Rutan16
Totally agree with your comments about BA and the after effects for BHX after their withdrawal.
I worked at BHX whilst BA/Maersk operated a fairly sizeable European operation. There was no plan in place if they withdrew as no one believed they would. Instead everyone believed that BHX and BA would always be in bed together and sneered at these pesky new low cost airlines who they thought would only ever operate limited marginal flights from what they saw as secondary airports like East Mids and Bristol. When BA eventually pulled out, as you rightly say, it was a HUGE and unexpected shock and took years for BHX to recover as there was no interest from FR, EZY, GO as by this stage, these pesky low cost airlines were in fact doing very well indeed from East Mids, Bristol, Liverpool, Luton etc. ....BHX had well and truly caught a cold. They half heartedly tried to catch up a few years later with My Travel Lite but this didn't last long and in any case, by now fast growing numbers of Midlanders were getting used to travelling to a growing LTN plus the aforementioned airports to take advantage of cheap flights to destinations available from them but not from BHX. OK BHX boasted carriers and routes these upstarts didn't (I'm thinking legacy Euro and EK, TK, CO etc) but these didn't provide the huge growth in pax numbers and routes that the low cost gang did, particularly at BRS, LPL, STN and LTN. Trouble was the thought process and attitudes of BHX management were stuck in the late 80's / early 90's for too long and the airport failed to adapt quickly enough to what was a seismic change in air travel in the UK from the mid 90's. It lost ground to airports that were mere minnows in the 80's and early 90's but who were by the late 90's (and beyond) making huge gains on BHX
Fast forward to 2023 and yes BHX has made huge strides forward but still underperforms considering it's location. However IMO it has a decent roster if airlines and routes thanks to a change in approach to all aspects of business model and credit to the route development team have certainly proved their worth - Pegasus, easyJet, Saudia, SunExpress, plus the return of Aegean, Qatar, and a clearly a much better relationship with FR, all in the last 12 months. BHX has also retained its legacy Euro carriers despite COVID and the decline in business travel and has good links to the Indian sub continent. There is a lot to be happy about. But one wonders where the airport would be now had it not been so short sighted and instead had been more appreciative and open to the low cost revolution of the 90's and hadn't had such a dismissive attitude to this and the airports who did embrace and grew so strongly because of it.