Originally Posted by
BAforever
Quite true, BHX has a runway length of 2605m while say Cardiff has a lengnth of 2392m and CWL has 3 weekly Orlando flights One to POP and one to CUN with TOM on 767-2/3er so i cant see the runway being a problem. They also are not the only long-haul CWL operators. XL, Mytravel, Zoom to canada so its obviously the landing fees.
I believe the runway at CWL is flat, well it certainly looked it last time i was there, BHX has a great big slope in the middle. Going off 33 is fine, you get gravity to help with acceleration, going the other way when it's hot and the wind is only just strong enough to stop you taking 33 you can get a huge drop in payload which would mean any freight booked gets dumped straight away. Eventually the freight goes to other airports that can take it and revenue drops, the economics of the route become questionable, therefore the route gets moved 45 miles up the road. The only way to keep these flights is to lenghten the runway so they can take max payload in any weather.