Manchester to capital in an hour
John Scheerhout
BELGIAN airline VLM launched its inaugural flight from Manchester into the heart of London yesterday - and threw down the gauntlet to major carriers and the rail network.
It left Manchester at 9.30am and after a 51-minute flight into London City Airport and a short bus journey, passengers arrived at Canary Wharf, the capital's financial centre in a little over an hour.
A train from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston takes two hours and 40 minutes. And next summer, rail commuters face considerably longer journey times for three months when sections of the west coast main line will be closed for work to enable it to take high speed tilting trains.
Manchester air passengers who fly to Gatwick and Heathrow also face lengthy train and bus journeys into the capital.
People who travel by coach can expect a four hour journey from Chorlton Street in Manchester to London.
VLM's six services a day from Manchester, which boast a 15-minute check-in time, will cost from £20 one way, not including tax, although the average price of a return is expected to be around £140.
Door-to-door
The Antwerp-based airline, which can justifiably claim to offer a quicker door-to-door service than any of its rivals, is the most aggressive newcomer in the domestic flights market.
Its managers are already considering increasing the number of flights and introducing new routes as a result of encouraging early bookings on the new Manchester service.
It also hopes to promote Manchester and the North West as a popular weekend break for both Londoners and foreign tourists and will also target football fans travelling to and from the capital.
Bernard Jacobs, VLM's director of sales and business development, told the Manchester Evening News: "Bookings are surprisingly good.
"We expected that from Manchester but nevertheless we're also seeing a good load factor from London to Manchester over the next couple of weeks.
"And we can see on our off-peak midday flights much more traffic for leisure users."
He pointed out VLM had taken on a route abandoned by the Dutch national carrier, KLM, years ago. He said: "There was not much traffic out of London at that time and that's increasing year by year. Today, for instance, we have a 50 per cent load factor out of London on our first flight." He admitted 35,000 passengers a year were required for the new route to be profitable but added VLM hoped to do far better and attract between 100,000 to 120,000 passengers a year within three years.
He added: "Manchester is marketing itself much better than it did in the past and with so many beautiful surroundings we are hoping to develop Manchester and the North of England."
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