Whats the main driver to get AA 777s on ORD-BHX? New reggies to see!!!
As others have said, the area that BHX needs to concentrate on is Europe. It is certainly true that without an air connection to LHR, BHX's LHR is essentially a choice of AMS, FRA, CDG or ZRH - and further affield DXB.
It is very noticeable that through the recent recession BHX services to all these cities, especially those services operated by the principal hub operators (KL, LH, AF, LX and EK) have all held up extremely well. The problem for BHX has been the leisure markets (weekend breaks) where the recent poor value of sterling has and poor employment prospects has killed off much of the demand. Moreover, there just isn't an inbound tourist / leisure market, the inbound market is largely business related and carried on the major alliance carriers, where often business houses have special deals.
There certainly are gaps in the BHX portfolio, most notably the Spanish and Scandinavian capital cities which hopefully as europe comes out of recession, will be filled, but this is best achieved not by Ryanair or Baby who don't offer interline connections, but more by the likes of SAS and Iberia or their associate companies operating CRJ / Embraer size equipment. Not exciting, but potentially profitable.
I just can't see the potential for many of the routes on people's wish lists - it just ain't feasible at present - longer runway or no longer runway.
As for Air India, their routes appear to be more driver by political, than economic goals. If the expat Indian communities in the midlands had votes in the Indian general election, then hey presto we might wind up with a ATQ / DEL connection again!!