BIRMINGHAM - 4
CH3CH2OH
At BHX today and spotted the crew for the PIA Islamabad going through security. Interesting (and a positive thing) to note that the cabin crew had a broader age profile than you might expect in both genders.
Would a UK route have seniority rights that may account for this or would it be a normal profile for PIA?
Would a UK route have seniority rights that may account for this or would it be a normal profile for PIA?
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Iceland express
More doom and gloom by the sound of it
.
Not sure if already mentioned but according to local press, Iceland express have cancelled their planned start up to REK next month.
They are blaming the volcano disruption and concentrating their efforts on existing routes.
Lets hope they re consider in the future along with Spanair.
More doom and gloom by the sound of it
.Not sure if already mentioned but according to local press, Iceland express have cancelled their planned start up to REK next month.
They are blaming the volcano disruption and concentrating their efforts on existing routes.
Lets hope they re consider in the future along with Spanair.
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Iceland Express
Not really a suprise that one , if it was launched maybe 4 or 5 years ago it might have been a winner. I totally agree with centre cities that we will do well to keep what we have. Turkish seems to have good and bad days but as they have stuck with it for nearly 18 months now the signs seem to be good , although an upgrade to a daily service would be nice. I am worried about the CO service though , considering the merger with United and the fact that a star alliance long haul service to a regional airport is frowned upon by their londoncentric partners (us airways a case in point) . We only have to look down the M5 to see that Bristols service is being pulled and that decision was made before they decided to call themselves united!
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Just want to make a comment on Continentals service from birmingham. There have being some who have feared that the route will be under threat from the preposed merger of United & Co. Im no expert in the airline business, but I feel that this route should be safe. The reason for stating this is I done a little research. From what I understand the BHX CO newark route is one of the oldest regional routes in the UK. Manchester being the oldest CO regional route. It has being operating out of birmingham since the summer of 1997 allmost 13yrs. It survived sept 11 2001 the only change to the service being drop from daily to 6 days a week for that year. From reports that I have read on about this service. Birmingham it is very good route for CO which I assume means that it is a profitable route. This current downturn has being the worst in avigation history. Given this fact and looking at the CAA stats of bhx published on this forum over the last 8 months. The BHX-EWR route appears to have held up very well in my opinion given the economic situation along with BHX other long hual routes PIA & EI with most load factors being in the 80s and over, correct me if i am wrong. There is no doubt that when CO & United Merge they will review current routes to Europe. They will look at profitability and future prospects for growth. In these tough economic times they are only going to keep routes that profitable with good yealds and have potential growth in the future. Someone mention about Bristol here, from what i heard the CO route out of Bristol was not profitable, and did not get the support from the business community ,CO didnt see any future there. The facilities at Bristol are pretty poor (which is not my comment but was stated by a businessman that has used bristol airport) especially when you compare it with BHX where the facilities are excellent , new int pier and further improvements are being planned inc runway ext. BHX has a very large catchment area which has no doubt contributed to CO success at BHX. If the BHX route was not performing it would have be axed long time ago which has happened to other CO routes in mainland europe over the past few years even before the downturn. In a nutshell provided that BHX-EWR route maintains its current good performance and by all indications that seems to be the case. The route should be safe and may even get upgraded in the future. In these uncertian times nothing garanteed, but only time will tell.
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Star alliance "Londoncentric" for long-haul?
Lets's analyse the alliances for their regional offering:
Skyteam:
DL - JFK & ATL to MAN (757 & 767 respectively)
Oneworld:
AA - JFK & ORD to MAN (JFK being seasonal though speculation that it may go year round), both 757
Star Alliance:
CO - 2 daily to EDI & MAN, daily to GLA, BHX, BFS & BRS (though the latter to be dropped) all from EWR with 757s
USAirways - PHL to GLA (seasonal 757) & MAN with A330
Singapore Airlines - 5 weekly SIN to MAN (via MUC). Speculation that it may go to daily (can't see it myself, but there you go.)
Skyteam:
DL - JFK & ATL to MAN (757 & 767 respectively)
Oneworld:
AA - JFK & ORD to MAN (JFK being seasonal though speculation that it may go year round), both 757
Star Alliance:
CO - 2 daily to EDI & MAN, daily to GLA, BHX, BFS & BRS (though the latter to be dropped) all from EWR with 757s
USAirways - PHL to GLA (seasonal 757) & MAN with A330
Singapore Airlines - 5 weekly SIN to MAN (via MUC). Speculation that it may go to daily (can't see it myself, but there you go.)
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RE : star alliance "londoncentric" for long haul
Yes Ringwayman , manchester will have it's fare share of long haulers as befits the larger regionals i.e MUC/BCN & MXP. But all we have at BHX is our lil 'ole 757 which seems very vulnerable at this time ( thanks Rodchester for your post 
i hope your right) . As for our alliances we have these choices:
Skyteam : get on an AF to CDG / KLM to AMS.
Oneworld : Go to LHR please
Star alliance : DLH to FRA . SWR to ZRH. CO to EWR ( but we would rather you go to LHR so we'll charge you a couple of hundred quid more for flying from your regional drome).
Oh and of course there is EK , which seem to me to be an alliance all on there own , bless em.
i hope your right) . As for our alliances we have these choices:Skyteam : get on an AF to CDG / KLM to AMS.
Oneworld : Go to LHR please
Star alliance : DLH to FRA . SWR to ZRH. CO to EWR ( but we would rather you go to LHR so we'll charge you a couple of hundred quid more for flying from your regional drome).
Oh and of course there is EK , which seem to me to be an alliance all on there own , bless em.
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icelandexpress charters
Cheers stuart
Yep reported on other sites as weekend based, I think Larnaca on
Friday, two flights Saturday (includes TFS) and Mahon on a Sunday
which routes BHX-MAH-NCL-MAH-BHX.
All good stuff and much needed.
Just hope things will work well in July/August not like this morning
in arrivals. With the buidling work merging T1 & T2 the place was a mess.
However problems were with baggage, Thomas Cook landed 05.42 and the first bag was 06.50. My wait was a speedy 55 minutes from landing. Bag arrivals were all greeted with sarcastic applause!
My flight was 85 minutes late (Thomson 763 tech again) and it could be argued that if it arrived on time it would have had "sole" attention in arrivals whereas I am sure efforts at the time of our delayed arrival would have been on getting departures away on time.
At least NCP didn't charge me for going over my 8 days pre-paid amount!
Pete
Yep reported on other sites as weekend based, I think Larnaca on
Friday, two flights Saturday (includes TFS) and Mahon on a Sunday
which routes BHX-MAH-NCL-MAH-BHX.
All good stuff and much needed.
Just hope things will work well in July/August not like this morning
in arrivals. With the buidling work merging T1 & T2 the place was a mess.
However problems were with baggage, Thomas Cook landed 05.42 and the first bag was 06.50. My wait was a speedy 55 minutes from landing. Bag arrivals were all greeted with sarcastic applause!
My flight was 85 minutes late (Thomson 763 tech again) and it could be argued that if it arrived on time it would have had "sole" attention in arrivals whereas I am sure efforts at the time of our delayed arrival would have been on getting departures away on time.
At least NCP didn't charge me for going over my 8 days pre-paid amount!
Pete
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Air India
Irish papers are reporting that AI could announce their new European transit base within the next month. Any news or rumours from those in the know about where BHX stands in all of this? I take it that recent comments made by PK about talks between BHX, a big international airline and an operation that they would not have been able to handle without the new Int Pier are to do with AI? I think the other airports involved are BCN, DUB, CPH and VIE. Heres hoping BHX put a good case forward
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No I don't think so. US was only scheduled for a summer run. Olton Pete will be able to give figures but I think it was fairly popular.
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US Air/Air India
Pax figures were okay but at discounted fares, I believe. Most routes usually get at least two seasons so things must have been bad.
The other thing which might have affected repeat bookings is that the product did not come up to scratch on the 757 per comments elsewhere.
Figures were: -
May 3449 - 123 pax 70%
June 5622 - 134 pax 76%
July 5679 - 129 pax 73% *****a poor July figure really******
August 7181 - 156 pax 89%
September 5599 - 137 pax 78%.
I was looking to use the service last year, which meant I kept an eye on the fares and they were certainly not cheap but that was during school holidays although they did drop in June and September. Also what was not known was the full-fare business take-up although it was rumoured to be weak.
Air India
The article quoted in the Dublin thread may indicate that AI have come to their senses but that should not stop any hope that AI night re-instate the a stand-alone ATQ-BHX service in the future.
Pete
The other thing which might have affected repeat bookings is that the product did not come up to scratch on the 757 per comments elsewhere.
Figures were: -
May 3449 - 123 pax 70%
June 5622 - 134 pax 76%
July 5679 - 129 pax 73% *****a poor July figure really******
August 7181 - 156 pax 89%
September 5599 - 137 pax 78%.
I was looking to use the service last year, which meant I kept an eye on the fares and they were certainly not cheap but that was during school holidays although they did drop in June and September. Also what was not known was the full-fare business take-up although it was rumoured to be weak.
Air India
The article quoted in the Dublin thread may indicate that AI have come to their senses but that should not stop any hope that AI night re-instate the a stand-alone ATQ-BHX service in the future.
Pete
Last edited by OltonPete; 6th Jun 2010 at 09:07. Reason: added text
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Thanks for the info - so probably no transit hub now, guess that makes sense financially for AI. I don't hold out much hope myself for a stand alone service to ATQ but you never know, the demand is certainly there but AI seemingly can't or don't want to commit. I hope they are also talking to Jet it would be such a shame if they went to MAN when the demand for direct India flights from BHX is so strong
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Yes..A 20,000 signature petition would say the demand is there. But AI and others with LHR slots don't seem to care and make their customers take the journey.
As we all know life ceases to exist outside the Smoke.!!!!
As we all know life ceases to exist outside the Smoke.!!!!
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A parking ticket in a car park!
Arrived back from a trip this week , and made my way back to the LS1 on foot and it was pleasing to see that nearly all the vehicles that parked half on/ half off the pavement down the bottom near the 20 stands had all been cleared, apart from 1 solitary car that had a parking ticket slapped on it . there were 2 cars that had parked off the road on a grassy/muddy bit near the fuel farm that also had tickets. Must be an ouch factor after returning from your trip and paying gawd knows what for the car park then to find another £60 on top of that. I know you shouldnt park there , not least because of the bashing your car may get from people/trolleys etc but i think they should put double yellows there or at least some signage.