slinky09 wrote:When you look at how Asian airlines are growing in Manchester and other route options open to it, maybe VS might balance the network a bit better.
If VS started a route to Bangkok from MAN, they can potentially do very well as it's the biggest unserved route from Europe. Link:
http://www.anna.aero/2017/01/24/europe-thailand-trends/Wishful thinking they'd do that though, given that VS do not fly to Thailand at present.
Mind you, in the last couple of years, Cathay Pacific have returned to MAN with a route to Hong Kong and Hainan launched a route to Beijing (first announced by the Chinese President during his state visit) - both of these are doing very well, so it makes you wonder if VS stand to do equally as well if they launched their own routes from MAN to Hong Kong or Shanghai? The UK, and Manchester in particular, appear to be popular with Chinese tourists and business folk.
gumshoe wrote:Problem is the ME3 and most long-haul Asian carriers offer a vastly superior product to VS (and BA, although they will always be protected somewhat by their short haul feeder traffic and their heritage - it's amazing, despite all the service cuts, how many people will still only travel BA "because they're British").
For VS to significantly eat into the Asian/ME market would take a huge investment in the product and an equally huge increase in routes & frequency, which it simply can't afford.
So it's stuck with its current US strategy which may well turn out to be a disaster given all that's happened over the last year.
Another factor about the ME3 is that the amount of capacity they put (or dump?) on certain routes means they can undercut other airlines, including those who fly a given route non-stop or 1-stop via their own hub. VS are already up against this on other routes and without knowing what VS' prices were vs the ME3 + others, I hazard a guess this is one reason why SYD was axed. Going eastbound from MAN, the default option these days is one of the ME3 given their frequencies and prices, though SQ, Cathay Pacific, Hainan, Oman Air and Turkish are also available, plus BA/AF/KL/LH.
For what it's worth, AMS is the most popular European hub for MAN passengers.
I agree with your last comment that the recent US-centric approach could backfire given that events of the last 12 months have changed things.