Why no MAN-NCL route?

[Mr A Tis]

Why hasn't anyone taken up this vacant route? Dan Air used to fly it with the Nord 262 and 748s. then Metropolitan did it with SH33s. More recently Gill Air with SH33 & 36s - up to 4 times a day at one point. The M62 & A1 can be a real ball ache at times,:{ You'd have thought BACX, Eastflight or even FLYBE would have jumped in by now:confused:

[BAe 146-100]

Hi,

Gill Air stopped the route because of low demand (I think). It must have been a very short flight.

BAe 146-100

[marlowe]

BACX dont seem to like domestic routes they seem to want to concentrate more on european destinations and besides if they jumped in anywhere chances are they would drown!!!!

[chiglet]

I think that the "City Centre-City Centre" is about the same by rail and by air......but rail is a bit cheeeper:D
we aim to please, it keeps the cleaners happy

[Shed-on-a-Pole]

The heyday of the MAN-NCL air route was prior to the opening of the Manchester Airport Rail Link. There is now an hourly service by rail from the airport to North-East England. A couple of trains per day go to Newcastle/Sunderland, the others terminate in Middlesbrough. But whatever your N.E. destination a quick change in York suffices. With a fast and, yes, generally reliable train on this route (and no check-in to consider) an air service would struggle to become established as a viable alternative. Peak-time runway slots can no doubt be more advantageously distributed also. But it's still a pain to acknowledge all this; I used the old Gill Air service on several occasions and remember it fondly.

[Mr A Tis]

Well the train takes a minimum of THREE hours & unless you book yonks in advance, you are looking at over £80 return per person, if you're lucky you can get a saver return for £53. This hardly rivals the car if there is more than one of you. In the meantime, I've booked BMI Baby to Prague for 15 quid each way.
Crazy transport system we have in the UK.

The old Gill Air sheds used to take about 45 mins to NCL, you'd of thought the Geordies could use a good connection to MANs longhaul routes, rather than LHR. on the other hand they would have to stand in a security queue for an hour or so.

Looks like the M62 is the best bet after all :sad:

[Shed-on-a-Pole]

In early July I paid approximately £47 for a Manchester-Newcastle return rail ticket, plus an extra £1.25 for an evening ranger extending the journey from Manchester Airport [same train, just saves a couple of quid!]. This ticket was purchased immediately prior to travel. It seems highly unusual to pay £80+ for this journey unless you were booking first class? The fares on this route have always seemed quite competitive to me. An airline would struggle to undercut this and still make money.

[johnwalton]

£83.80 is the price of a First Open Return.

£41.00 is the cheapest return fare for a ticket called a Super Advance (which you only need to book the day before travel, not yonks, in advance)

£52.30 is indeed the price of a standard class return bought on the day.

Baring in mind that for most people south of Newcastle (Durham, Darlington etc.) the journey time and fare is less than 3 hours, certainly when you consider that these people would have to travel 30-60 minutes just to get to NCL on top of the check-in and flight time, I think the train is comparable.

Also, considering if you buy the £52.30 return ticket, it allows you to come back by any train within a month of travelling out, I think that is invaluable when your flight into MAN could be delayed. No airline could offer a return ticket like that for that amount of money.

[Mr A Tis]

Let me know which web site you use for these fares. Every time I've tried to book a week in advance, it says the cheapo fare are NOT available on the services selected, £80+ is rthe price quoted for standard 2nd class.
The best ever I've had quoted is £53, with 3 train changes.:sad:

[Frankfurt_Cowboy]

.... if there's one thing worse than a plane spotter it's a train spotter!!!

[johnwalton]

I just happen to work for National Rail, i'm no train spotter! :)

Try going down to your local station or calling 08457 225 225 and talking to someone instead of using the net.

If you do use the net go to www.nationalrail.com, and use TheTrainLine interface.

Just put in some random dates, and there was an abundance of trains@ 41 quid

from NEWCASTLE
to MANCHESTER AIRPORT
outward 18/09/2003 10:09
return 22/09/2003 10:28
SUPER ADVANCE RETURN GBP41.00