Gulf Carriers Increase Operations to Manchester City
Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, all premier Arab airlines, have big plans for the city of Manchester. Each of the premier airlines has announced increased services to Manchester in a stark contrast to the British Airways, which has scrapped its services from the city.
Emirates, Dubai's national airline, is augmenting it operations to Manchester as it was announced by the company earlier this month. This announcement followed the ones made by the Etihad and Qatar indicating that both airlines will operate daily double flights from Abu Dhabi and Doha respectively.
Emirates' third daily flight will commence from 1st May, 2011 and will shoot up the airline's capacity by 25%. The airline's superjumbo service from Manchester has been a huge success with its 517-seat plane flying full within months of its introduction.
"Manchester is a real success story. To be adding a third flight just months after introducing our 517-seat A380 superjumbo to the route reflects surging demand for our flights in and out of the north west of England," Salem Obaidalla, Emirates' Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Europe & Russian Federation was quoted as stating in the Emirates' press release.
In a complete contrast to the Arabian carriers, the British Airways scrapped its long-haul flights from Manchester in 2008 in favour of Europe's busiest airport, London Heathrow. In 2010, Manchester was the busiest airport outside London with more than 17.5 million passengers. London Heathrow meanwhile handled over 65 million travellers last year.
Even as carriers like Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines and Singapore Airlines are operating long-haul services from Manchester; BA says it has no plans of revising the model.
Growth
Middle East-based carriers are targeting northern England to be in some kind of position to offer a challenge to the British Airways and other airlines that specialize in long-distance transfer traffic.
Emirates, with its 90 A380s and 45,000 total seats, hopes to channel its price-conscious passengers through Dubai. This will ensure that tickets on cheap flights will not be a problem for travellers on indirect flights.
Others aren't much behind as Qatar has orders for more than 170 jetliners worth $35 million and Etihad have orders for 100. According to different travel operators, passengers are indeed getting swayed by newer aircrafts. Travellers who look for tickets on cheap flights will not be disappointed but even for the ones who need some pampering on-board, tickets for first-class on Emirates and Etihad flights are available.
Charlie Cornish, Manchester Airport's Chief Executive Officer is also anticipating some growth for the company in the year 2011. He seemed to be pretty hopeful of the company boosting passenger numbers by 4 percent in the current year in an interview conducted some time back.
Emirates, Dubai's national airline, is augmenting it operations to Manchester as it was announced by the company earlier this month. This announcement followed the ones made by the Etihad and Qatar indicating that both airlines will operate daily double flights from Abu Dhabi and Doha respectively.
Emirates' third daily flight will commence from 1st May, 2011 and will shoot up the airline's capacity by 25%. The airline's superjumbo service from Manchester has been a huge success with its 517-seat plane flying full within months of its introduction.
"Manchester is a real success story. To be adding a third flight just months after introducing our 517-seat A380 superjumbo to the route reflects surging demand for our flights in and out of the north west of England," Salem Obaidalla, Emirates' Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Europe & Russian Federation was quoted as stating in the Emirates' press release.
In a complete contrast to the Arabian carriers, the British Airways scrapped its long-haul flights from Manchester in 2008 in favour of Europe's busiest airport, London Heathrow. In 2010, Manchester was the busiest airport outside London with more than 17.5 million passengers. London Heathrow meanwhile handled over 65 million travellers last year.
Even as carriers like Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines and Singapore Airlines are operating long-haul services from Manchester; BA says it has no plans of revising the model.
Growth
Middle East-based carriers are targeting northern England to be in some kind of position to offer a challenge to the British Airways and other airlines that specialize in long-distance transfer traffic.
Emirates, with its 90 A380s and 45,000 total seats, hopes to channel its price-conscious passengers through Dubai. This will ensure that tickets on cheap flights will not be a problem for travellers on indirect flights.
Others aren't much behind as Qatar has orders for more than 170 jetliners worth $35 million and Etihad have orders for 100. According to different travel operators, passengers are indeed getting swayed by newer aircrafts. Travellers who look for tickets on cheap flights will not be disappointed but even for the ones who need some pampering on-board, tickets for first-class on Emirates and Etihad flights are available.
Charlie Cornish, Manchester Airport's Chief Executive Officer is also anticipating some growth for the company in the year 2011. He seemed to be pretty hopeful of the company boosting passenger numbers by 4 percent in the current year in an interview conducted some time back.
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