BIRMINGHAM - 5

[nigel osborne]

AANOTTS/SKIPNESS.

Re Air Transat you make some good points and as you say possibly make more money out of MAN then BHX.

However some clarifications..

"Even Heathrow has only 2 flts"

You try finding more slots at LHR at the times you want.Then of course you have a large number of flights by BA and Air Canada.

We flew out to Vancouver and back from Calgary with BA in May. Both were overbooked and we were tempted when they wants 24 people to miss the flight home from Calgary for £300.00 each.

BA rep told us every flight to both destinations was completely sold out till Sept, so hardly a dying destination.

"Only a few flights from Glasgow"

Actually will have 6 a week and another for peak summer.

Your comments on if it was a goldmine at BHX someone else would take it over ? These are charter flts so can you name another carrier that does that into the UK ?

The whole argument is similar to what BHX are saying, passengers forced up to Manchester as there are not enough flts from BHX.As I said earlier Manchester flights are INCREASED this summer , so again hardly a dying destination.

[OltonPete]

January pax down 4%

Another poor month but not surprising going by the amount of services that were cancelled and good job the weather was okay.

Source: CAA 501328 passengers, year to date 8587047 +0.2

ATM's 5623 -5.8 (wow on few diversions) rolling 83480 -1.4

A mixed month for airports with most down but BFS +8.9% and LCY +5.3%
quite good.

Luton 585102 +1.1%

Bristol down 3.5% and Liverpool -4.5%

Gatwick and East Mids late as usual.

Dubai only down 2%, quite a high figure and back over 80% load factor.

Turkish was once again the star up 51% and there was a flight cancelled this year due snow in Istanbul.

Rest were a mixed bunch with Newark up but very modest, PIA down, Frankfurt and Zurich down but Munich well up plus Paris, Brussels, Dusseldorf and, Copenhagen and Amsterdam also showing increases.

Cork was another route showing excellent figures considering the month.

[Skipness One Echo]

BA rep told us every flight to both destinations was completely sold out till Sept, so hardly a dying destination.

I suspect dropping from a B777 down to a B763 drove that one, Calgary remains on the smaller Boeing. The fact remains that no one has stepped up to the mark to serve BHX-YYZ, which I agree is a shame.

Your comments on if it was a goldmine at BHX someone else would take it over ? These are charter flts so can you name another carrier that does that into the UK ?

Air Transat operate this as a scheduled service with Canadian Affair booking seats. If the market was worth it, surely Thomas Cook would have Toronto on the B757 as per previous years?

[BobBHX]

Nostalgia

All the posts over the past few days on historic routes have made me all nostalgic. Someone mentioned Hannover and Hamburg, but what wasn't mentioned was that it was routed BHX/HAJ/HAM/BHX, in a BAC 111. The old B14s had wonderful blue velour armchairs in business and, if C wasn't too full, a lucky few in Y got the huge chairs.

Other highlights in the late 80s / early 90s were ABZ on a Gulfstream 1 with a pair of rearward facing seats at the front; AMS in a SF 340, LHR in an ATP, LGW in a Shorts 330 and NCL in J31s and J42s.

[Monty Gordo]

Footie charters

Happen to notice that Stoke City are playing Valencia tonight and I presume there must be several thousand (?) fans plus players and officials heading into Stoke for that match.

Are their any charter flights planned for this match, and if so, where are they heading for? Does BHX pick up any of these or do they all head for Man?

[EGBE0523]

Nostalgia

And another couple of routes long gone.
BHX - LHR on the wonderful Viscount flown by BEA (BE)
BHX - LGW flown by BCAL (BR) using a Twin Otter

[nigel osborne]

Skipness one echo.

Unfortunately TCX do not appear to be using their 757s on long haul any more. For crewing, scheds you just can't do a one off flt from just the 1 airport long haul, which is why it was never going to happen out of BHX last year.

Relation to BA the Vancouver was a 747, that was full ,and as you say Calgary was a 767.

Talking to the gent at the Calgary gate, he stated virtually every day they are having to ask people to stay behind as its so overbooked.

There is no doubt there is huge over demand for flights to Canada and simply not enough planes to meet such

However you are right to point out that most want economy price seating, and apart from Air Transat and perhaps a few flights from Sunwing to LGW nobody else is interested in that market.

Air Canadas price to Vancouver was £600.00 more return for 2 of us from LHR,than the BA equivalent so was a no brainer.

Nigel

[crewmeal]

BHX - LHR on the wonderful Viscount flown by BEA (BE

Before the mods send half this stuff under BHX nostalgia to Aviation History, I remember when I was working for Fortes Flight Catering at hangar 1 seeing a BOAC 707 operating an LHR flight instead of a Viscount. Of course BHX was full of diversions from afar in order for this to happen. I believe it was around 1972-3.

[nigel osborne]

Crewmeal.

Remember 30 diversions parked on the short in 1977, BEA Tridents BOAC 707S/VC-10S,BEA Vanguards,Viscounts,SAS,SWISS,Austrian DC-9s, etc.

Wonderful sight... then Cat 3 came along...booo !

Nigel

[Skipness One Echo]

LHR in an ATP

a "highlight".
I remember seeing the old Skodas (80ps, Another Technical Problem) in the queue for 27L on their way to EMA and BHX. Different days.

[OltonPete]

ATP/flybe

flybe

As predicted on the IOM thread the IOM-BHX flybe service changes back to a BHX based aircraft, which helps to accommodate the new Waterford service for summer 2012.

The early morning rotation also seems to operate the Hanover afterwards still leaving a spare aircraft in the morning but not so in the afternoon and evening.

SOE

Only got to fly on the ATP once on BHX-LHR BD771, standby £33 on my ?? Birthday and it was a cracking flight but it was a pleasant April day with great views of the capital on the way in. I do remember the tech issues although more so on the BA models especially on BHX-GLA.

Pete

[Skipness One Echo]

Pete, my very first flight was GLA-MAN-GLA back in Aug-91 on G-BTPC/D. It was where my flying experiences started! The Midland ATPs were rare enough in Scotland to be interesting by then!

Indeed Midland had their own handling Midland Airport Services at BHX back in thos days, MAS.

[mart901]

Yep - there was MAS and Ogden Aviation as I remember??

[OltonPete]

January route analysis International

Source: CAA for the monthly stats the rest are estimates by using the blog and libhomeradar.

Destination followed by 2012 pax followed by 2011 in brackets then average per flight then load factor.

Most seem okay for January other than a few such as Gothenburg obviously the new times have not gone down well. Hamburg & Milan is low but if you operate Tu/Th/Fr/Su what do you expect and why would you drop Monday of all days but keep Tuesday. Frankfurt was down as no flybe this year but I would say more frequency and a smaller aircraft with a 15.30 and 19.00
arrival rather than one 17.00. It will be interesting to see what happens once the BMI A320 goes whenever that will be.

Nice to see EK back over 80% and Turkish might seem low at 65% but it is fantastic compared to previous years. Pakistan is low but this is across the board (see LHR & MAN)

BRUSSELS .................8519....(7963)...... 43 pax-......62% load factor
LARNACA ................ 2888... (3711)......160 pax..... 75%
PRAGUE................... 3104...... (211)......103 pax.....69%
COPENHAGEN.......... 5478......(5206)...... 61pax.... 58%
CHAMBERY................ 734......( 863)........41 pax.....52%
GRENOBLE............... 2086..... (1803).... 116 pax.... .74%
LYON....................... 2257.....(2055)...... 30 pax... .58%
PARIS (CDG)........... 25907....(23186)..... 79 pax.....69%
DUSSELDORF.......... 11370....(10693)...... 44 pax.... 51%
FRANKFURT........... 17641....(18806)...... 79 pax.....50%
HAMBURG................ 1046....(1329)....... 26 pax......35%
HANOVER................ 2967....(3222)....... 55 pax......70%
MUNICH................. 13064....(9948)....... 81 pax......70%
NIEDERRHEIN................. 0....( 3660)
STUTTGART............. 2126....( 1718)....... 30 Pax......39%
TEHRAN......................... 0...(3942)
CORK....................... 5354....(4669)....... 43 pax......60%
DUBLIN.................. 36634...(38535)..... 101 pax..... 56%
KNOCK..................... 2398.... (2502)...... 75 pax..... 50%
SHANNON................ 2417.....(2089)...... 42 pax......58%
WATERFORD.................. 0......( 827)
MILAN (MXP)............ 1238.....(1652)....... 33 pax......42%
KAUNAS.................. 2542.......( 0 ).........141 pax......75%
MALTA.................... 2310......(4109)..... 144 pax......76%
AMSTERDAM.......... 34055.....(31212)..... 88 pax.......70%
ISLAMABAD............. 7794.....( 9254).... 216 pax......63%
BYDGOSZCZ............. 3729......(4079).... 143 pax......76%
GDANSK.................. 2653......(2893).... 147 pax.......78%
KATOWICE............... 2453......(2394).... 136 pax......72%
KRAKOW........................ 0......(4008)
RZESZOW................. 2628......(3025)..... 146 pax......77%
FARO....................... 5758......(3571)..... 144 pax......71%
BRATISLAVA............ 3861...... (4425).... 149 pax.......79%
ALICANTE.............. 13332......(11587)... 163 pax......80%
GERONA................... 1143......( 2597).... 114 pax......60%
MALAGA.................. 9652......( 11232).. 166 pax......85%
ARRECIFE................. 7370.....(6823)..... 160 pax......80%
FUERTEVENTURA..... 3096......( 1197)..... 141 pax..... 73%
LAS PALMAS............. 4678.....(4981)...... 152 pax......76%
TENERIFE................ 13545.....(14446).... 169 pax......82%
GOTEBORG................. 566.......( 1268)...... 14 pax......28%
GENEVA.................. 11496......(12977).... 122 pax......80%
ZURICH................... 10608......(11057)...... 58 pax.....58%
ISTANBUL................. 4547.......( 3018)..... 103 pax.....65%
ASHKHABAD............. 4797.......(5721)...... 133 pax.....70%
DUBAI..................... 42834 ......(43494).... 345 pax.....83%
NEW YORK (EWR)...... 6376........( 6272)..... 118 pax.....70%

Pete

[INKJET]

Interesting stats Pete

Good to see AMS up ALC up AGP down?

FRA leakage to EMA?

[LGS6753]

What I find astonishing is that the top destination by pax numbers is not Paris or Dublin, but Dubai!!

[OltonPete]

January

INKJET

All three operators cut Malaga this year, Ryanair operated six fewer, Baby eight less and Monarch four less compared to 2011.

Alicante on the other hand saw Ryanair operate three more flights, Monarch two and Baby the same number per my records but it was well up. Although not too much choice to Spain and even Girona finished for two weeks and Ryanair have never done that before.

Amsterdam is certainly one service where both airlines seem to co-exist without much chopping and changing. The load factor was dragged up a bit by several KLM cancellations, which is unusual for them, some were planned and some were weather related.

LGS6753

You have picked up on one of the most surprising and that is Dublin. I will have dig back in my records but that is one low load factor and the monthly figure was poor as well. It is possible I missed some cancellations and it might well end up a bit higher but not much.

At least some recovery with the Dubai figures.



Pete

[rn750]

What I find astonishing is that the top destination by pax numbers is not Paris or Dublin, but Dubai!!

Is this an indicator that Midlanders would rather fly from BHX to Dubai for onward connection than go to London?

I think so and it shows there is a market..

Adie

[ATNotts]

Adie

It's also a reflection on the state of the Irish economy, and for cash strapped Midlanders looking for a weekend break, the high cost of things such as hotels, restuarants and booze in the Irish capital, versus others in Euroland.

As far as for onward connections in concerned, is there anyone who would rather drive to LHR, to fly direct rather than use "first world" airports such as Dubai, Munich, Amsterdam etc for their onward connections?

[j636]

have you being to DUB recently, the cost of hotels, food has dropped a lot over the last few years.

I think its more of a case people in Ireland/UK can only afford one hoilday a year and all city breaks during winter are gone.

I am almost certain MON operated a number of BHX charters to DUB last Jan, they had around 5 aircraft parked in DUB last Jan for a few days. Some conferance for somthing. THey had flights from across the UK.