Routing question

[Pilotinmydreams]

A colleague asked me about this and I have no answer so thought i'd ask.

A couple of years ago, he and his partner travelled to Dominica. I'm not sure of the carrier but the flight originated in Bristol and was scheduled to stop in Manchester and then on the Dominica. In Manchester, nobody got off, nobody got on and the flight shortly continued on to the destination. His question was why the short hop to Manchester when there was no pick up or drop off of passengers? Seems daft to put an extra cycle on the aircraft for nothing. There is no doubt a very simple answer but I just can't think of it.

[G&T ice n slice]

BRS Lulsgate rwy is 2011m

BRS-DCF is 4000mi/6500km

MAN rwy is 3048m

full load & full fuel unlikely ex BRS

[MerchantVenturer]

This sort of thing still happens.

In summer there is a weekly Thomson charter flight from BRS to Cancun in Mexico using Boeing 767 aircraft that stops at MAN outbound for fuel.

The weekly summer Thomson charter to Sanford, Florida also used to do the same but for the past two summers has managed it non stop though I believe that under certain weather conditions it might need an en route fuel stop but, and I stand to be corrected, I don't think it has been necessary in the past two years.

Presumably the reason is commercial - TOM could operate these flights from the longer Cardiff runway - and looking to the B787 which Boeing says will be able to operate to the likes of Mexico and Dominican Republic from the existing BRS runway without load penalty.

In the past the Thomson MD has said that BRS would be amongst the first group of UK airports to see the B787 once it was settled into TOM service, though the bulk of its work will clearly be at much bigger airports such as Gatwick and Manchester.

[Pilotinmydreams]

Thank you - yes a simple answer if you're in the know.