BIRMINGHAM - 5
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Emirates A380 at BHX???
Heard a rumour from a handling agent today that Emirates were planning a early morning B777 followed by an A380 at lunchtime.
Anyone else heard this???
Anyone else heard this???
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Head of Route Development Appointed.
Good news at last?
I had to travel across to EMA on Tues to collect little Realfish and girlfriend arriving from Rome.
Whilst I was there, in and around EMA, I saw taxis from Solihull (2), Brum, Cannock Chase and here (Lichfield District) - frustrating evidence, in my view, of the appalling failure of BHX to provide the air routes that the region, its economy and its people need.
William has got quite a task on his hands.
I had to travel across to EMA on Tues to collect little Realfish and girlfriend arriving from Rome.
Whilst I was there, in and around EMA, I saw taxis from Solihull (2), Brum, Cannock Chase and here (Lichfield District) - frustrating evidence, in my view, of the appalling failure of BHX to provide the air routes that the region, its economy and its people need.
William has got quite a task on his hands.
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Good luck to the new guy, I really hope this is a step (at long last, some might say too late) in the right direction for BHX in gaining some route growth.
I wold love to know what the true numerical value of the leakage of pax from the BHX catchment area to other airports is. Unless you collect frequent flier points, want to go to the Med or just like connecting flights I think there is a huge amount of people for whom travelling to EMA, LPL, BRS and the like from areas noted above and many others in the West Midlands has become the norm for short haul flying. Lets hope this is something that is now addressed, but IMO its going to take some solid and sustained route development backed up with a massive marketing campaign to claw pax back, raise awareness of BHX and bring it back to being the gateway of choice for travel to/from the Midlands. Not an easy job. As for long haul expansion, sorry but I still have my doubts, I hope that ATQ is high on his priority list its the one long haul route BHX should be able to sustain
Whilst I was there, in and around EMA, I saw taxis from Solihull (2), Brum, Cannock Chase and here (Lichfield District) - frustrating evidence, in my view, of the appalling failure of BHX to provide the air routes that the region, its economy and its people need
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August 2011
Not very good with IT and domestics blamed.
source CAA 945379 down 2% (964911)
Rolling year 8630195 -0.4%
ATM's 7984 -2.6% - rolling year 84477 -2.9%
Long-haul also took a hit due to Ramadan with PIA down a staggering
29%, Manchester lost 23% on their route but Heathrow was up.
Emirates was down but still managed a load factor of 82% due to many
three class aircraft operating.
Newark was down but at least four rotations were lost.
Turkmenistan way up despite using some 738's, which shows how Mahan
Air have been missed.
Turkish had its best month I believe up about a 1000 and there were five Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the month which are days it does not operate. Averaged 130 pax about 79% on 13 x A320's, 1 x A319, 1 x 738 and 6 x 321's.
Brussels was up 35% despite it dropping from 5 daily to three in the week and one of those was a Q400, which saw the load factor at 56% rather than the 40-50% in past years.
Frankfurt (down 6%) was as much disappointing (despite the BE loss) as was the Munich pleasing (up 35%).
Most city routes were up though including CPH, ZRH, AMS, DUS, HAJ, DUB and MXP with CDG slightly down and STR.
Pete
source CAA 945379 down 2% (964911)
Rolling year 8630195 -0.4%
ATM's 7984 -2.6% - rolling year 84477 -2.9%
Long-haul also took a hit due to Ramadan with PIA down a staggering
29%, Manchester lost 23% on their route but Heathrow was up.
Emirates was down but still managed a load factor of 82% due to many
three class aircraft operating.
Newark was down but at least four rotations were lost.
Turkmenistan way up despite using some 738's, which shows how Mahan
Air have been missed.
Turkish had its best month I believe up about a 1000 and there were five Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the month which are days it does not operate. Averaged 130 pax about 79% on 13 x A320's, 1 x A319, 1 x 738 and 6 x 321's.
Brussels was up 35% despite it dropping from 5 daily to three in the week and one of those was a Q400, which saw the load factor at 56% rather than the 40-50% in past years.
Frankfurt (down 6%) was as much disappointing (despite the BE loss) as was the Munich pleasing (up 35%).
Most city routes were up though including CPH, ZRH, AMS, DUS, HAJ, DUB and MXP with CDG slightly down and STR.
Pete
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This is certainly not to re-ignite the MAN/BHX arguments but just thought this might be of interest from the MAN thread, its a snippet from the IB press release for their new MAN & GLA routes
If this is the view held by airline route planners and with the appalling pax figures posted by OP above (at least they are not blaming the weather or a sporting event 
), the new guy certainly has his work cut out, if BHX can't attract IB with its long haul feed possibilities in MAD then abandon hope all ye who enter......
"Both routes serve both for point to point traffic between Madrid and two cities, and to bring traffic to the long-haul network of Iberia, particularly significant in the case of Manchester, the second city of United Kingdom and an important financial and cultural center"
), the new guy certainly has his work cut out, if BHX can't attract IB with its long haul feed possibilities in MAD then abandon hope all ye who enter......
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cities' airline status
Gay Friendly
I wouldn't worry too much about that expression when 'second' is used as adjective. In city terms as it relates to airline traffic, after London Manchester is the second city. This does not in away detract from Birmingham's proper noun status as The Second City which, of course is historic and takes in many more factors than the airline business or football!
I wouldn't worry too much about that expression when 'second' is used as adjective. In city terms as it relates to airline traffic, after London Manchester is the second city. This does not in away detract from Birmingham's proper noun status as The Second City which, of course is historic and takes in many more factors than the airline business or football!
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Ryanair & Emirates
Ryanair have released some more of the summer 2012 schedule but virtually no change to this summer, Dublin three daily with Dublin based aircraft except for one on Saturday, LDY four weekly, the only sort of surprise is that Malta is bookable already on a Monday and Friday.
Emirates
Going back to a posts from earlier in the week, one source has EK receiving 21 aircraft in 2012 although I can only find about 15 potentially but new routes include Dublin, St Petersburg, Baghdad, Rio/Buenos Aires, Frankfurt gets a third flight and I know Prague is changing from the A332 to the 777 but I think there are aircraft to allocate still for 2012.
However it would be a surprise to get anything before September 2012 although the August figure was not as bad as I thought it would be. You would have thought Glasgow would be due an evening flight as the single flight averages over 400 every day most months.
Pete
Emirates
Going back to a posts from earlier in the week, one source has EK receiving 21 aircraft in 2012 although I can only find about 15 potentially but new routes include Dublin, St Petersburg, Baghdad, Rio/Buenos Aires, Frankfurt gets a third flight and I know Prague is changing from the A332 to the 777 but I think there are aircraft to allocate still for 2012.
However it would be a surprise to get anything before September 2012 although the August figure was not as bad as I thought it would be. You would have thought Glasgow would be due an evening flight as the single flight averages over 400 every day most months.
Pete
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August 2011 Route Analysis
Monthly passenger figures provided by the CAA, average pax and load factor
are my estimates using a BHX blog and libhomeradar. The 2010 figures are in
brackets.
Again some flybe could be out as there were some extras on the French routes and cancellations on the business destinations. Usual high load factors on most of the Ryanair flights.
I have not taken a hard look at these but they look okay but the reason for the overall decrease was given as charter and domestics. Certainly Egypt was well down as was most Turkish (Goldtrail) flights, virtually all Spanish routes were down but Greece did well.
DUBLIN 49,918 (48647)/ 140 pax/ 77% load factor
PALMA DE MALLORCA 23116 (21188)/ 156 pax/ 87%
AMSTERDAM 41,741 (37736)/ 100 pax/ 75%
DUBAI 41,568 (44333)/ 335 pax/ 82%
MALAGA 33378 (34401)/167 pax/ 90%
DALAMAN 7064 (5071) /196 pax/95% I assume includes PGT pax
FARO 23794 (21975)/ 170 pax/ 90%
ALICANTE 36332 (29361)/ 165 pax/ 89%
TENERIFE (SURREINA SOFIA) 18935 (15274)/ 189 pax/92%
PARIS (CHARLES DE GAULLE) 24,683 (255452)/ 77 pax/66%
IBIZA 10476 (11495)/ 178 pax/ 88%
FRANKFURT MAIN 22,973 (24427)/ 93 pax/ 64%
LARNACA 5379 (7549)/ 207 pax/ 97%
ARRECIFE 9818 (8270)/ 182 pax/ 90%
PAPHOS 3793 (nil)/ 210 pax/98%
MUNICH 13,977 (10321)/82 pax/76%
ZURICH 13,569 (12979)/ 74 pax/74%
MAHON 6905 (6886) /192 pax/90%
DUSSELDORF 12,147 (11732)/ 45 pax/51%
BODRUM (MILAS) 3489 (nil)/ 194 pax/91%
FUERTEVENTURA 6475 (3315)/ 180 pax/ 89%
LAS PALMAS 6582 (6868)/ 183 pax/91%
MURCIA SAN JAVIER 10,530 (11914)/ 150 pax/ 89%
REUS 4614 (4503)/ 177 pax/ 94%
NEW YORK (NEWARK) 8,762 (9758) 151 pax/86%
BRUSSELS 7,921 (5863)/ 47 pax/56%
NICE 7,646 (7666)/ 123 pax/83%
HANOVER 5367 (4339)/ 55 pax/70%
CORK 7,290 (7666)/ 61 pax/84%
ISLAMABAD 6,655 (9340)/ 196 pax/60%
GERONA 4442 (7606)/ 171 pax/90%
COPENHAGEN 5,903 (5497) 80 pax/ 65%
IRELAND WEST AIRPORT KNOCK 5,797 (6189)/ 132 pax (88%)
MONTPELLIER 5,664 (nil)/ 157 pax/ 83%
ASHKHABAD 5,540 (5478)/ 154 pax/83%
ISTANBUL 5,451 (5364)/ 130 pax/79%
MILAN (MALPENSA) 4944 (3352)/ 80 pax/ 68%
MALTA 3184 (1733) /177 pax/ 94%
BYDGOSZCZ 4,696 (4315) 181 pax/96%
BRATISLAVA 4,610 (4577)/ 177 pax/94%
SHANNON 3,658 (2819)/ 59 pax/82%
ALMERIA 3,581 (1793)/ 199 pax/93%
TORONTO 3,379 (3336)/ 338 pax/99%
RZESZOW 3,231 (3019)/ 180 pax/ 95%
KATOWICE 3,191 (2739)/ 177 pax/94%
GDANSK 3,143 (2938)/ 175 pax/92%
KAUNAS 3,117 (3035)/ 173 pax/ 92%
HAMBURG 2,977 (3581)/ 48 pax/ 62%
TRIESTE (RONCHI DEI LEGIONARI) 2,727 (2736)/ 172 pax/ 91%
STUTTGART 2,595 (3037)/ 33 pax/ 43%
BORDEAUX 2,313 (1865)/ 68 pax/ 87%
DUBROVNIK 843 (995)/ 105 pax/89%
BERGERAC 1,939 (2001)/ 57 pax/ 73%
BREST 1,749 (1241)/ 62 pax/ 80%
TOULOUSE (BLAGNAC) 1,591 (1579)/ 61 pax/ 78%
LA ROCHELLE 1,458 (1413)/ 56 pax/ 72%
WATERFORD 1,343 (1840)/ 40 pax/82%
AVIGNON 1,050 1321)/ 58 pax/ 75%
GOTEBORG 570 (671)/ 20 pax/ 43%
LYON 366 (256)/ 37 pax/ 73%
Peter
are my estimates using a BHX blog and libhomeradar. The 2010 figures are in
brackets.
Again some flybe could be out as there were some extras on the French routes and cancellations on the business destinations. Usual high load factors on most of the Ryanair flights.
I have not taken a hard look at these but they look okay but the reason for the overall decrease was given as charter and domestics. Certainly Egypt was well down as was most Turkish (Goldtrail) flights, virtually all Spanish routes were down but Greece did well.
DUBLIN 49,918 (48647)/ 140 pax/ 77% load factor
PALMA DE MALLORCA 23116 (21188)/ 156 pax/ 87%
AMSTERDAM 41,741 (37736)/ 100 pax/ 75%
DUBAI 41,568 (44333)/ 335 pax/ 82%
MALAGA 33378 (34401)/167 pax/ 90%
DALAMAN 7064 (5071) /196 pax/95% I assume includes PGT pax
FARO 23794 (21975)/ 170 pax/ 90%
ALICANTE 36332 (29361)/ 165 pax/ 89%
TENERIFE (SURREINA SOFIA) 18935 (15274)/ 189 pax/92%
PARIS (CHARLES DE GAULLE) 24,683 (255452)/ 77 pax/66%
IBIZA 10476 (11495)/ 178 pax/ 88%
FRANKFURT MAIN 22,973 (24427)/ 93 pax/ 64%
LARNACA 5379 (7549)/ 207 pax/ 97%
ARRECIFE 9818 (8270)/ 182 pax/ 90%
PAPHOS 3793 (nil)/ 210 pax/98%
MUNICH 13,977 (10321)/82 pax/76%
ZURICH 13,569 (12979)/ 74 pax/74%
MAHON 6905 (6886) /192 pax/90%
DUSSELDORF 12,147 (11732)/ 45 pax/51%
BODRUM (MILAS) 3489 (nil)/ 194 pax/91%
FUERTEVENTURA 6475 (3315)/ 180 pax/ 89%
LAS PALMAS 6582 (6868)/ 183 pax/91%
MURCIA SAN JAVIER 10,530 (11914)/ 150 pax/ 89%
REUS 4614 (4503)/ 177 pax/ 94%
NEW YORK (NEWARK) 8,762 (9758) 151 pax/86%
BRUSSELS 7,921 (5863)/ 47 pax/56%
NICE 7,646 (7666)/ 123 pax/83%
HANOVER 5367 (4339)/ 55 pax/70%
CORK 7,290 (7666)/ 61 pax/84%
ISLAMABAD 6,655 (9340)/ 196 pax/60%
GERONA 4442 (7606)/ 171 pax/90%
COPENHAGEN 5,903 (5497) 80 pax/ 65%
IRELAND WEST AIRPORT KNOCK 5,797 (6189)/ 132 pax (88%)
MONTPELLIER 5,664 (nil)/ 157 pax/ 83%
ASHKHABAD 5,540 (5478)/ 154 pax/83%
ISTANBUL 5,451 (5364)/ 130 pax/79%
MILAN (MALPENSA) 4944 (3352)/ 80 pax/ 68%
MALTA 3184 (1733) /177 pax/ 94%
BYDGOSZCZ 4,696 (4315) 181 pax/96%
BRATISLAVA 4,610 (4577)/ 177 pax/94%
SHANNON 3,658 (2819)/ 59 pax/82%
ALMERIA 3,581 (1793)/ 199 pax/93%
TORONTO 3,379 (3336)/ 338 pax/99%
RZESZOW 3,231 (3019)/ 180 pax/ 95%
KATOWICE 3,191 (2739)/ 177 pax/94%
GDANSK 3,143 (2938)/ 175 pax/92%
KAUNAS 3,117 (3035)/ 173 pax/ 92%
HAMBURG 2,977 (3581)/ 48 pax/ 62%
TRIESTE (RONCHI DEI LEGIONARI) 2,727 (2736)/ 172 pax/ 91%
STUTTGART 2,595 (3037)/ 33 pax/ 43%
BORDEAUX 2,313 (1865)/ 68 pax/ 87%
DUBROVNIK 843 (995)/ 105 pax/89%
BERGERAC 1,939 (2001)/ 57 pax/ 73%
BREST 1,749 (1241)/ 62 pax/ 80%
TOULOUSE (BLAGNAC) 1,591 (1579)/ 61 pax/ 78%
LA ROCHELLE 1,458 (1413)/ 56 pax/ 72%
WATERFORD 1,343 (1840)/ 40 pax/82%
AVIGNON 1,050 1321)/ 58 pax/ 75%
GOTEBORG 570 (671)/ 20 pax/ 43%
LYON 366 (256)/ 37 pax/ 73%
Peter
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planning a early morning B777 followed by an A380 at lunchtime
To jump straight to an A380 AND morning B777 is a bit too much of a huge leap, especially with passenger figures down slightly and loads of 82% (usually need to be hitting the 90's consistently before an upgrade.)
I wouldn't worry too much about that expression when 'second' is used as adjective.
BHX faces an uphill struggle to gain new airline traffic as it is, with London down the road and Manchester steaming ahead to the north, and if this is the view held by the airlines, wont that affect your chances of new routes?
With the new appointment in the routes team, lets hope that some of the luck William brought to Manchester rubs off on BHX.
Manchester Second City of UK
This is not a MAN vs. BHX posting!!!!
Press releases are written by PR people, well know for never letting the truth get in the way of a good sound bite.
Congratulations to William Pearson on his new role - welcome back to BHX!
Press releases are written by PR people, well know for never letting the truth get in the way of a good sound bite.
Congratulations to William Pearson on his new role - welcome back to BHX!
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Desired new route
I'm afraid this post falls within the wishful thinking / fantasy category but let me make a suggestion for a new route ex BHX.
I have just returned from a trip to Bangkok, a route I fly 4 or 5 times a year in business or first class. Usually I will fly LH, LX or EK. When I booked this trip in May, all the usual carriers were in excess of £2,000. EK was at £2,400 and seems to be pricing itself out of the market.
I found a fare on Oman Air (WY) from Frankfurt for £1,600 which I booked. Even with the add-on flight to FRA I still saved several hundred pounds.
Now, the WY schedule to FRA has their aircraft sitting on the ground for between 9 and 15 hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays. How about an add-on leg to BHX on those days?
WY may or may not get 5th freedom rights on the route (SQ did between MUC and MAN). Even if they don't, I would have thought that with a sensible pricing strategy, WY could profit from utilising the aircraft downtime for an add-on leg to BHX.
Admittedly, WY do not have as extensive a route network as EK but they do fly to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Male and 13 destinations in India and Pakistan.
Muscat Airport was very pleasant to use, in sharp contrast to the zoo that is DXB.
I have just returned from a trip to Bangkok, a route I fly 4 or 5 times a year in business or first class. Usually I will fly LH, LX or EK. When I booked this trip in May, all the usual carriers were in excess of £2,000. EK was at £2,400 and seems to be pricing itself out of the market.
I found a fare on Oman Air (WY) from Frankfurt for £1,600 which I booked. Even with the add-on flight to FRA I still saved several hundred pounds.
Now, the WY schedule to FRA has their aircraft sitting on the ground for between 9 and 15 hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays. How about an add-on leg to BHX on those days?
WY may or may not get 5th freedom rights on the route (SQ did between MUC and MAN). Even if they don't, I would have thought that with a sensible pricing strategy, WY could profit from utilising the aircraft downtime for an add-on leg to BHX.
Admittedly, WY do not have as extensive a route network as EK but they do fly to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Male and 13 destinations in India and Pakistan.
Muscat Airport was very pleasant to use, in sharp contrast to the zoo that is DXB.
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New service to ATQ?
Will they ever learn?
FlyComtelAir.com : Home page - FlyComtelAir
Apparantly this service starts on Saturday with a leased 757 from Privelege Style! I'll believe it when I see it, apparantly it's the same people behind Air Slovakia's BHX-BTS-ATQ service which tells you all you need to know. I hope the new head of route development will put his energies into attracting worthwhile carriers than these mickey mouse organisations!
FlyComtelAir.com : Home page - FlyComtelAir
Apparantly this service starts on Saturday with a leased 757 from Privelege Style! I'll believe it when I see it, apparantly it's the same people behind Air Slovakia's BHX-BTS-ATQ service which tells you all you need to know. I hope the new head of route development will put his energies into attracting worthwhile carriers than these mickey mouse organisations!
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APD & ATQ
ATQ
I think any pax even for a few weeks will be better than nothing as longs as
the airport doesn't go drooling over them if it does start.
APD
Obviously BHX does not have to compete with Dublin (just LHR & MAN like Belfast but shouldn't BHX have joined forces with NI to get this extended to the English regions (Scotland and Wales as well) and see if this government is serious about boosting areas of the UK?
I don't how profitable (or not) the BHX - Newark service is but for sheer passenger numbers this summer it has been no great shakes especially when compared to BFS, although fares seem to have remained high ever since US Air disappeared off the scene.
Pete
I think any pax even for a few weeks will be better than nothing as longs as
the airport doesn't go drooling over them if it does start.
APD
Obviously BHX does not have to compete with Dublin (just LHR & MAN
like Belfast but shouldn't BHX have joined forces with NI to get this extended to the English regions (Scotland and Wales as well) and see if this government is serious about boosting areas of the UK?I don't how profitable (or not) the BHX - Newark service is but for sheer passenger numbers this summer it has been no great shakes especially when compared to BFS, although fares seem to have remained high ever since US Air disappeared off the scene.
Pete
Last edited by OltonPete; 27th Sep 2011 at 17:24.
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Have looked at some of the media reports on the belfast to Newark service. It seems that the APD has being a big issue for this service, but it is not the only issue, it has also being reported that the Belfast newark route is not profitable. So even though the APD has being reduced, the belfast newark route is not out of the woods yet. BHX newark has pretty much remained intact since the recession started with only minor changes in the winter like 6 daily instead of daily. Given this it must be making some kind of profit otherwise it would be facing the same fate that happen at Bristol and could happen at belfast! Plus the BHX route has being in operation since july 1997, so would be more established.
Jet2.com & Jet2 Holidays
I've seen several adverts shown between the soaps for the above in the Central (West Midlands) TV area. Quite professionally made in my opinion. However if you want to book with them then it's a jaunt to MAN LBA or EMA. Unless they have future plans for BHX. Time will tell.