Quite a few interesting mentions of BHX from Willie Walsh at the Transport select committee from a few weeks ago. I know some of this has already been touched upon but thought I'd cut and paste a few specific bits.
Q248 Iain Stewart: You did have a regional hub at Birmingham for some time and then you discontinued that. Can you segregate the transfer market into long-haul intercontinental against European transfers? If so, could you then restart a secondary hub at Birmingham or some other airport?
Willie Walsh: I have looked at some of the figures. Manchester airport is probably the best example. I know Birmingham has ambition and has expanded its runway, but from memory-I can probably check the figures and I have them here somewhere-the passenger traffic at Birmingham has been in decline for the last few years. I don’t think an extended runway is going to make a big difference there, to be honest with you.
Re: WW support for HS2.
Q256 Karen Lumley: But don’t you see any aspect for Birmingham Airport, for example, where people would come out of the north of London and it would be easier to get to Birmingham to use that than to go to Heathrow?
Willie Walsh: Yes, if you have the flights from Birmingham. But, if you want to fly to China, you are not going to have flights from Birmingham. If you want to fly to thousands of destinations, you are not going to have those flights from Birmingham, which is primarily a short-haul leisure market. That is the nature of it if you look at the passenger profile flying from Birmingham. Is that going to change? It might change a little but it is not going to change an awful lot.
Q257 Karen Lumley: There is no way you see yourself going back to Birmingham.
Willie Walsh: No, I don’t. Certainly I don’t see any business case or business justification for us to operate long-haul flights from Birmingham. It may attract a couple of other foreign airlines to operate into Birmingham, but not on a scale that will make any difference and certainly not on a scale that would justify the investment in HS2. If the business case for HS2 is to connect to Birmingham airport, I would really worry. If there is a business case to connect to Birmingham airport, there must be a business case that is 20, 30, 50 or 100 times more robust to connect to Heathrow. So I just don’t see it.