TRANSPORT | Airport

[doka..dan]

Originally Posted by LocksRocks

Does anyone have any renders or details on the expansion at Terminal 2?
There has been news reports about the increase to 18m capacity for some time but I've not seen any plans. Was there a masterplan when it was built, it does seem lop-sided, so extra check in and capacity could be filled in. I am interested to know whether the extra pier and gates will be built at 90 degrees to the current ones, or parallel via a tunnel, that may have been part of a masterplan.

Been banged up in the cells all night.......... OASIS..... Masterplan....... Love them and Concrete of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Priscilla QOTD]

Latest from the airport:

Monthly Update: January 2006


A New Type Of Hot Spot For 2006
Hajj Pilgrimage From Manchester
Long-Haul Looking Healthy
Concorde Tour Bookings Go Supersonic
Paper Into Trees
Beat The Winter Blues
A New Type Of Hot Spot For 2006

Manchester Airport is predicting that a different type of “hot spot” will be popular with travellers in 2006 – new high-tech wireless Internet “HotSpots”.

MA has joined forces with mobile communications giant T-Mobile to install one of the most extensive WiFi services in any UK airport. The service provides wireless Internet access in all customer seating areas as well as the majority of business lounges. Travellers can use the Wi-Fi service to get seamless high-speed Internet access on their laptops or alternatively use the HotSpot service with many PDA devices. These are ideal for business travellers that need to be connected at all times, but do not want to carry a laptop.

Hajj Pilgrimage From Manchester

The final of the Hajj pilgrimage flights left Manchester this week (3rd January) for the holy cities of Makkah and Madina in Saudia Arabia. Over 6,000 people have flown out of Manchester since the first flight departed on 13th December. On top of normal scheduled flights there were 16 specially chartered aircraft to cope with demand. The special charter flights were operated by Saudia Arabian Airlines, Yemania, Mahan Air and Nouvel Air. The first pilgrims are expected back into Manchester mid-January.

Long-Haul Looking Healthy

The airport's long-haul route network is already looking healthy for 2006. It will soon boast services to Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways and to Hong Kong (via Moscow) with Cathay Pacific. Virgin Atlantic is set to increase their operation at Manchester with flights to St Lucia from November 06. Qatar Airways will increase the frequency of their services to Doha from four flights a week to daily operations from 26th March. And British Airways flights to New York (JFK) will offer World Traveller, World Traveller Plus and Club World (flat beds) for the first time from mid-January.

Concorde Tour Bookings Go Supersonic

Concorde tours proved to be a popular Christmas present with gift seekers at the end of last year. Sales for the tours soared with a massive 250% increase over the festive period compared to the previous year. £12 gift vouchers can be purchased and put towards a standard guided tour, the technical tour or the new Champagne VIP Tour Experience. The VIP tour includes a video presentation and visit to the flightdeck on our Monarch DC10, a full technical tour of retired Concorde G-BOAC, a commemorative certificate, souvenir boarding pass, free parking and celebratory glass of champagne. The tour centre is expecting demand to climb again in the run-up to Father's Day. Bookings can be made through the Airport Tour Centre on 0161 489 3932.

Paper Into Trees

Recycling at the airport has been so successful in 2005 that the environment team is turning paper back into trees! In a bid to encourage on-site companies to recycle even more, the airport pledged to plant 250 trees for every tonne of office paper that was recycled during November 05. Ten tonnes were recycled, so 2500 trees (that’s the equivalent of a hectare!) will be planted at two sites in Styal during the spring.

The airport environment team encourages all companies on site to recycle as much as possible. In 2005, over 750 tonnes of waste including glass, cardboard, paper and cans, was recycled.

Beat The Winter Blues

What better way to beat the winter blues than planning a holiday to somewhere exotic? The airport is hoping to inspire the people of the North West to find out more about the growing no-frills and long-haul destinations on offer from the region by sponsoring the Holiday & Travel show at the GMEX that runs from 13-15 Jan.

Visitors to the show will be able to look around the stalls of hundreds of exhibitors and with many of them offering competitions and goodies to take away, it's set to be the biggest hit exhibition yet. Over 65,000 people attended last year and organisers are expecting even more in 06.

Terminal Passenger Statistics

December 2005 Passengers
% Change vs 2004

Domestic 274,305
+ 1.05

Scheduled International 683,807
+ 3.50

Charter 377,258
- 5.78

Private / Miscellaneous 676
- 19.81

Total 1,336,046
+ 0.20


ENDS


06/01/2006

[jrb]

Halcyon days at airport

A RECORD 22.1 million passengers passed through Manchester Airport during 2005, a 5.26 per cent rise on the previous year fuelled by a raft of new low-cost flights.

No-frills carriers Jet2.com, Monarch Scheduled, bmibaby and SkyEurope were among those which introduced domestic and European services last year, which helped to offset a dip on charter routes.

Overall passenger numbers rose from 21 million. Airport bosses are confident of a similar increase this year, which would lift the figure for 2006 beyond 23 million.

Tim McDermott, the airport's aviation development director, said the rise in low-cost services had a major impact. He said: "There was a significant increase in no-frills products offered from Manchester, attracting business and leisure passengers on domestic and European routes.

"It is often cheaper to fly to a European city than to pay for a cab home from Manchester after a night on the town. Low fares mean people can afford to take more frequent short breaks."

Soaring numbers

The low-cost boom sent the number of scheduled international passenger soaring by 14 per cent to 9.78 million. There were also new flights to destinations such as Tallinn and Sofia in Estonia and Bulgaria respectively, and farther afield to Tehran.

Established carriers increased the size of aircraft or put on more flights, such as Emirates to Dubai and Continental Airlines to New York.

Charter traffic was down 2.27 per cent to 8.9 million as travellers increasingly booked scheduled flights to short-haul destinations, preferring to devise their own holiday itineraries than go on seven-night or 14-night packages.

There is a trend towards more medium and long-haul charter holidays to places like Egypt, Cuba, Mexico and India.

Mr McDermott said Manchester's long-haul route network was already looking healthy for 2006, with new flights planned by Etihad Airways to Abu Dhabi, Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong and Virgin Atlantic to St Lucia, while charter carriers are expanding to include Kenya and Brazil.

There is expected to be significant expansion on short-haul routes too, with new services to Iceland, Italy and France .

"We are aiming for another good year of growth, at least matching what we delivered in 2005," said Mr McDermott.

[Metrolink]

Don't tell the scousers, but it appears that BA are going budget - it may cause their world domination plans for Liverpool airport a few problems...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4598360.stm


BA relaunches UK regional airline
Tailfins of BA planes
BA hopes to boost traffic from regional airports
British Airways is relaunching its UK regional airline, CitiExpress, as a budget carrier to compete with the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair.

BA is reducing many fares by up to 40% as it seeks to regain ground lost to no-frills carriers in recent years.

The airline, renamed BA Connect, will offer one-way fares for £25 from destinations including Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham.

CitiExpress was formed in 2001 by the merger of four regional carriers.

Tough market

The revamped airline - which serves UK regional airports - will begin flying at the end of March.

Customers will be able to make reservations next month.

BA has found it hard to develop its regional subsidiary in the face of the aggressive price cutting and relentless expansion of its rivals.

Nevertheless, the airline still carried almost four million passengers last year, serving 32 destinations in the UK and Europe.

The new service will offer two million flexible tickets a year for £25 while frequent flyers and business travellers will be able to book a more advanced service from £110.

Customer needs

BA executives said the revamp was designed to offer a more attractive proposition while improving the airline's profitability.

"The restructuring of the regional business will set us apart in this fiercely competitive market," said David Evans, managing director of CitiExpress.

"The move is a direct response to changing customer needs and the challenges that have emerged in the marketplace since the creation of British Airways CitiExpress."

[Jerv]

Two bits of potential long haul news that i have picked up from reading the PPRUNE forum.

PIA are set to consolidate MAN as their european hub by anouncing more routes out of MAN.

Thai Airways are looking to increase european operations with MAN, amsterdam and Berlin top of the list. That would probably mean a direct route to Bangkok.

[Latic]

Originally Posted by Jerv

Two bits of potential long haul news that i have picked up from reading the PPRUNE forum.

PIA are set to consolidate MAN as their european hub by anouncing more routes out of MAN.

Thai Airways are looking to increase european operations with MAN, amsterdam and Berlin top of the list. That would probably mean a direct route to Bangkok.

Now I may have dreamt this - but I'm sure there was an official line out of the Airport which said they expected Thai to sign up at around 2008. Don't remember where I saw this though. It would be great news if true and give us even more long haul options.

[hammerb24]

Jerv,

Wouldn't read too much into pprune, not the most reliable of websites in my experience, the amount of times I've read rumours on there that never come to fruition. PIA already use MAN as their hub but from what they've already confirmed (ie Toronto going direct rather than via MAN) my guess is that more services will become direct as their longer range 777s get delivered. Thai is interesting and would a natural addition for them but there is a lot of established competition in MAS, Singapore etc for them to go up against.

Have to say I heard or think I heard Korean were looking at MAN and am definate that Sri Lankan are looking at MAN or BHX.

[Jerv]

^ Yes I know it is not gospel but I have read a few other rumours on there which I have not posted, but the Thai airways one seems reasonable. Are you sure PIA fly from MAN to toronto? Thats new on me. Also Korean? That sounds complete nonsense to me unless it were cargo only.

[jrb]

Qatar ups the ante with daily service

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ContentResources/597.$plit/C_17_Articles_202479_BodyWeb_Detail_0_Image.jpg

A380 Qatar Airlines plane aircraft

THE battle for passengers on routes between Manchester and the Persian Gulf is hotting up after Qatar Airways announced it is to operate daily services from the end of March.

It began with four flights a week to Qatar's capital, Doha, in April 2003. From Saturday week it will add a fifth and will go daily from the start of the summer season on Sunday, March 26.

The airline will continue to use an Airbus A330 on the route, with up to 24 business class and 259 economy class seats. Qatar is also looking to expand capacity at other UK gateways this year.

News of the boost comes as Etihad Airways puts the finishing touches to its preparations for daily services to the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi, while rival Emirates is mulling a third daily flight to Dubai.

Many passengers travel the the Gulf to catch connecting flights to South Africa, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, countries in the Far East such as Thailand, and Australasia. Significant numbers also travel to the region for leisure purposes.

British Airways' franchise partner GB Airways is to start a twice-weekly service from Manchester to Heraklion, Crete, from May 2, aimed at holidaymaker and owners of second homes.

The flights will operate until the end of October and will feature business and economy class seats.

Low-cost carrier Ryanair is to start services from Manchester to Shannon. It will operate three flights a week from Wednesday, February 22.

Lufthansa has increased the number of flights between Manchester and Germany by adding a new mid-morning service to Dusseldorf on six days a week.

[jrb]

Wi-Fi deal for airport



Martin Smith

BUSINESS travellers waiting to catch their flights at Manchester Airport can now use wireless technology to surf the internet.

The airport has teamed up with T-Mobile to provide Wi-Fi access in all seating areas and most business lounges.

Simon Ainslie, the firm's UK director of business sales, said: "We are committed to providing Wi-Fi access across the UK to enable people to access the internet where they want, when they want. We are ensuring that travellers can make the best use of their downtime while waiting for flights."

Martin Smith, Manchester Airport's head of group information services, said: "The partnership with T-Mobile to provide wireless technology means that, more than ever before, business doesn't have to stop when travellers reach our airports."

Charges apply for using the service.

[liverpolitan]

Does anyone know what happened to the Saturday Jet2 LGW - MAN service? They ran it last year, but it's no longer advertised. What are loads like on Jet2 services on that route? I used to use it sometimes (to get to Liverpool as well as Manchester) until the Pendolino times improved. When I used it, loads were just awful, sometimes just a couple of dozen people.

[WeasteDevil]

The T Mobile thing is a publicity stunt, they don't need a mobile telephone operator to have WiFi in the airport, ITG (Information Technology Group), if it still exists, can do that very easily themselves. The T Mobile thing is a sponsorship deal.

I used to work for ITG in Olympic House many moons ago (I wrote the spec to get them online in 1994, when very few airports had a web presence. They still haven't got round to implementing everything I proposed however), and half the staff there were telecoms engineers.

[Metrolink]

Poli - taken from another website...

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showpos...&postcount=299

Jet2.com have put there Manchester - London Gatwick flights on sale for summer 2006 season. Flights continue to operate 3 times daily weekdays and once on Sundays. There is no flights on a Saturday.

Also note that on all Bank holiday Mondays only the mid-day flight will operate. While on Tue 18th Wed, 19th Thu 20th & Fri 21 of April the flights will be only twice daily with the mid-day service been axed.

LS901 12345-- Manchester 06:55 London Gatwick 07:55
LS903 12345-- Manchester 14:30 London Gatwick 15:35
LS905 12345-7 Manchester 18:00 London Gatwick 19:05

LS902 12345-- London Gatwick 08:45 Manchester 09:45
LS904 12345-- London Gatwick 16:10 Manchester 17:15
LS906 12345-7 London Gatwick 19:45 Manchester 20:45

[Metrolink]

the thought is that plane will be used for a new / different route on Saturdays.

I'd imagine that route is primarily a business route, with very low loads on a Saturday, and hence the plane can be better used on another route.

[Metrolink]

also, obviously if you have a requirement to get from London to Manchester on a Saturday, you can use BMI from Heathrow for just £2 (plus tax) each way, or BA from Gatwick from £30 (plus tax).

Obviously many more flight options but they are the cheapest, along with VLM from City.

Also, do Air Berlin fly Manchester to Stansted yet? There was talk they were going to start that route, not sure if anything came of it though - they do seem rather close.

[liverpolitan]

Originally Posted by Metrolink

also, obviously if you have a requirement to get from London to Manchester on a Saturday, you can use BMI from Heathrow for just £2 (plus tax) each way, or BA from Gatwick from £30 (plus tax).

Obviously many more flight options but they are the cheapest, along with VLM from City.

Also, do Air Berlin fly Manchester to Stansted yet? There was talk they were going to start that route, not sure if anything came of it though - they do seem rather close.

Thanks, but only Gatwick will save me time because I'm on the south coast, Heathrow is no use to me, faster to take the train.

[Metrolink]

Wait until tomorrow to do any booking - BA are supposedly reducing all their prices.

The cheapest, including taxes, will allegedly be £25 one way.

[Jerv]

Originally Posted by liverpolitan

Thanks, but only Gatwick will save me time because I'm on the south coast, Heathrow is no use to me, faster to take the train.

Did you lie to me about stopping making flights under 2000km? How can I trust any of your eco friendly claims? Are you a compulsive liar? Are you overweight? Can you afford a car? Are you seeing that shrink I recommended? Take your time, that way you are sure to get the answers that sound right.

[liverpolitan]

Originally Posted by Jerv

Did you lie to me about stopping making flights under 2000km?

I never told you or anyone else anything of the sort

Originally Posted by Jerv

How can I trust any of your eco friendly claims?

You don't need to. I have explained that I use a voluntary carbon offset scheme each time I fly, and, because of some controversy over their efficacy, choose one of the more expensive ones (ie the one that makes the toughest assumptions about the real costs of nuetralising the additional carbon a flight creates - as each form of nuetralising itself creates pollution, often carbon, so it's not a simple calculation.

Originally Posted by Jerv

Are you a compulsive liar?

I assume that is a rhetorical question.

Originally Posted by Jerv

Are you overweight?

Irrelevant, and none of your business.

Originally Posted by Jerv

Can you afford a car?

I don't know, I don't know how much cars cost. I don't need a car so I don't need to know what they cost.

Originally Posted by Jerv

Are you seeing that shrink I recommended?

I never saw you recommend one, and don't need one thanks.

Originally Posted by Jerv

Take your time, that way you are sure to get the answers that sound right.

No need for time, your questions are foolish and premised on something you have simply made up, ie a false claim that I proposed an arbitrary cut-off point for flying over other modes, (and, incidentally, stated it in kilometers, when I always use miles when I discuss journeys).

[liverpolitan]

Originally Posted by Metrolink

Wait until tomorrow to do any booking - BA are supposedly reducing all their prices.

The cheapest, including taxes, will allegedly be £25 one way.

LOL, I like the allegedly. No doubt they will introduce a five pound booking fee or something at the last moment. You could easily pick up LGW - MAN day returns for as little as £60 until recently, but increasingly they are only on the crap timed flights, and for a decent timed flight for a morning meeting you are looking at more like £150 - £250 for a day return. Obviously depends how early you book as well. So they might reduce the prices on some flights, but will it be ones that people travelling for business use?

I think Jet2 must be hurting BA on that route, as Jet2 have been virtually giving flights away to try to fill that route up. (Incidentally, I met the MD of the company on one flight, he is a really nice guy and seemed genuinely interested in talking to passengers - he was convinced the route would pick-up, but felt that a lot of corporate travel bookers avoided Jet2 unfairly, partly through inertia and sheer ignorance that they were wasting their companies money. Oh yes, and despite my telling him I was actually going for a meeting in Liverpool and suggesting he open up that route, he said he had no plans to do that. I got the impression that the thought had never even crossed his mind).

With a 2 hr 11 minute, 30 minute Pendolino service to Manchester, probably both BA and Jet2 are suffering and I imagine its a question of who has the deepest pockets (or makes the most from feeding passengers to/from more lucrative flights, and that presumably has to be BA, you meet quite a few longhaul interchange passengers on BA LGW-MAN flights).