David KerrIf you start off at £1, any kind of modest increase (even 10p) could be considered extortionate; by plonking it to £2 would, hopefully, mean that there would be no need to increase prices in the short-to-mid term.
David KerrSome of you may be interested to learn that the entry charges in the Manchester Viewing Park have gone up.
It’s now £2 for pedestrians and car passengers – yes, folks, that’s a 100% increase.
Cars are now £5 including driver.
It cost £9 for three of us in a car to get in there this morning.
If I told you what I really think of this, then I’d have to moderate myself! 😮
What frivilous outgoings do you have each week that you can go without? 1 less pint a week? Cutting down smoking? If you want extortionate, I could have offered you a loan of £200 paying back £300 at a tenner a week just a year ago. Don’t tell me that putting up foot charges by £1 is by any means making it extortionate.
David KerrMAN does have a summer timetable online: http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/manweb.nsf/Content/TimetablesArchive
But it’s as much use a chocolate fireguard as when I looked at it, it still had the new easyJet services starting in August and not in May as they recently announced.
Having said that, going to http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/MANFlightInfo/SearchFlights provides a listing as well, plus it gives an idea of the charter services by listing tour operator and day/time of departure.
David KerrOr you can try http://www.flytecomm.com
David KerrShame really, the Flights been going for as long as I can remember – with the MEGATOPS. Lets hope some other Asian carrier(s) takes advantage of the capacity.
This is the 23rd year of operations here for them – reckon we’ve done quite well for us to survive that long given that it’s a marginal route (operating 777s non-stop was a beneficial move; whichever replacement aircraft they choose to operate here should aid the performance of the route as well, subject to which airlines take advantage of this frequency reduction).
The obvious candidates who are going to benefit are EK, EY and QR as they all have Australia rights, with EY actually going to codeshare with QF from AUH to Australia. This should allow each carrier to look to increase capacity at a suitable juncture.
Air Asia X would probably see the end of SQ here as they’d be able to offer cheaper fares due lower cost structure. And in the long-term, we have Jetstar to look forward to when their 787s come on stream in the 22nd century.
Malaysian would have been better off instead of going to 744s and not increasing frequency to making their flights daily, although I read that they would have needed passengers to sit on the wings to make MAN profitable (rejigging the 744 into 2 class configuration may have been better for MAN, but perhaps not for their long-haul network).
May also be of interest that Finnair has seen huge increase in passenger numbers routing to Asia (up 150% from both LHR and MAN) – they say it’s quicker to route MAN-HEL-HKG rather than MAN-LHR-HKG.
David Kerr“The stumbles we have made have been embarrassing for us,” he says. “They’ve been embarrassing for our customers, who are counting on us to have the right product available on time.”
Wonder if he’s also a bit embarrassed by a few airlines not looking too favourably on the numbers coming out of Boeing for the initial batch of the 7-late-7s? Still, looking on the bright side, it does mean a few new “long thin” UK regional long-haul routes are getting half a step closer to fruition.
David KerrIt may be a well structured letter, but how many of LS’s fleets have a BA link? I reckon a mighty impressive zero. Going off Jethro’s fleet listing, I can find only 3 tell-tale signs of BA involvement with an aircraft (but that’s stretching it a bit!) :
G-LSAJ (ex G-BRJJ, G-OOOT, SE-DUP, G-CDUP, SE-DUP, G-CDUP),
G-LSAD (ex G-BRJD, EC-ESC, G-OOOS, SX-BLW), and
G-LSAA (ex G-BNSF, EC-203, EC-ELS,G-BNSF, EC-744, EC-FFK, TC-ANM, TC-FLB, N241CV).
All 3 must have been arranged by Air Europe to be part of a BA order/specification. Can’t find any link with the 737s to BA.
If I’m right, shouldn’t that information about the lack of a link between Jet2’s fleet and BA be publicised? Plus I really doubt the noise level of a 757 as described “a particularly noisy beast which can be heard long after it has passed into cloud cover.” I doubt it lasts even a minute (on those occasions when MAN is on 05, some departures including 757s head over my flat and I don’t think any noise lasts more than 30 seconds?!). Therefore, if we can quibble about those 2 facts that he is making claims about, which other bits of the letter are also misleading?
David KerrPlease type “A380 breakeven” into any large search engine and you will find many news reports of Airubs publicly stating that the breakeven had been raised to 420 planes in 2006. Here is one I pulled at random:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6067540.stmThere are still, nine years into the program, only about 200ish orders.
Now, I’m not a highly respected financial analyst, but it seems rather obvious that a project 9 years on that only has half of it’s breakeven, and no new orders on the horizon, and estabished customers seeking to delay deliveries CAN’T be on the firmest of financial footing. How much additional evidence does a reasonable person need? I doubt that Airbus is going to publicly come out and state that the program is in financial crisis, if that is what you need to be convinced, I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Someone stated in the other thread that ALL airplane makes are under the same pressure. True, but none of those are such a huge capital risk and none are at this critical stage of gestation.
So not the 787 where it seems a raft of airlines are raising concerns about the numbers coming out of Boeing regarding performance and thats before it’s even taken to the air? And I didn’t realise that you, Great Overseeing Master of Aeronautical Engineering have decreed that an aircraft must breakeven within a given timescale proscribed by yourself. Only a fool or idiot would have forecast 420 A380 orders within 9 years so which one are you?
David KerrThe topic isn’t fully related on that quote, but what a quote from a CEO!
http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=15907
Sam
What does it say about a CEO that buys an aircraft capable of doing DOH-Australia services efficiently but due to their being short-sighted in not operating the rights awarded to them and instead deciding to wait until they get what they wanted in that bilateral and soo misuse the A340 on unsuitable sectors in the intervening period?
David Kerrand dollar signs (as in profits) don’t seem to go with A380 anyway…….:)
And you have documentary evidence for this?
David KerrIt’s beginning to look like the A380 program is in real trouble…..No Japanese orders…..some existing customers trying to delay deliveries……the cargo version delayed basically indefinitely……..world economy doing very poorly…….Middle East economic bubble bursting……existing customers whining about reliability…….no significant new orders……no A389 orders yet. I’ll bet the original plan for the program, before all the delays and the economic woes was to have the 389 flying by now.
So exactly how many Japanese orders were you forecasting they would get? It seems almost that ubless you have American and Japanese orders, then an aircraft type is doomed. It may have escaped your attention, there are quite a few airlines that seeking to delay deliveries of ALL types to match the timescale when the economy is forecast to be improving. One airline sending a report on operations with the type and the minor items that they are experiencing seems to have got you slobbering; perhaps we should wait until the aircraft have been in service a good few years (at least 3) and then see what the dispatch rate is like
As for the A389, perhaps you may be able to tell Airbus how to secure orders for an aircraft they have not even launched and not looking to launch for the next couple of years at least. The A380 family is not just about the here and now as some people (clowns?) see to think, it’s for the long haul (pardon that pun!).
David KerrIt’s going to be a tough few years for Emirates, its true that right now there aren’t enough routes from DXB for the A380 to fly profitably. But if they can hold on and keep their fleet (and lets face it, with financial backing like they have, they’re not going under any time soon.) then I reckon they will enjoy the boom even more than most airlines.
Seeing that their current JFK run is an A380 and a 77W, then going down to double 77W is not going to be too much of a drop in capacity. On the other hand though, they are currently only allowed to fly to Toronto 3 times a week as Etihad have the other 3 available frequencies; they are currently trying to get the bilateral relaxed but in the mean time with very high loads (reportedly 90%+) on a 77W, it makes sense for them to bump up capacity where it’s currently warranted.
They are scheduled to get the next batch of A380s (6 or so I think) over the course of the next 18 months, having slightly tweaked deliveries, by which times it’s been forecast that the global economy should be back on track (but I do note that the present slump in it’s manner wasn’t exactly trumpeted by them though!).
It is also going to be interesting to find out when each of the 3 configurations are being delivered as I’ve not seen any schedule for the HD version – if MAN can maintain the current 80% load on double daily 77WHD then there is tentatively another destination to send the A380HD to within the next 12 months or so, especially if they pick up the traffic that would otherwise have used SQ en route to Australasia seeing that SQ is reducing frequency to MAN from May.
David KerrThey should be concerned about their business plan, low occupancy in all sectors and fights and chaotic management. I wonder if they are trying to find an excuse to hide these elements.
What do you consider “low occupancy”? Minimum 80% loads ex-MAN and that’s with a 7% fall in pax numbers!
David KerrHigh winds, BMI from Heathrow G-RJXK went to Manchester aswell.
Danny
More, in particular, crosswinds; wind direction veering from 200 to 290 degrees, 20 or so knots. Doubt it would be pleasant to land!
David KerrI guess MAN will only get new once the delivery of the second aircraft is made.
G-COBO operated GR678 on 9th March.
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