VS's Future at MAN

[mitchja]

Out of interest, how much does the Tube from King's Cross cost along with the Heathrow Express, or do you just take the Piccadilly line all the way through to LHR?

The Piccadilly line is £3.10 each way from King's Cross to LHR. It's takes about 45 mins though.

I never bother with the over-priced tourist trap that is the HEX!

Just booked a flight to BOS for next August and I compared VS Upper Class from LHR to DL Delta One from MAN....VS were ~£130 cheaper than DL which was a no-brainer for me as even with a return first class LNER rail fare to London, it's still cheaper for me to fly from LHR!

This is what I find the most frustrating thing about being a MAN based flyer. It's not so much that the experience itself is so bad from MAN when considered in isolation. Rather, it's just so much better out of LHR (DTCI, Clubhouse and aircraft). Yet the price is the same for the fares/routes I buy. Hopefully the playing field will be levelled somewhat once the MAN expansion is done and rest of the A350's and 339's arrive into the fleet.

Saw this on twitter, regarding Connect Airways, from @airportnewsMAN

*info* rumours abound that an
@Airbus
A220 order for Flybe(or Virgin Connect) to be announced on Tuesday. More info to follow #flight #flybe #a220

The rumours seem to indicate 20 A220 will be ordered by flybe. Given the focus on MAN/LHR and the fact LHR has little available slot wise, this could be big news for MAN on particular #airbus #A220

https://twitter.com/airportnewsMAN/status/1180207933067579393

This account is rarely wrong so we'll have to see what happens on Tuesday...

A usually reliable source, but nevertheless stating that it is a rumour (albeit very precise in its terms).

Would be great for VS and MAN, which is due a PR day, so hopefully this is part of it...

Hopefully might be used on some of the feeder services into MAN / LHR.

If they want to genuinely feed traffic into their long haul, they need to sort out the baggage and in particular cabin baggage allowance / sizes for Flybe. It has to be seemless and trouble free.

The hassle you get when trying to bring "normal" size hand luggage onto the Q400's with their small bins needs to be sorted.

A quick google shows many many unhappy passengers having to pay extra for their cabin bags to go into the hold..

If you book say EDI-MAN-MCO in premium or upper, you expect to be able to use your full allowance. The tiny bin size on the Q400's make it impossible to accept normal size cabin bags.

David.

Hopefully might be used on some of the feeder services into MAN / LHR.

If they want to genuinely feed traffic into their long haul, they need to sort out the baggage and in particular cabin baggage allowance / sizes for Flybe. It has to be seemless and trouble free.

The hassle you get when trying to bring "normal" size hand luggage onto the Q400's with their small bins needs to be sorted.

A quick google shows many many unhappy passengers having to pay extra for their cabin bags to go into the hold..

If you book say EDI-MAN-MCO in premium or upper, you expect to be able to use your full allowance. The tiny bin size on the Q400's make it impossible to accept normal size cabin bags.

David.

Yes. I sometimes use Flybe on their Liverpool-Isle of Man route and I had to buy another suitcase due to their restrictions being more stringent than easyJet etc., and after hearing reports of passengers being fined at the gate for baggage that was too big (a major bone of contention lately it seems), so decided I'd rather spend the money once on a case that fitted rather than risk a fine. I took a tape measure with me to TK Maxx to measure them up before buying one.

I now have 2 cabin-sized cases to choose from depending who I'm flying with. I do wish the industry would club together on this issue and universally agree upon standard dimensions for cabin-sized baggage so there's no ambiguity or needing to double-check individual airline's rules. All these suitcases take up valuable storage space in the house.

I expect the Q400's to stick around as there are plenty of routes where a regional jet is a waste, but if the order comes off, I expect the A220's to be deployed on replacing the remaining Embraer's (that order was probably one of the lesser sensible decisions made over the years) and on routes that feed the LHR and MAN hubs.

[mitchja]

I think it's a safe bet to say that we won't see VS trying the MAN>LHR route again. That route has seen big declines over the last 12 months, pax numbers wise.

For the MAN>LHR route, Aug 2019 pax numbers down by 22% compared to Aug 2018, from the CAA stats

The CAA publish the full set of monthly airport stats here

Saw this on twitter, regarding Connect Airways, from @airportnewsMAN

*info* rumours abound that an
@Airbus
A220 order for Flybe(or Virgin Connect) to be announced on Tuesday. More info to follow #flight #flybe #a220

The rumours seem to indicate 20 A220 will be ordered by flybe. Given the focus on MAN/LHR and the fact LHR has little available slot wise, this could be big news for MAN on particular #airbus #A220

https://twitter.com/airportnewsMAN/status/1180207933067579393

This account is rarely wrong so we'll have to see what happens on Tuesday...

The account also claimed VS are going to step into the breach re. Montego Bay. Guess we'll find out soon enough.

I do wonder if the A220's are for those routes that they have high levels of connections on?

I think it's a safe bet to say that we won't see VS trying the MAN>LHR route again. That route has seen big declines over the last 12 months, pax numbers wise.

For the MAN>LHR route, Aug 2019 pax numbers down by 22% compared to Aug 2018, from the CAA stats

The CAA publish the full set of monthly airport stats here

Agreed - that formula doesn’t work from MAN anymore. The key for VS/DL is to have an effective system of moving passengers: (i) across the UK (and perhaps Europe) from MAN; and (ii) from MAN to the USA via 6 core routes (eg ATL, JFK, BOS, MCO, LAS, LAX) with a number of ancillary flows to places like SFO, SEA and perhaps MIA.

I do wonder if the A220's are for those routes that they have high levels of connections on?

That must be the case I think.

Who knows what the scale of the plan is (but if using A220 likely to be fairly major and include mainland Europe) but for a seamless product something like the A220 will be required.

Airbus appear to have booked an order of 14x A220 for an undisclosed customer.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... -1-461320/

Saw this on twitter, regarding Connect Airways, from @airportnewsMAN

*info* rumours abound that an
@Airbus
A220 order for Flybe(or Virgin Connect) to be announced on Tuesday. More info to follow #flight #flybe #a220

The rumours seem to indicate 20 A220 will be ordered by flybe. Given the focus on MAN/LHR and the fact LHR has little available slot wise, this could be big news for MAN on particular #airbus #A220

https://twitter.com/airportnewsMAN/status/1180207933067579393

This account is rarely wrong so we'll have to see what happens on Tuesday...

Yesterday came and went with no announcement other than the undisclosed order logged by Airbus. I heard elsewhere something might be in the offing next Tuesday (the 15th).

Indeed - I interpreted “next” as being the Tuesday just gone. Who knows. Smoke, fire etc...

If you're travelling from MAN next year after April 1st (when T2X was supposed to open) along with the Clubhouse, don't get too excited. Word on the street would indicate the opening of T2X has slipped and it will now be "Summer 2020".

That gives MAN a window between 21st June to 23rd September to get T2X open. Looks like the Escape Plus lounge will have to soldier on a bit longer.

Out of interest, how much does the Tube from King's Cross cost along with the Heathrow Express, or do you just take the Piccadilly line all the way through to LHR?

The Piccadilly line is £3.10 each way from King's Cross to LHR. It's takes about 45 mins though.

I never bother with the over-priced tourist trap that is the HEX!

HEX is great if you live in Paddington. The problem is that whilst the service is OK albeit expensive, if you have to travel to Paddington from central or east you may as well stay on the Piccadilly line anyway. Hopefully Crossrail will hugely improve access to LHR.

Looks like at least some of the the LAS flights are moving to a late afternoon departure for S20.

More changes to come?

Credit: @airportnewsMAN

Looks like at least some of the the LAS flights are moving to a late afternoon departure for S20.

More changes to come?

Credit: @airportnewsMAN

The LHR-LAS flights for next year are late afternoon too,

[mitchja]

The VS85 & the return VS86 departure times are all over the place as it often departs at a different time every day it operates, just look at the current timetable.

What’s the logic behind that I wonder?

Cheers both.

The wide range of times across the MAN departures (from 11:50 to 17:25) doesn’t give any “routine” to the service. I presume it is a work in progress and further changes are forthcoming but that is based on nothing but a hunch.

We know they need to spread the departures across the day to maximise the value of Virgin Connect, but I’m not convinced that late departures to the west coast is the answer!

Agreed - a 5.25pm departure gives a post 8pm arrival which, for all but the hardcore party crowd, pretty much wipes out the evening.

Granted it is Vegas, but even so ...

It is plain that a later bank of departures should be developed, the interesting question is whether that later bank is to typical VS routes from MAN at suboptimal times (such as the LAS example) or to new destinations for VS at MAN, but not necessarily new for VS, at optimal times such as DEL, BOM, HKG, or South Africa.

Cheers both.

The wide range of times across the MAN departures (from 11:50 to 17:25) doesn’t give any “routine” to the service. I presume it is a work in progress and further changes are forthcoming but that is based on nothing but a hunch.

I wonder if slot and/or aircraft availability at either end are factors?

As for flight times, even for East Coast flights I've always had a preference for morning/pre-1pm flights as you're still guaranteed an afternoon arrival and have enough time in the evening to do something until tiredness kicks in. I can imagine for some people a late-afternoon/early-evening departure for the West Coast results in some very long days, even if it suits some more than others.

I use the MAN - LAS service to connect onwards. Moving it to a circa 4pm departure prevents that in a lot of cases.

Virgin Atlantic plans to turn MAN into a network hub.

Article and link below:

———————————————


Virgin Atlantic plans to make Manchester airport a network hub for the airline, with more long-haul routes to be introduced to link to recently-acquired regional capacity.
The airline’s European vice president, commercial Juha Jarvinen, said Manchester is “our second home” and the “Thomas Cook’s demise gives us an opportunity”.

The airline recently announced the new name – Virgin Connect – of regional carrier Flybe, which it led a consortium to acquire earlier this year. Flybe has more than 300 slots at Manchester flying on regional and domestic routes.

On the airline’s flight celebrating its new direct route from Heathrow to Tel Aviv, Jarvinen told Travel Weekly: “We are certainly finalising our Thomas Cook actions and we hope to be able to further strengthen our offering for next year [from Manchester].

“We will be offering more flights to certain destinations for next winter and we are definitely exploring new destinations from Manchester.

“That was originally our plan but Thomas Cook’s demise gives us an opportunity. Manchester is definitely our second home and is a region that is underserved both in business and leisure [routes]. We are hoping to further develop Manchester connectivity and are finalising next summer’s flights.

“By growing Manchester connectivity, we can also grow our long-haul offering there. We believe we can build a network hub in Manchester that nobody has done before. When we welcome Flybe into the Virgin family [as Virgin Connect next year] it becomes easier.”

At the press conference in Tel Aviv, chief executive Shai Weiss said: “There’s more to come. Watch our space in terms of what we will announce following the demise of iconic British brand Thomas Cook.”
The direct Manchester-Los Angles route has seen an 85% load factor, higher than Virgin’s average of around 80%, and Jarvinen said the route had “increased the number of movie producers flying to Manchester”.
Connectivity is the overall message from Virgin, which as well as the Flybe deal has also signed a joint ventures with KLM-Air France and China Eastern, as well as a codeshare agreement with Brazilian carrier Gol to connect to Virgin’s new Heathrow Sao Paulo route starting next spring.

“Up until now, Virgin Atlantic has been serving London and Manchester to the world,” Jarvinen told Travel Weekly. “In order to diversify the offering, we need to have the regional connectivity as well. Customers don’t just want to fly out of London and Manchester. We should be offering European short-haul and domestic as well.”

The airline also wants to boost its connectivity out of Heathrow, where Flybe only has 12 slots. Jarvinen said this was more difficult because of the allocation of slots which Virgin Atlantic has for a long time claimed has been unfairly weighted towards its rival British Airways.

Jarvinen reiterated chief executive Shai Weiss’ calls for Heathrow to allocate more slots to BA’s competitors when Heathrow’s third runway is built.

“The problem with Heathrow is that it is full,” he said. “So we have been unable to grow.
“We believe the current global allocation method is not fair for the consumers. If we follow that then BA will get around 60% of the new slots [at runway three] which is not in the interests of the consumer.”

“This is the largest airport infrastructure project in Europe and therefore this method should change because this is a traumatic change in capacity.”

The new Tel Aviv route has “exceeded expectations”, added Jarvinen – who said its load factor was around 90%. He said the split of passengers was roughly three ways between Britons, Americans and Israelis, with many opting to connect between the US and Tel Aviv via London.

“We believe we have the range of products to give the route the right mix.”

http://travelweekly.co.uk/articles/3475 ... k-collapse

Credit: @SeanM1997 via Twitter.