gumshoe wrote:Interesting rumour on headforpoints today (and it is only a rumour at this stage) that BA are taking over AA's MAN-JFK route and looking at starting other long-haul routes from MAN. Which suggests BA may be feeling threatened by VS's expansion at MAN.
This rumour has been going round for some time. Given how BA reduced its presence at MAN to a token LHR route (bar the Sun-Air routes and the recently-announced summer weekend routes with BA CityFlyer that also involve BHX and BRS), I'm firmly in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp, especially as BA don't have spare aircraft to deploy out of MAN at such short notice with the 747 and 767 retirements progressing.
However, given the VS/DL expansion and AA's poor performance on some of the MAN routes (using the 787 on the ORD route was a disaster punctuality-wise and was quickly reverted to a 767), it wouldn't surprise me if this hasn't gone unnoticed at BA. Don't forget Thomas Cook and it's probably only a matter of time before Norwegian joins the party. People won't tolerate the inferior AA product or be willing to connect at LHR (or DUB with EI) if good quality direct routes exist from MAN, especially if the price and timings are right.
I agree that MAN will not be as big of a cash cow as LHR, but I think the threat of losing market share out of MAN is real unless they try something different such as using BA metal ex-MAN.
