Just to try and finally put a nail in the coffin about CX…if there’s nothing mentioned on the MAN website, nothing mentioned on the CX website and nothing on either of the enthusiasts websites about them restarting, and given the lack of advertising for this “new service” on TV, radio and newspapers despite it meant to be starting in just a week, can we now admit that they’re not starting up for a little while at least!

Errr…must get back on topic…good shots, Grey Area 🙂

David

CX have not confirmed anything, although one can presume that sooner or later they will come back (but they must offer an equivalent service as they do ex-LHR i.e. non-stop rather than one-stop if it’s going to get business pax on board!, and make the days of operation Mon + Thurs, or perhaps even 3 weekly.)

The A330s were originally confirgured for LHR ops (more business class, less in economy) and was the reason why they had to postpone the MAN services as they were putting them into the current config.

MAN would have featured mid-to-long-term for long haul had they been open skies with the USA been brokered; it still didn’t mean that they had to use the A330s to the US when they received them….they had applied for plenty of non-US destinations ex-LHR so it could only be the “prestige” of operating to the US that made them decide to launch long-haul ex-MAN first.

The next likely candidates for chopping at MAN are the Caribbean services; VS is to start a weekly BGI service from mid-November (it was in their timetable when I last looked a couple of days ago) and with a couple of 744s based, I can easily imagine them deciding to offer ANU, UVF and LAS ex-MAN through Virgin Holidays rather than use the BD services.

David

MAN-ORD daily
MAN-LAS 2 weekly
MAN-Caribbean 4 weekly (still) (2 BGI, 1 ANU, 1 UVF)
LHR-BOM 4 weekly
LHR-RUH 3 weekly

If memory serves me right, it normally has around 8-9000 passengers a month in summer, about 75% loads. So a 23% reduction in capacity should see pretty full aircraft!

T3’s orginal name was T1BA. Perhaps a subtle clue as to who helped pay for it 😉

David

The feeder has to be operated as a QF service and not as a codeshared BA shuttle services as the slots being protected are QFs.

Heard of grim stories that the one of the MAN hierarchy thinks there’s nothing wrong with airlines codesharing into MAN rather than flying their own metal instead 🙁