V-Flyer

Are there any plans for Virgin to build a club house in Manchester?

With the current route structure - No.

Cannot see it happening in a long time unfortunately.

Yes there are plans but I cannot reveal whether they are positive or negative as it is considered commercially confidential.

I thought that Manchester already had a club house, which interestingly is just above the terrace. So it has a really good view of the pitch.

Keith - I'm winding you up - LOL - Sailor.

Originally posted by sailor99
I thought that Manchester already had a club house, which interestingly is just above the terrace. So it has a really good view of the pitch.

Keith - I'm winding you up - LOL - Sailor.

Really?

United or the council tenants?

Oh dear - If its A Uniited Club house - plenty of prawn sambos to go around - But if its a "blue nose" Club house - it will be - warm beer - ninja suits will be replaced with bright coloured shell suits - food will be "chips n gravy" - sounds like the whole Clubhouse facility would indeed be different that in Heathrow. lol just kidding.

This topic got me thinking about what is exactly needed for VS to consider a clubhouse.

Tallprawn states that the current route structure isn't enough to hold a clubhouse but there are many other airports with a clubhouse and much less trafic.

IAD and JNB spring to mind as does SFO. These airports all only have a daily service to London.

Is it to do with lack of UC demand on B+S routes? If so why does LGW have a clubhouse?

I would imagine if VS built a clubhouse in MAN they could easily strike up a nice deal with the likes of SQ.

The other issue that needs considering is the rental cost to VS along with available space etc in the airport terminal. MAN T2 isn't the biggest of buildings so there may not be any available space to build a CH.

I believe the rent for the LGW CH alone is in excess of £1,000,000 per year. I hate to think what BAA charge for the LHR CH!

Regards

How many VS flights are there per day from Manchester? Between VS and SIA as stated above , it would easily work out for them. As for UC seats sold via Man , I would think its the same ratio as London Gatwick as the routes are simular. Also SIA only have a business class from Man and I believe they have 2 flights per day (correct me if I am wrong) so there would be good ratio of passangers to keep the club house busy. Man also seems to be getting busier with more VS flights being added each year so where are all these UC passangers supposed to go anyway.

Originally posted by willd
Is it to do with lack of UC demand on B+S routes? If so why does LGW have a clubhouse?

Certainly not on the MCO route. I think out of the last 10 U/C flights I have been on, there has only been about 2 free seats in total.

Nobody knows if these are paid for or are upgrades etc, but in my experience its been pretty much full every time - even when the back of the bus has been virtually empty.

David

It isn't because of lack of demand of UCS on the ex MAN flights, the problem is on 4 days VS only have 1 flight departing, meaning only 16 pax if UC is full plus the odd Au flying in W or Y and at most on the busiest day there would only be 48 UC pax, which is nowhere near enough to justify the cost of building and running a CH at present.

well thats that then - i thought there were a lot more flights and uc passangers from Man

Originally posted by porsche911
How many VS flights are there per day from Manchester? Between VS and SIA as stated above , it would easily work out for them. As for UC seats sold via Man , I would think its the same ratio as London Gatwick as the routes are simular.

Not really, apart from Orlando and St Lucia. Remember LGW also has other Carribean destinations as well as Las Vegas, so has considerably more flights

so really Man is for taking some of the loads away from gatwick for Orlando

No - MAN is a northern base, giving VS a market share/a chance to compete with the charters at the many holiday makers based in the North who travel to MCO who don't want to drive to LGW, it has nothing to do with taking pax away from LGW flights.

Watch out Attitude, a certain person will think you mean that VS want people to go on holiday to Manchester instead of MCO (thus saving them both the drive down south and flight out west!).

Oh I wonder who he means- lol

Number of reasons why its down the list:

- CH are expensive to build, always in 7 figures
- There needs to be space, look at LAX that has two very busy dailies in J
- There is the rent for the space
- UC loads for MAN are not that great, and there are only a 14 UC seats. Remember the OpUp's and staff can't use the CH.

LGW has a CH due to the range of flights that it has, higher levels of J traffic, and it is the historical base too. BOS is next in line for a CH (used to have one), though there was rumour of a new concept of a ClubLounge.

Thanks,
Richard

With the route structure as it is a Clubhouse would work at MAN if it was opened up to the passengers onboard the SQ flight and on CO's 2 daily flights to Newark. It would get busy at weekends when VS run a lot of flights but it still baffles me why some of the US destinations get CH's when they onl get one flight a day.

It will come, given time.

Its a real pity - Do BA fly many long haul flights from Manchester and do they ahsve business / first class lounges there,

Do BA fly many long haul flights from Manchester and do they ahsve business / first class lounges there,

Only one BA Longhaul from MAN-JFK (no first class cabin),so there is just a Terrace lounge at T3

Cheers Jag

so there is just a Terrace lounge at T3

It is still a lot better than the other offerings at MAN.