Manchester Airport news blog

  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 ...

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...

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 the...

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...

Aer Lingus puts Manchester Trans-Atlantic on sale. Starting 29th July, Aer Lingus adds 3 non-stop trans-Atlantic routes from Manchester, in the form of Barbados, New York and Orlando: Bridgetown: EI31 MAN 1100 BGI 1635 We/Fr/Su EI30 BGI 1940 MAN 0810 We/Fr/Su Starts 23rd Oct on A330-300 New York JFK: EI45 MAN 1205 JFK 1525 Daily EI44 JFK 1725 MAN 0550 Daily Starts 29th July on A321N Orlando: EI35 MAN 1100 MCO 1545 Daily EI34 MCO 1900 MAN 0835 Daily Starts 29th July on A330-300. Drops to 4 weekly from 23rd Oct to allow 3 weekly BGI.  

  Eurowings adds Palma. Starting 23rd May, Eurowings will add a 2 weekly Palma flight from Manchester. EW6826 PMI 0800    MAN 0940 Tu/Su EW6827 MAN 1030 MAN 1410 Tu/Su A320 used. Manchester-Palma is served by several carriers with up to 12 daily flights on some days. Further frequency increase for the peak season from July is mooted.

  Corendon summer 2022 Corendon has put its summer 2022 flights on sale from Manchester, with the addition of 2 routes and extra flights to Dalaman. Dalaman: XC8157 DLM 0515 MAN 0745 Mo/We/Fr/Su XC8158 MAN 0845 DLM 1500 Mo/We/Fr/Su Wed/Sun are new flights and start April 2nd using B737-800.  Rhodes: XR9247 RHO 1615 MAN 1845 Thu XR9275 RHO 1615 MAN 1845 Sun XR9248 MAN 1945 RHO 0200 Thu XR9276 MAN 1945 RHO 0200 Sun Starts 1st May 2022 and uses B737-800. Rhodes is served by TUI, Jet2 and Ryanair. Heraklion: XR781 HER 1610 MAN 1840 Tu/Th/Su XR782 MAN 1940 HER 0200 HER Tu/Th/Su Starts 1st May 2022 and uses B737-800. Heraklion is served by TUI, Jet2 and Easyjet.