For a time Manchester airport was absolutely the bees knees. The security was quick and efficient, the shops were great both land and airside and the airport, while never a hub, was served by a large number of scheduled airlines offering quality service to all over the world.

Now the airport is a shadow of its former self. Since BA turned into London airways and handed the routes over to flybe, the airport seems to be nothing more than a badly managed low cost charter holiday base - Monarch, Jet2 and MyTravel. It also always seems to resemble a building site. The remaining scheduled flights are badly planned - woe betide anyone trying to get the morning KLM flight to Amsterdam - you'll be stuck for an hour behind the mass of people boarding the PIA flight - a 747 where large majority of passengers have too much hand luggage, liquids etc and take forever to get through.

The former European cities served by BA can now only be reached through connecting through other airports, or by using Flybe - which has none of the benefits of being part of an airline alliance and is essentially a low cost operator constantly affected by delays.

The airport is not small - it has 2 runways and 3 terminals, is well situated in close reach of affluent Cheshire and the UK's second city and has excellent transport links. What's going on? BMI has pulled out from its longhaul routes, BA just withdrew its JFK service and not one airline offers First class from the airport. I don't understand why this excellent airport is being allowed to go to waste and why no major airline has had the guts to invest in it as an alternative hub to the overcrowded mess that is Heathrow. Forget the current credit crunch - MAN has been going downhill for the past 2 years.