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Virgin Atlantic - what’s my issue

As the title explains, in this blog post, I’m going to explain what my issue is with Virgin Atlantic. Now, those of you that follow me on Twitter will know I’ve been somewhat vocal of Virgin Atlantic’s strategy when it comes to Manchester. Some of you may be exasperated with my constant moans, but it does come from a place of concern, as opposed to ‘all out hating’ a brand. what do we know so far? The last 2 years have been trying for Virgin. They have spent that time fighting to survive a pandemic and that did come with costs. And for Manchester, they were the ones to bear a seemingly disproportionate amount of that cost. Routes to Las Vegas, Islamabad and Los Angeles were lost, Barbados went winter seasonal, while routes to Mumbai, Montego Bay and Delhi failed to start. One could also add Boston failed to start if you consider the Virgin/Delta partnership overall. Lastly, the promised clubhouse now looks to be dead in the water (and more on why that’s an issue later) Notwithstanding
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Manchester long haul, is condor the answer

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  Manchester Long Haul, is the answer condor? I’ve well documented in the past few weeks about the woes of Manchester’s westbound long haul. It’s hard to decipher exactly what’s gone wrong, but it’s also decidedly tricky to work out how to fix it. Put it this way, Virgin have shown that they are in no position to slip into Thomas Cooks routes, Aer Lingus have showed willing, but the lack of Premium Economy will always be a problem for the Manchester market. United and Delta clearly aren’t interested while American hold slots but remain absent. British Airways is a no go, after all, that’s what IAG have brought in Aer Lingus for, while Nowegian long haul, Norse or whatever they are calling themselves this week have shown no interest in Manchester long haul. So what’s the solution, who is the best fit and where could we go from here? My answer proves slightly controversial given the crossover, slightly complicated due to AOCs but also a slight stroke of genius, and that answer is Condor.
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Manchester and eastbound long haul

  The Far East, Manchester’s bright spot. My last article talked about how westbound long haul from Manchester has taken quite a battering, this article will discuss how eastbound long haul has fared a little better. Now, this may have come as a surprise to a few. Let’s face it, large swathes of the east were still closed off as traffic began to rebound. Thailand had some very strict entry requirements, Singapore was all but closed, Australia and New Zealand were closed to pretty much anyone in or out and lastly China, well, they look like they won’t open to the world for a long time yet. Yet despite this, we’ve seen airlines almost rush back to Manchester.  -Turkish Airlines have been using the A330 more and more, increasing winter widebody operations higher than what it was pre-pandemic. -Emirates were quick to reintroduce twice daily A380 operations, and recently had a series of 3rd daily flights with the B77W to meet demand -Saudia have returned for a series of 3 weekly flights ove
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Manchester and the USA

  Manchester and the USA. What went wrong? Dear oh dear. Manchester really has had a tough time on its USA flights since 2018. The airport was once connected to 14 airports almost simultaneously, ranging from Seattle, San Fransisco and Los Angeles in the West, to Newark, Boston and Miami in the east. But for 2022, that list has dwindled to just 6 destinations, namely New York JFK, Atlanta, Orlando, Houston, Los Angles and Melbourne. And one could argue that it’s a rather strange mix to see Los Angeles but not Las Vegas, Houston but not Newark. But, it’s where we are, so the question is, how did we get here? The slippery slope started in 2018 when American announced that their Chicago route was ending. A route that had been served continuously for over 20 years. And from there, things didn’t get much better. In 2019, perhaps the biggest blow was Thomas Cook entering administration, wiping out several routes in one swoop, such as Seattle and San Fransisco. There was a brief reprieve when
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Virgin at Manchester

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Virgin Atlantic - Are they aggressive enough at Manchester? It’s no secret, the past 2 years have been a tough slog for Manchester Airport. First off, the pandemic. It’s literally been a ‘hard reset’ on global routes and Manchester was not immune from that. It was identified as one of the worst affected airports in Europe as far as passenger numbers go, and its had to fight hard for its passengers given its a predominantly outbound market, a market that has been scarred by restrictions, testing and the threats of hotel quarantine on return from destinations. And outside of that pandemic, the USA and Caribbean have been 2 markets particularly affected in those 2 years. It started with Thomas Cook entering bankruptcy. This instantly wiped San Fransisco, Las Vegas, Cayo Coco, Montego Bay, Antigua, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Varadero and Seattle off the map, no scheduled flights to Cancún or Punta Cana, while leaving New York, Orlando and Los Angeles underserved. Then Manchester was dealt ano
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Singapore Airlines

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Singapore Airlines, why are they restarting Manchester so soon? It came as quite a surprise to many yesterday to hear that Singapore Airlines are resuming their Manchester service from the middle of July.  I saw quite a few comments and received a few messages expressing this surprise, so, what has made SQ resume so soon? History: Singapore Airlines has served Manchester for over 35 years. In that 35 years, Manchester has seen various alterations to the route. From A310s via Bangkok and Rome, B747s via Zurich, B772’s direct, a B77W via Munich and most recently, and still technically currently, an A350 that continues on to Houston, Texas.  Manchester has also played host to the airlines A380, but only on divert from London Heathrow.  Manchester came online for Singapore Airlines after a lengthy battle for the bilateral rights, after London and Prestwick were the only 2 points that were allowed to be served. The data for the route would have been interesting to see back then, as SQ were
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JetBlue in the UK

JetBlue in the U.K. where could they serve? As far as their U.K. aspirations go, JetBlue are the masters of suspense. They announced their formal intentions to launch Boston and New York to London back in 2019, for a 2021 launch. While Covid probably hasn’t helped, here we are in May 2021, and we are still awaiting their exact launch date and even which London airport they intend to serve! Now, let’s push that aside for one moment, as we all know their London aspiration, but this week, Robin Hayes, their CEO, also announced that after London, they will launch Paris and ‘English regional flying’. The latter statement is where today’s piece will focus on. ‘English regional flying’ was a very specific statement. Firstly, did Robin mean specifically ‘English’ airports, or was it referring to the whole of the U.K., given a fair few Americans do mix up England/U.K. and even think London ‘is the whole of the UK’ in some instances? Personally, if the quote is accurate in its wording, I d
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