Birmingham Airport increases profits despite fall in revenue - Other UK business news - Business News - Business - Birmingham Post
These look okay but not too difficult to see through these figures. However will PK be able to reduce costs much more without disrupting the business?
I went through BHX this last week and for the middle of summer it was just about the best airport experience I have had for ages for "peak travel".
Outbound, 12 security scanners working and was through at 6am in 5 minutes despite having my bag searched. Got upgraded once again as Long Stay 1 was full, which meant Multi Storey 1 for me although by this time I had paid my £1 to drop the family off closer to the terminal.
Other than the depressing low-roofed departure lounge which had few spare seats we boarded early and orderly at Gate 56 and the pier looked great.
On our return (16.40 Wednesday) we were about the eighth arrival of 15 that hour but all passport gates were working, although we did not use them (I am sure I heard no under 16's to go through but could be wrong). Only two "EU" Border Agency staff working but because the passport gates were working we sailed through. Baggage was about 25-30 minutes - more than acceptable.
The Cork flight landed 10 minutes later and the pax walked through 10 minutes after landing and they had their bags waiting.
Had a quick look at the new Duty Free arrivals and so did a few others but I didn't witness any purchases.
Overall it was a good experience and although with apparent lack of pax the new pier looked good (parked Gate 54) and the terminal had the feel of an "International Airport"
Back to the above article, PK is right about city breaks but poor examples used. Budapest - never had a flight, Biarritz - never performed well and Barcelona finished over a year ago more to do with Baby not been able to fit it into their schedule and is back next summer. City Breaks are going to hit if you don't fly to the likes of Madrid, Berlin, Venice, Rome, Stockholm but I suppose it is the "chicken and egg" syndrome.
Note about long-haul, if that is a good news area then BHX is in trouble. PIA 77W's to 772's, Thomson chop Punta Cana, Mahan Air was going one weekly and more worrying Emirates passenger numbers are heading south or should I actually say heading north (Manchester
)
Although it appears BHX is not to blame for the downturn and I can only point the finger at the Manchester increases. However we need to get through Ramadan and see the September, October and November figures to get a better idea of how things really are. More and more three-class low density Emirates triples are now been seen but as mentioned above this is usual for Ramadan.
Pete