??

[spannersatcx]

It is as a direct result of the 'pilots dispute', no matter what others will undoubtably say. The current plan is to resume flts from July next year, however should that not happen then people will lose their livelihoods as a direct result. I wonder if they (the pilots) would continue their dispute until those that may lose their livelihoods are reinstated, doubt it very much!

[Ex NAV]

the company line is that CX plan to restart in MAN in July with only 3 flights/week vice the daily service they operated. Best guess is that they will not restart MAN due low yield traffic.
Add - Air Mauritius pull out on 7th Jan 02 to concentrate on daily LHR - also sighted low yield - IS MALYSIAN NEXT??? :rolleyes:

[ 01 September 2001: Message edited by: Ex NAV ]

[The Ghost Who Walks]

CX has announced a new destination.
Riyadh, twice a week wef 28 Oct.
Spanners. Was the route profitable or not?
Facts please.

[dwlpl]

Others to note:

MALAYSIAN - to go, aircraft to be used KUL/CDG

BM - scaling back MAN/LHR because of competition from BA Shuttle

BA - moving 737's out of MAN, replacing them with 145 (CitiExpress)

AIR CANADA - handing over route to BM

AIR WALES - gone

MALEV - to go

[The Guvnor]

On the other hand, BWIA are supposedly coming into MAN from January next year!

[northern boy]

BM scaling down MAN LHR??.Oh god thats bad news for all non BA commuters.How long before the EMB 145 is put on the shuttle route with 20 seats for business only class pax?.

Thanks Midland and I thought you were commited to Manchester.

[Mr A Tis]

Nice wind up dwlpl !!!
Any evidence on your post ?

MALEV only started the route 8 weeks ago, they would have to have planned the demise, before it even started.

As for BMI LHR, they've had to up their flights to A321 to compensate for BA reduction into mini scarebuses.

As for CX, the route was never developed as planned ie direct services, even if reduced in frequency
I've travelled on their LHR service, almost had a 744 to myself onetime.

;)

[Ringwayman]

Cathay's passenger numbers ex-MAN were down 12% to around 32,000 for the first 5 months this year

Malaysian's operations averaged nigh on 600 passengers per round trip (just under 39,000 passengers - up 58%) in the same period (around 75% loads?).

Now if only Cathay had a non-stop service....

Ringwayman

[160to4DME]

Rarely have I read a thread containing so much codswallop.

Cathay have decided not to immediately resurrect the service for 2 reasons, those being that whilst being 50-odd flightdeck crew short, they cannot supply crews to maintain the service which involved crews doing a AMS-MAN-AMS or CDG-MAN-CDG shuttle service....far easy to terminate the services at AMS or CDG.
The second reason is the cost involved maintaining such a shuttle-style operation.
The official line is that loads are down just over 10% this year, but yields are steady.
The long term plan is still for a non-stop MAN-HKG service, using A340s, hopefully from April 2002 ( which is why, as BallyHeck commented, CX staff are being retained at MAN). The previous daily rotation will be reduced, however, to 5 per week.
This will infact provide an increase in seats available as there will no longer be a split load.

dwlpl, I take it from your handle, that you're from that other airfield to the west of MAN. I've rarely read such unsubstantiated crap :mad:
MAN is one of Malaysian's most profitable routes to Europe and there is a view to going daily as soon as the route justifies it. They did get their fingers burnt a little by doing the usual overbooking tactic most airlines use; they have found out to their cost that us tight fisted northerners normally turn up for a flight if we've paid for it; consequently on some occassions they've forked out a fortune compensating and re-routing people thru LHR.
BMI have absolutely no plans to scale back MAN-LHR.
Some BA 737s are leaving MAN, but being replaced by 145s and perhaps 146s. However, frequencies are being increased on many routes over the next 12 months. Whilst the 145 isn't necessarily the nicest aircraft (esp for Biz class), the changes will result in an INCREASE, rather than a decrease in the number of seats available.

Air Canada currently have no intention of "handing over" their route to BMI. Why build up a route only to give it to a competitor? The change, if it does happen, will be a result of Star Alliance politics, and again, replacing a B762 with an A330-200 will actually result in an INCREASE of seats available.

Air Wales....never saw the route advertised, no code share, pretty expensive; no wonder is didn't prosper.

Malev has enjoyed great success with its product to BUD, and the hope is that the route will be served with a B733 from spring 2002.

The Guv is correct when he says BeeWee are hoping to commence schedules into MAN from Jan 2002.

Air Jamaica are once again in negotiations for commencing service with A340s twice a week from March 2002.

Have also heard on the rumour mill that Air China have been sniffing around with the possibility of extending its Beijing-Helsinki B777 service to MAN. However, I HAVEN'T heard that from anyone reliable yet.

Regards

160

[ 01 September 2001: Message edited by: 160to4DME ]

[Sean99]

For the record, CA's BJS-HEL service is a codeshare operated by AY with an MD-11. Haven't heard anything about CA operating the route with their own aircraft. AY also flies HEL-MAN twice daily via ARN.

[rover2701]

sean99 and 160
are you both talking about the same airlines? Air China, State airline of Peoples Republic of China. China Airlines Taiwan based airline.

[ 02 September 2001: Message edited by: rover2701 ]

[AOG-YYZ]

160to4DME

there is actually some substance to what dwlpl is saying about Air Canada handing over the YYZ-MAN-YYZ route to British Midland. Local (YYZ) rumour has it that this is due to AC resurrecting the idea of a "Charter Operation" to compete with Transat and C3K on their European routes. And believe it or not, they (AC) are rumoured to be considering LPL instead of MAN for this charter op, and the reason for this, notwithstanding costs (MAN v LPL), is that this route is considered "Mothers and Daughters" traffic. This type of traffic does not need a transit airport. And your partly right, it is partly 'Star Alliance' politics but mostly economics. :)

[160to4DME]

I've also been told this afternoon that BA are seeking to make the MAN-LHR shuttle an all A319 operation, further reducing their seat availability on the route.

In what seems to me to be a real feather in the cap of it's direct rival on the route, BA are seriously considering farming out all their interline/connecting traffic on the route to BMI, leaving their own reduced capacity on the route for what they see as the more lucrative business market.

Seems a bit of a gamble to me, as personally, when faced with paying £190 for the standard BA Shuttle product or the BMI business product with a guaranteed empty seat next to me, I'll always go for the latter.

Can Rod's repositioning of BA upmarket really be applied to a flight so short ??

I have my doubts. :(

[Fly747]

You will soon see Hong Kong's other airline, Dragonair, flying into Manchester in its own right with their new (to them) 747-300SF. This will replace the Atlas wet leased aircraft and eventually lead to increased frequency.
For the spotters this aircraft will be reg. B-KAA and its first flight to MAN will be around the end of the month.