flymco753 wrote:

Just got on to check, DTW is removed completely from their destination page, it must have been a mistake.

No, still there



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In other related news, there is a full feature on the new VS routes herehttp://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/virgin-atlantic-boss-slams-air-11583364 and a new Virgin Holidays shop in the Trafford Centre here http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-news/virgin-holidays-launches-200000-flagship-11571210 which includes this bit of info.. " We are turning Manchester into much more of a hub for both Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays. Manchester is a huge important area for us as a quarter of our business comes from this part of the world. "

And out of thr left field we have..... SQ appying for daily slots on SIN-MAN-IAH routing and timings indicate there will be 1 hour when SQ62 and SQ61 will be on the ground. MUC will now be an end pint so no more getting on a 77W for internal European 5th freedom flights

David_itl wrote:

be an end pint

That friday feeling??

From the Evening News, annual total now 24 million http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-news/manchester-airport-passenger-numbers-hits-11606223

"June saw 2.5 million passengers fly through the gateway, which is a 9.22 per cent increase on the same month last year.

That brings the moving annual total for Manchester Airport to 24,095,206."

Annual profits are out and the group made £415 million pre-tax http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-news/manchester-airport-announces-record-profits-11606922

Vueling have applied for a base at Manchester with the ACL slot holders.

Would be 2 A320 from 1st March and have applied for 2300 weekly slots, which equates to 40 based one way flights per week (taking out the current non based flights to BCN/ALC/TFS/FCO), this approx 5 based flights per day.

Will watch with interest.

Very specific hit list released by the airport for the next 11 long-haul routes.

Shanghai= Air China within next year
Delhi and Mumbai = Air India rep said they were considering launching Manchester flights.
Houston, San Diego and Detroit. IAH = Singapore Airlines. DTW = Delta or Virgin. SAN = ? Possibly Thomas Cook
Cape Town and Johannesburg = Thomas Cook?
Addis Ababa = Ethiopian
Bangkok = NokScoot (moderately likely) or Thai (unlikely). More than 200,000 people fly indirectly from Manchester to Bangkok every year.
Muscat= Oman Air already announced for next year

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-airport-routes-new-destinations-11609712

So the 1st of the 11 anticipated routes has arrived.

SQ launches SIN-MAN-IAH from October 30th.

There will be 3 days a week when there is the potential to get a T2 shot of 2 SQ 77Ws at MAN.

SQ52 ops: arrive 09:00 depart 10:15 (Not Monday or Thursday)
SQ51 ops: arrive 10:05 depart 11:35 (Not Tuesday or Friday)

SQ52 is SIN-MAN-IAH
SQ51 is IAH-MAN-SIN

We're in the midst of a daily A330 from TK on the IST run. It's varying between TK1993/4 and TK1995 - appears to TK1993/4 then TK1995/6 then TK1993/4 then TK1995/6 etc

So hot on the heels of SQ and UA launching codeshares out of IAH, we had SQ announcing SIN-MAN-IAH. Today, BE and SQ have signed a codeshare deal - it's not just the usual glut of MAN routes that they are doing, they are also doing AMS, CDG and DUS. BE is definitely turning into the "go to" airline for codesharing out of MAN. I do hope that the airline due to reveal a new long-haul route to MAN next March will also join in. It's only taken 23 years for the "Manchester Connects" promotion to lead to the impressive list of growing connecting opportunities for regional Britain away from LHR. Article here

http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/news/article/singapore-airlines-signs-uk-partnership-with-flybe/


___

Couple of days ago, Ken O'Toole from MAG did this opinion piece in the Evening News
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-opinion/airports-success-boost-whole-north-11662548

Couple of stand out lines:
"Manchester Airport alone generates £1.7bn annually in economic value across the North West and currently supports 21,500 jobs on site and a further 45,000 indirectly."

"As well as Beijing, our new route to San Francisco with Virgin Atlantic, which starts next year, will also deliver a significant benefit to businesses across the north and is a further example of a route which is only available at Manchester outside of London. This is a perfect illustration of a long-haul flight service that will be integral to driving growth in the sectors identified in the recently-launched Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review as having the potential to deliver the biggest boost to the north as a whole."

I've not seen the economic value of MAN put like that before and it's also good to see the joined-up thinking of getting the "Northern Powerhouse" and developing air links intertwined.

http://www.thenational.ae/business/avia ... g-it-large

MAN goes all A380 with EK from 1st January 2017 when EK21/22 will be upgraded.

The July passenger figures have been announced and they are a quite impressive 2.8 million passengers, up 10% on July 2015. It's also pleasing to see that increase is on the back of an 11% increase in movements with freight also showing up well at 10,118 tonnes handled, up 14%

The moving annual figures are showing 24.3 million - I'm anticipating that MAN will be just shy of 25 million passengers for the year so not quite into the major league of airports. Perhaps around 24.8 million passengers is the level we're at and with planned routes for next year, something like 26 million passengers is not out of question provided there is no economic downturn.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-news/record-number-people-flew-manchester-11734153

The timings for Oman Air:

WY105 1405 MCT 1920 MAN
WY106 2050 MAN 0730 MCT

Daily B788 from 1st April.

Delta Detroit-Manchester 5 weekly from 25th May to be announced late September.

With Detroit, this means Manchester has access to 15 USA destinations (JFK/EWR/BOS/ORD/IAD/PHL/ATL/MIA/SFB/MCO/LAS/LAX/SFO/IAH) which is more than many large European cities such as Dublin, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Brussels, Copenhagen and Stockholm. Not bad for a regional airport sharing the same island with the mega hub that is Heathrow!

Rumours that Thomas Cook could also announce San Diego for S18, it would be a rather impressive network.

Was very impressed with the airport on Sunday 31st July. Very quick check in and transfer through security.

Not quite so impressed in the early hours of this morning taking 40 minutes to get through passport control at 1:05am!

Generally impressed with Manchester, even though we didn't get the 787 on either flight, which was the main reason to use MAN rather than EMA.

Norwegian have announced a further 2 routes from Manchester this winter.

Gran Canaria begins 30th October and runs 2 weekly.
Tenerife South begins 1st November and also runs 2 weekly.

So far, this makes Norwegian 17 weekly from Manchester with 7 destinations. Barcelona does make it 8 destinations in total but doesn't look like it will run over the winter period.

Can't believe how quiet this thread has become, had to go back to page 8 to find this!

Anyway,

Virgin have increased Boston to 3 weekly when it launches next summer. There will be an extra flight on Fridays when the 6th based aircraft joins the base in July 17.

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Thomas Cook look to be launching Cape Town next winter, as this is appearing in GDS but no flights to view at this time:



It looks like they could also be launching Mauritius too, as that is also showing in GDS as a non stop flight option.

------------------------------------------------------

Manchester was expecting 390,000 passengers through the doors this weekend. One of its busiest 4 day periods in its history.

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Turkish sending a few A330's on the MAN flights in the next 2 weeks, including today and Sunday 4th Sept where 2 of the 3 daily flights will be with the A330.

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Work on airport expansion continues. The Amazon warehouse is nearly fitted out, the 3rd large warehouse 'Alpha' is well under cost fiction and work moving the staff car park away from the site so that apron expansion can commence is underway. Autumn should see some spades in the ground with terminal expansion.

Virgin have increased Boston to 3 weekly when it launches next summer. There will be an extra flight on Fridays when the 6th based aircraft joins the base in July 17.

6 aircraft? Wow, didn't think it would be that many. Are you able to breakdown which VS aircraft are going to be based at MAN next year? Will any of them be doing W flights from LHR/LGW?

8herveg wrote:

Virgin have increased Boston to 3 weekly when it launches next summer. There will be an extra flight on Fridays when the 6th based aircraft joins the base in July 17.

6 aircraft? Wow, didn't think it would be that many. Are you able to breakdown which VS aircraft are going to be based at MAN next year? Will any of them be doing W flights from LHR/LGW?

BOS at 3x weekly makes sense. Its the minimum needed to convince business travellers to use the nonstop and build more of a premium customer build.

The A330s for sure can be W'd and swapped with LHR based aircraft via the ATL route which is already done at the moment.

In my honest opinion, Detroit to Manchester was all a rumor, and will not be happening at the time being. Delta can invest in other TATL destinations from Detroit at the moment that would simply, make more sense.

thedetroitpole wrote:

In my honest opinion, Detroit to Manchester was all a rumor, and will not be happening at the time being. Delta can invest in other TATL destinations from Detroit at the moment that would simply, make more sense.

I am sure DTW-MAN is on the DL horizon, but probably not immediately, and certainly probably put off for a while in light of Brexit and the potential decline in outbound demand, of which makes up the majority of MAN routes.

I am sure DL/VS will monitor how the increased capacity and route portfolio performs out of MAN once SFO and BOS start. JFK is also getting increased summer time capacity switching to the VS A330, and likely most destinations that you can connect through DTW , can also be done by JFK and ATL combined.

AA100 wrote:

thedetroitpole wrote:

In my honest opinion, Detroit to Manchester was all a rumor, and will not be happening at the time being. Delta can invest in other TATL destinations from Detroit at the moment that would simply, make more sense.

I am sure DTW-MAN is on the DL horizon, but probably not immediately, and certainly probably put off for a while in light of Brexit and the potential decline in outbound demand, of which makes up the majority of MAN routes.

I am sure DL/VS will monitor how the increased capacity and route portfolio performs out of MAN once SFO and BOS start. JFK is also getting increased summer time capacity switching to the VS A330, and likely most destinations that you can connect through DTW , can also be done by JFK and ATL combined.

Eventually my friend, in the international department, Manchester and Detroit are becoming very strong links. The Delta A330-200 would easily make the cut in the future, in my opinion.

British Airways to open an 11 weekly Manchester-Bremen flight from 31st October, using their Sun Air subsidiary.

Thomas Cook to launch Manchester-San Fransisco from May 2017, as well as increase Los Angeles to 3 weekly and New York JFK to daily.

This means that after years of no service to the west coast, we now have 8 flights per week to both LAX and SFO with 2 carriers.

What's the likelihood of VS starting MAN-LAX to compete with TCX? Or even MAN-MIA? I'm surprised AA haven't brought back MIA-MAN actually.

8herveg wrote:

I'm surprised AA haven't brought back MIA-MAN actually.

I think most of the pax for this route will be UK originating so given the choice of AA or TCX, TCX would be the one with stronger brand recognition. I can't see there being much in the way of demand MIA end, where AA will be the stronger brand.

azz767 wrote:

8herveg wrote:

I'm surprised AA haven't brought back MIA-MAN actually.

I think most of the pax for this route will be UK originating so given the choice of AA or TCX, TCX would be the one with stronger brand recognition. I can't see there being much in the way of demand MIA end, where AA will be the stronger brand.

True, but couldn't you say that about pretty much every US destination served from MAN? I can't imagine there is a single route which sees more Americans visiting MAN than MAN pax visiting America...Plus AA has great connections to South America where there are no flights to/from MAN.

I would say Virgin routes to LAX and MIA are entirely possible based on the following reasons.

LAX

-DL hub to be able to connect on to the Trans Pacific stuff offering an alternative kangaroo route and Hawaii
-decent tourism spot in its own right, and with a growing media hub in Salford as well as Disney studios in nearby Warrington, could attract *some* of the red carpet traffic that London seems to have in bucket loads.

MIA

-Caribbean connections, cruise traffic and can be used to backfil LAX in aircraft utilisation.

The ones to watch are Norwegian. Jet2 have been asked to park aircraft in their new hangar overnight to free up stands at T1 for a new based operator next summer. Given Norwegian now serve 8 routes from MAN and have said MAN will see more, and being a T1 user, it could be DY/D8.

8herveg wrote:

What's the likelihood of VS starting MAN-LAX to compete with TCX? Or even MAN-MIA? I'm surprised AA haven't brought back MIA-MAN actually.

It's hard to say, but part of me suspects MIA is more likely than LAX, but I don't really know.

Interesting that TCX have announced MAN-SFO. It's good to see a selection of new routes announced and it'll be interesting to see how the competition between TCX and VS pans out. I just hope there's demand for these routes that'll be enough to support both airlines as, for the likes of the US West Coast and Boston, these are the sort of routes that's been called for for some time. It'll be a shame if this is the feast before the famine if neither airline can make it work.

azz767 wrote:

8herveg wrote:

I'm surprised AA haven't brought back MIA-MAN actually.

I think most of the pax for this route will be UK originating so given the choice of AA or TCX, TCX would be the one with stronger brand recognition. I can't see there being much in the way of demand MIA end, where AA will be the stronger brand.

Or to put another perspective on things, VS has brand recognition on both sides of the Atlantic and the DL joint venture for feed/US-based demand.

I am curious to see what BA/AA do over the coming years. Surely they don't want to risk losing the MAN-transatlantic market to VS/DL and TCX (and D8 if they decide to launch long-haul routes from MAN) if all they can offer besides JFK, PHL and seasonal ORD is connections via LHR or DUB? If US pre-clearance comes to the redeveloped T2, that will wipe out one of the claimed benefits of flying EI via DUB. Similarly with UA as SQ announcing IAH will no doubt attract those with Star Alliance/UA FF memberships.

It is good to see the continued expansion of a number of airlines, and airline groups, operations at MAN.

For a number of years following the GFC, there has been the perception that the MAN-USA market has been underserved, fuelled in part by the demise of BMI and the withdrawal of BA long haul flying from MAN.

This now seems to be correcting it's self, with long term expansion to other parts of the globe, most notably by the MEB3, the reappearance of CX and new operators like HU the picture is pretty rosy heading east. SQ have recently decided to route SIN-IAH via MAN, with further expansion (e.g to daily) probable.

Heading west has been less certain but is currently heading in the right direction, driven by TCX and VS expanding their MAN bases from bucket and spade routes to business hubs like JFK, ATL, LAX and SFO.

As noted above, they might be joined by D8, and it is being widely speculated that BA/AA are keeping their options open with regard to a MAN base. Clearly USPBC would be a major advantage.

Whilst this growth is good to see, there is the danger of an impending bloodbath. Certain routes are marginal/seasonal and to go from no west coast routes to possibly 4 separate airlines operating those routes within 2 or so years is a big leap. Whether one of those 4 can make a genuine hub operation (outside of BE) work at MAN remains to be seen.

The disappointing North American market is Canada. AC mainline had a short period this summer, but most routes are seasonal on AC Rouge and TS. Hopefully this will change over the next couple of years.

There may well be some growing pains, but even if a new runway for the South East were approved today, it is likely to take 15-25 years to realise and in that time a number of these new/proposed routes are likely to become established as time moves on.

With specific regard to VS, I could see LAX and MIA appear in S18. MIA would be used to rotate an aircraft off a west coast route (I.e. MAN-LAX-MAN-MIA-MAN over a 48 hour period).

3 new routes from Monarch next summer.

Stockholm and Oporto, which will both be served on Thu/Fri/Sun from 28th April 2017.

The 'gem' route in the trio however, is Zagreb. This is currently an unserved route for Manchester, and will be served 2 weekly on Monday and Saturday from 29th April 2017.

5 new RYR routes next summer with 44 altogether. Berlin, Hamburg, Nuremburg, Oslo and Wroclaw are the latest.

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/ryan ... ester-6721

Anyone else here about WFS withdrawing from MAN? I also heard ASIG is going too

David_itl wrote:

Very specific hit list released by the airport for the next 11 long-haul routes.

Bangkok = NokScoot (moderately likely) or Thai (unlikely). More than 200,000 people fly indirectly from Manchester to Bangkok every year.


http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-airport-routes-new-destinations-11609712

Further to this, the Thai tourist board have commenced a marketing campaign in Manchester.

This marketing campaign appears to be sponsored by... Thai Airways.

Some tidbits now the thread has made it to the front page again:

Vueling have made the Barcelona route daily year round from the 10th April. The route is year round anyway, but, at a lower frequency, with daily only available 20th June-5th Sept normally.

---------------------

Easyjet have uploaded until June on their website.

-Hamburg increases from 5 weekly to 10 weekly. This is interesting in that Eurowings will also increase capacity next summer from 12 weekly CRJ900 to 12 weekly A319/320. Ryanair have also introduced a daily Hamburg.
-Berlin rises from 8 to 13 weekly. Again, Ryanair have recently introduced a daily Berlin flight
-Athens rises from 3 to 4 weekly as well as some other routes up by 1/2 flights a week.

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Bmi regional will be returning to Manchester next summer in the form of a Saturday's only charter to Cagliari. Aircraft operates a W pattern from their Bristol base.

-------------------------

Keep your eyes peeled for 21st October. MAN boss Charlie Cornish is speaking about connectivity to Shanghai with 'news of further links to the city'.

Aegean will increase Manchester ops next summer, rising from 3 peak summer to 4 weekly. Flights will be Tue/Wed/Fri/Sat.

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vueling will further increase Manchester-Barcelona flights with the use of an A321 on all flights from 2nd July, up from the previously used A320. Alicante has its Tuesday flight moved to Wednesday and Rome moves from an afternoon flight to a morning flight.

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Emirates kicked off its 3rd daily A380 flight on Friday. Load was reported at 513 with just 3 F and 1 J seat unoccupied. 3rd A380 runs until 29th Oct before being a permanent feature on 1st January.

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Thomson's series of charters to Dubai (DWC) that run this winter will not be returning next winter. The cruise that it joins on to has not sold well so the ship will be moved to the Dominican Republic. The new route to Santa Clara however, will be year round instead of just summer seasonal.

Phuket and Mauritius will return, indicating satisfactory sales.

Air Canada rouge increasing YYZ-MAN to daily 30th June-28th September.

Thomson will introduce a new link to La Romana next winter, to link up with the new home port on one of their cruises.

Manchester Airport is doing well with getting new routes every year, but what is causing is? What is the maximum capacity of Manchester Airport?

I suppose we can cut the possibility of Manchester to Detroit happening any time soon?

NichCage wrote:

Manchester Airport is doing well with getting new routes every year, but what is causing is? What is the maximum capacity of Manchester Airport?

Capacity something like 30 million passengers at the moment but with the renovation plans completed fully, it should be around the 50 to 55 million level in perhaps 8 to 10 years. As for what's causing it, just the general economic conditions around the catchment area with a number of hi-tech industries now established with average salaries on the rise (I wish mine was, ha!) . Still got an awful lot of route expansion over the next couple of years... I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are 10 new long-haul routes announced in the next 6 to 12 months, one or two of airlines involved will be very surprising! As for the more local scene, possibly a couple new airlines basing equipment and the existing carriers looking to add 1 or 2 aircraft each. It's going to very interesting to see how they marry increased passenger throughput with the mass upheaval in the terminals.

The success of Manchester is a mix of the area it serves and probably down to the dithering of the London runway capacity.

To the outside world, Manchester is probably a small regional airport, but the area it serves and the cogs in those areas actually make it a decent tour de force.

At the moment, we are looking at just over 25m passengers this year, with Emirates in particular on target to carry 1m of those passengers alone, but, there is still plenty to come.

Thomas Cook are to announce Cape Town, San Diego, Mauritius and Sanya in 2017, Air China coming in March, Air India in May, Norwegian long haul in May, and there is just the small matter of getting Bangkok going as it's the 3rd largest unserved long haul route in the world at over 200,000 indirect passengers per year (according to OAG).

The airport in its current form can handle 50m passengers per year, but at the moment, even the hardiest will admit the current terminal infrastructure isn't up to scratch, So March sees the new Terminal break ground with the benefit of US pre clearance, so, hopefully things will continue to grow.

Brexit may throw out a few challenges, but, we have no choice but to continue onwards.

Is Norwegian long haul a guess or was something announced?

Norwegian have publicly said in the last week there will be flights from Manchester to New York next year for £200 return.

User001 wrote:

Thomas Cook are to announce Cape Town, San Diego, Mauritius and Sanya in 2017, Air China coming in March, Air India in May, Norwegian long haul in May, and there is just the small matter of getting Bangkok going as it's the 3rd largest unserved long haul route in the world at over 200,000 indirect passengers per year (according to OAG).

I fly to Thailand twice a year, so it would be great if there was a direct option, with those passenger numbers it's clear that there is a market for it.

Any news on Oman air? Not heard a peep since they unilaterally announced MCT - MAN ages ago. Weren't they meant to be starting in April? MAN isn't even an option on their website still.

Oman Air have just started advertising jobs at Manchester Airport for passenger facing roles, so ticket sales should be any day now.

thedetroitpole wrote:

I suppose we can cut the possibility of Manchester to Detroit happening any time soon?

For S17 I think yes.

For S18 it may be in play.


As a general point it is encouraging to see interest by full service carriers at MAN. As David has said, managing increases whilt redeveloping over half of the airport facilities will be an interesting challenge.

I think MAN deserves a lot of credit for the way it continues to grow, developing its route network, airline options, and based units. All to tie in with the transformation plan it all looks promising. For me, the biggest challenge for MAN over the next 3-4 years will be the stand space whilst the initial building work takes place. With it being tight already its going to be a squeeze with I imagine a loss of stands when the building work takes place

The way the building work will take place, the number of actual stands should be about the same, but the loss of contact stands in the initial phases will be the issue.

The way it *should* happen all going well is the following:

-new apron on staff west with more stands.

-building west of T2 with the first of the new finger piers. This is likely to be the new USPBC pier (it will be mixed mode, USPBC in the morning and until about 3pm, then use for non-USA flights there after.

-once the second finger pier starts construction, the satellite at the end of C pier will starting to get demolished.

-dual taxiway construction will take place around this time too.

-piers 3 and 4 built once the satellite on C pier has gone.


There is also a further construction planned for times towards the end of the build, yet unannounced officially, that the land around the AVP will also become stands and more maintence facilities, as well as a refurb of T3, but as said, that is a while off yet.

MAN's Position on LHR R3

From BBC news, the main message of which was general indifference as LHR has a dwindling influence on MAN.

Apparently the transit traffic via LHR has diminished from 25% to 20% over the last few years. The reporter made reference to the variety of tailfins (CX, DL, PK, SV) made it clear that MAN is already connected to the world and is connected to all the other big hubs (a reference to three EK flights per day) but mentioned that it was different for other regional airports in the north (Newcastle).

MAN's attitude was summed up as we are doing alright on our own, we have very good international connections, it is interesting to see what's happening at LHR but its not too important to here. We have huge expansion plans (the TP) and many more international flights are planned so it wont hinder growth here. There was a reference to the timescale of R3 - it will take a long time even in a best case scenario - and over that time MAN will continue to grow.