It's perhaps an understatement to say that UK airport management has been a turbulent business in recent years. Airlines cutting routes and capacity due to the recession, the stringent security regime, air tax rises, volcanic ash and snow delays have all been huge issues. And that's not counting the ongoing, never-ending management of a wide range of interest groups. Running an airport is now more challenging than ever.
For Andrew Harrison, the recently-appointed Managing Director of Manchester Airport, such challenges go with the territory. And at Manchester, he says, they're managing to not just cope with them but feel they're well-positioned for the future.
"The aviation industry has had a lot to deal with in recent years - in addition to the impact of a global recession, we've also had volcanic ash, snow and numerous changes in aviation security procedures," Harrison told Global Aviation Resource.
Like all airports Manchester has suffered a significant fall in passenger numbers. According to official Civil Aviation Authority statistics, the number of passengers at Manchester in 2009 was 18.7 million, down from 21.2 million in 2008 - which itself was down from the 22 million handled for three successive years in 2005-2007. Notable connections were lost, with British Airways cancelling an unprofitable service to New York JFK and BMI British Midland International cutting five long-haul routes.
The CAA's figures for 2010 are expected to show another drop for last year to 17.6 million passengers, the fewest since 1999. However, Harrison stresses that "the market has finally taken a significant surge forward" in recent months.
"We're already starting to see strong passenger growth with international traffic showing a significant improvement on last year's stats, following on from the strong performance of our cargo operation in recent months," he said.
Indeed, according to CAA figures Manchester has just had four successive months (October-January) where passenger numbers have increased. This has mainly been due to new services and more frequencies on long-haul routes, most notably Emirates launching a second daily flight from Dubai using an A380 - the latter making Manchester the first regional airport in the world to have a service from the new airliner.
And this year, too, will see lots of new services. A permanent daily link to New York will be restored in April by American Airlines using a Boeing 757, reviving a service that did well last summer. Ryanair has added four Mediterranean destinations as well as increasing frequencies on services to Dublin. BMI is introducing services to Basel and Frankfurt. Virgin Atlantic will shortly launch a service to Las Vegas and TAP Portugal will commence a flight to Lisbon. Meanwhile, the likes of bmibaby and Jet2 will be increasing frequencies on their operations, with Qatar Airways recently announcing that it's adding a second daily flight to Doha. Etihad will fly twice daily to Abu Dhabi, and Emirates also recently confirmed they would fly three times a day to Dubai, with one of the flights handled by the 517-seat A380.
The airport wants to carry on developing, with the long-haul network regarded as a vital part of the airport's future. Hence it's "So near, yet so far" marketing campaign launched last September. This aims to challenge the perception that Heathrow is the only UK airport to offer connectivity to destinations worldwide.
"Our catchment area is vast; it extends from the east coast to the west coast of the country, north into Scotland and south to Birmingham," Andrew Harrison explains. "Our research shows that around 1.5 million people within our catchment do not know that it's possible to fly anywhere in the world from Manchester with direct or one stop services on a daily basis.
"It's targeting people who we know are driving and getting the train right past Manchester to travel to a long haul destination - for example last year 50% of travellers from the North wanting to fly to Dubai were driving to London rather than take flights from Manchester. With three daily services, and one of them being an A380, there's no need to do that."
Manchester's ambition to grow its long-haul network, however, is somewhat complicated by the current Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax. APD charges went up in November 2010. APD on economy short-haul flights has risen from £10 in 2009 to £12 and on flights to the USA and the Middle East it's gone up from £40 to £60. Harrison says that for airports like Manchester the cost of APD is high since it means airlines will look at choosing cheaper airports elsewhere, and passengers here will lose connectivity.
"The rise in Air Passenger Duty makes the UK's regional airports less attractive to international carriers and will continue to lead them to choose alternative hubs such as Amsterdam or Frankfurt," Harrison told Global Aviation Resource. "Regional airports including Manchester are more price sensitive, meaning that if airlines can make more money elsewhere, they will. For London's airports, where airline demand exceeds supply, the impact of the tax rise is likely to prove negligible because there are more corporate headquarters in and around the capital and there are more business passengers.
"We believe the tax will threaten the quality of routes into Manchester, with the biggest risk on long-haul services but we will continue to communicate with UK and European ministers to push the case for everyone in the industry and bring this issue to the very top of Government, and find a fairer solution."
Moving onto domestic air services, a potential issue on the horizon is the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail link, a proposed new line linking London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. If approved it could open by 2025. The rail industry is bullish about the impact this would have on people's travelling behaviour, with Edward Welsh, the Association of Train Operating Companies chief executive, just one of those claiming the line would spell the end for many city-to-city flights in the UK.
Andrew Harrison says the impact of HS2 is more apparent than it is real, and would in fact help UK airports. "On the face of it, air travel and high-speed rail probably don't make natural bedfellows; however, we see HS2 as a fundamental element of the UK's future transport infrastructure and complementary to our business," he told Global Aviation Resource.
"Our primary aim is to persuade government of the real benefits of bringing High Speed 2 to Greater Manchester. This will complement the other key priority of investing in the Northern Rail hub. Together these schemes will greatly improve connections between the airport, Greater Manchester and the UK. Improved rail access is a crucial part of our transport strategy and will give people better access to long haul air services from Manchester and help to ease the capacity constraints at the London airports as well as on the rail network."
That's for the future, though. More immediately a lot is going to happen to the airport's infrastructure. "We're just about to spend £20 million refurbishing Runway One, which was last resurfaced in 1996 - the programme also includes refurbishing vital light fittings and wiring replacements," says Harrison.
There's also going to be a brand new control tower building adjacent to the fire station. Construction on the multi-million pound standalone facility will begin later this year, with operations scheduled to start in 2013. At 60 metres tall, it will be the second-tallest tower in the UK. Construction works on connecting the airport to Greater Manchester Metrolink tram network have recently begun, with trams expected to be running to the airport by 2016.
All this isn't to say there's not already been significant investment in facilities. Manchester Airport has invested over £80 million in recent years in its three terminals, with new lounges and retail offerings as well as new security processes and technology.
"The redesigns have had to withstand the test of time with the liquid ban and the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport [in 2007] meaning we had to take them back to the drawing board several times, always putting our customers' safety and security at the forefront of our designs," explains Harrison. "However with the work finished in T1 and T2 finished, and T3 set to complete shortly, we are delighted with the outcome and customer feedback indicates a bright future."
In T1, the size of the retail frontage is now 550 linear metres - larger than the retail zones of King Street and Market Street in the centre of Manchester. T1 is also the location for the £1.7 million Escape Lounge, opened last summer, which the airport says over 50,000 passengers will use in its first year. Emirates and Etihad have recently opened dedicated lounges, while Virgin Holidays will do so in time for the summer schedule.
It appears the investment is paying off. In November 2010 Manchester was named UK Airport of the Year and Best Major UK Airport at the British Travel Awards for the third consecutive year, which Harrison describes as "a huge accomplishment...as it is voted for by the travel industry and the travelling public - it also sets a benchmark for us in terms of success for the future".
Security is an area where Manchester Airport has invested heavily in recent years. In 2008, as part of the redesign of T1, the airport opened a brand new security hall designed to remove the stress of security checks by taking passengers through security first before reaching airside shops and restaurants. This doubled the number of security lanes to 14 in T1, with Harrison boasting there is now "an average queuing time of less than eight minutes" in T1.
The airport attracted considerable media attention in October 2009 when it began a trial of full body scanners as an alternative to traditional 'pat down' security searches and the need to remove coats, jackets, shoes and belts. Despite the critical views of some passengers and lobby groups on privacy grounds, the airport says they've proved popular with passengers, and the scanners are now in use at all three terminals.
"Over 800,000 passengers have passed through Manchester Airport's body scanners since the technology was launched," says Harrison. "Independent passenger surveys reveal that over 95% of travellers consistently rate the body scanner process to be a significant improvement on the traditional airport security 'pat down'. We regularly hear that passengers don't like undergoing a personal search by security staff but they understand that it's a necessary part of keeping them safe."
More recently, the airport has become the first in the UK to introduce virtual hologram videos of two security officers, John Walsh and Julie Capper, to help explain the liquid restrictions to passengers preparing for security checks in T1.
The airport's also invested in improving its Runway Visitor Park, formerly the Airport Viewing Park, with £1.2 million spent on a hangar to house Concorde G-BOAC and a brand new visitors' centre, while the aircraft collection there was bolstered last year by the arrival of ex-RAF Nimrod MR.2 XV231.
A lot is happening at Manchester Airport. Whether it's new flights, new infrastructure and new retail development, Andrew Harrison feels the airport can emerge successfully from the economic storms. "It has been a challenging period, but we've got some excellent foundations to build on and a very talented team, so I am confident that we are now in an enviable position to take full advantage of the economic recovery and deliver the benefits that the business brings to the North West region and beyond."
GAR wants to interact with its readers so if you have a question for the author or a comment to make on this feature, please click on the button below. The best comments will appear right here on GAR.
If you would like to discuss using any of our imagery or feature content please contact us.