BHX Busiest Month Ever !
Birmingham International Airport (BIA) has recorded its busiest month
ever, with some 1,023,697 travelling through the Airport in July, an
increase of 7.8% over 2004. This is the first time that the Airport
has broken through the million passenger milestone in a July. The
signs are good for even greater record levels in the peak month of
August.
Furthermore, on Friday 29th July the Airport recorded its busiest
ever day, with 38,190 passengers travelling through in 24hrs.
Richard Heard, Birmingham International Airport's Managing Director
commented, "These record passenger levels reflect the increasing
desire of people in the Midlands to travel - and to do that from
their regional airport. We have been delighted to launch a wide range
of new services this year to places far and wide. We now serve 126
destinations across the world direct, and many more through
connections at global hubs such as Dubai. You can now fly from
Birmingham on more airlines, to more places, at more value.
We have broken the records through a great team effort from everyone
at the Airport and we are continuing to invest in our facilities so
that we provide an even better service for more passengers in the
future. A major expansion to the Terminal 1 departure lounge is
already underway, along with an expansion of the Immigration and
Baggage Hall. In Terminal 2, we have just started a project to add
further check in desks and baggage systems improvements.
"The continuing success of the airport is great news for the Region
as we are one of the major drivers of employment and economic growth."
Scheduled traffic grew by 24.2% overall with passenger numbers
increasing on non-EU flights which grew by 51%, on Asian services
which were up 42.2%, as well as on Transatlantic routes which rose by
31.1% and EU flights which increased by 22.2%.
Other scheduled destinations which saw an increase in passenger
traffic during the month include, Prague (+108%), Larnaca (+98.3%),
Milan (+92.6%), Helsinki (+65.6%), Edinburgh (+26.3%), Copenhagen
(+24.3%), Amsterdam (+15.3%), and Zurich (+12.4%).
Charter passengers fell by 13.5% overall, reflecting a wider trend
across the charter market. Despite the overall fall in charter
traffic, a number of countries did experience growth in passenger
numbers from Birmingham including, Bulgaria (+78.3%), Mexico (+50.1%)
Croatia (+30.6%), Malta (+20.7%) Cyprus (+17.5%) and Turkey (+13.4%).
Scheduled traffic accounted for 65% of the total July figure while
charter passengers made up the remaining 35%.