LOL, I never said Manston or Doncaster were long, purely that they filled a role in the space shuttle programme.

Manston was also indeed, and was favoured because of its etra wide runway (as was, no just shoulders).

My point is though would you really land a shuttle at a commerical airport?? too much risk in my opinion.

Yes and my point is that LBA wasn’t suggesting it IS such a location, but instead WAS such a location, when it was an RAF base.

GLA-CDG
GLA-FRA
GLA-MAD
GLA-MXP
GLA-LCY
GLA-LAX/SFO
GLA-BOS
GLA-HKG/BKK

Gaz

Think of a US hub that isn’t in your list, and then watch this space!!! 😉

There is some routes in the top 2 posts that wouldnt have a hopw working and not just the CWL ones.

Actually there is only one really hopeless one from MAN, and that AKL. But additonally the West Coast USA market from MAN would be likely to sustain 1 destination, either LAX or SFO, but would struggle at the moment to sustain both.

As for VS on the HKG-SYD, why would they want to scale HKG back???? The route does very well for them is my understanding, especially given that they have full 5ths from HKG, which they’d also be likely to get through BKK admittedly, but there is more competition and a lower yield on the BKK-SYD route as a result.

The latest on this..

Cathay expects late-August completion of Dragonair takeover
Nicholas Ionides, Singapore (05Jul06, 02:16 GMT, 364 words)

Cathay Pacific Airways expects to complete its proposed takeover of fellow Hong Kong-based carrier Dragonair next month following a shareholders’ vote.

The Oneworld alliance carrier announced last month that it had agreed to buy the 82.21% of Dragonair that it does not already own for HK$8.22 billion ($1.1 billion) from Air China-owned China National Aviation (CNAC), CITIC Pacific, Swire Pacific and a handful of minority shareholders.

Air China and CNAC will in turn acquire a combined 17.5% of Cathay from CITIC and Swire for HK$5.4 billion, while Cathay will double its stake in Air China to 20% for HK$4.1 billion.

Cathay says in the latest issue of staff newsletter CX World that it expects the Dragonair takeover to be formally completed “late August after ratification by shareholders”. It adds that a vote in favour must come from minority shareholders as Swire and CITIC, which are the biggest single shareholders in Cathay, will be excluded from voting since they are connected parties.

The takeover of Dragonair will allow Cathay to expand its limited presence in China, which is something it has been trying to do for some time. Dragonair earns most of its revenue from China services and currently serves 23 destinations in the country, while Cathay serves just three: Beijing, Xiamen and Shanghai, the latter only with freighters.

As part of the takeover deal Cathay will retain the Dragonair brand for six years although it will be managed by the larger airline. Cathay chief operating officer Tony Tyler also says Cathay will continue to serve China with its own aircraft, “underlining how both carriers will operate separately to give passengers wider product choice”.

“We are paying a full price for Dragonair, but it is worth it for us,” he says.

“Our combined network will be hugely powerful. With 16 flights a day to Shanghai, eight to Beijing and more than 126 a week to other cities, Dragonair has by far the biggest mainland network outside any mainland carrier.

“For Cathay Pacific to organically grow that network would take forever and we can’t afford to wait that long. Dragonair has very attractive slots at Beijing and Shanghai too. Both those airports are pretty much full.”

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news

Yes they were de-listed, of course they were, they stopped being a publicly owned company on their own right, but that doesn’t mean BAA doesn’t exist, thats like saying there is no such company as Land Rover, or Volvo, because they are pwned by Ford.

My company is doing a lot of work dealing with BAA at the moment, as a company we still deal with BAA as an entity.