Having just looked at a very comprehensive BHX scheduled timetable for winter 17/18, the demise of Monarch and withdrawal of Vueling and Norwegian sees frequency and choice from BHX on traditional winter sun routes slashed. Jet2 have admirably added some capacity but the hole Monarch have left behind is nowhere near filled. I'm not saying that 5 airlines on the same route is financially sustainable (e.g. BHX-AGP) but I doubt what is left (basically Jet2 and Ryanair) will satisfy all the demand for travel on these routes this winter: increased leakage to other airports is inevitable but in my opinion unnecessary. I was booked to fly Monarch BHX-FAO in Nov but am now having to fly out of Bristol instead, due to my travel dates. I should imagine I'm just one of thousands whow have had to do this. Hopefully Summer 18 will see an improvement in frequencies if not choice of airlines.
Summer 18 will indeed be interesting. At present, BHX has lost Aegean, Air Transat, Cobalt, Norwegian and United. Flybe are down to 10 aircraft. In terms of destinations, no more Athens, Brest, Gibraltar, Limoges, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Nice, Nuremburg, Paris Orly, Preveza, Rennes, Toulouse, Valencia. Perhaps small fry in terms of individual route performance, but they all mean lost passengers, lost revenue to BHX and reduced choice.
On the bright side though - Jet2 of course add aircraft and Pisa, Almeria and Thessaloniki as well stepping in on a number of Monarch routes, SAS start Stockholm and Primera start Newark, Boston and Toronto which could revolutionize trans-Atlantic travel from BHX. TUI and Thomas Cook also see expanded operations with Varna and Marsa Alam back on the departure screens and Podgorica a first from BHX, amongst other increases. Winter 18/19 sees TUI start Langkawi and Bangkok which shows continued commitment to long haul leisure routes from BHX.
By no means is it a glass half empty situation at all but summer 18 will have a very different feel at BHX to the one just gone.