BIRMINGHAM - 6
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Nigel
Quite big ammounts of time have to be built in for runway work due to our wonderful winter weather plus Christmas and New Year to boot where all the workers will be off for at least 2 weeks however if every thing goes to plan things can be improved on
Ian
Quite big ammounts of time have to be built in for runway work due to our wonderful winter weather plus Christmas and New Year to boot where all the workers will be off for at least 2 weeks however if every thing goes to plan things can be improved on
Ian
Join Date: Jan 2007
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Ian Brooks,
Hi Ian, not all can be blamed on the weather.
Think I and Pete have covered all the points about that.
Luckily overall as long as its open for July it doesn't matter, as no one needs the extension at present.
The saga continues re the resurfacing later in the year...
Nigel
Hi Ian, not all can be blamed on the weather.
Think I and Pete have covered all the points about that.
Luckily overall as long as its open for July it doesn't matter, as no one needs the extension at present.
The saga continues re the resurfacing later in the year...
Nigel
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Runway
Nigel/Pete - thanks - when did the airport say the runway
extension was going to be open on 1 May 2014?
I could not find a Press Release about that - its just that
an old mate told me last week the opening is now in July
when some big event at the airport is taking place
Elmdon
extension was going to be open on 1 May 2014?
I could not find a Press Release about that - its just that
an old mate told me last week the opening is now in July
when some big event at the airport is taking place
Elmdon
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Nigel it was this coming winter that I was talking about because we have had winter closures here at Manchester for several winters whilst maintenance is done and time scales have varied because of rain wind snow etc as some resurfacing cannot be done in bad weather
Ian
Ian
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Nigel/Pete - thanks - when did the airport say the runway
extension was going to be open on 1 May 2014?
I could not find a Press Release about that - its just that
an old mate told me last week the opening is now in July
when some big event at the airport is taking place
Elmdon
extension was going to be open on 1 May 2014?
I could not find a Press Release about that - its just that
an old mate told me last week the opening is now in July
when some big event at the airport is taking place
Elmdon
One will be the "operational" opening when the new runway lengths will be available. This will only happen when the works are completed sufficiently for the CAA to approve the use of the longer length. In all likelihood, this will happen without any ceremony and first aircraft in the queue at the appointed hour will be the first movement on it - it may well be a Dash 8
I would imagine the one in July will be the official opening in cojunction with the Chinese flights with all the accompanying press brouhaha; these flights will "justify" the runway extension works as I can hear the interviews and press release saying now...
You just have to hope that the operational opening has happened by the time the Chinese flights come in...
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Thanks Guy's ref the hangars, with the airport still in the process of finding a tenant for the ex Eurojet hangar (I did hear they were in discussions with a couple of interested parties but it's still very early days), I guess new hangarage isn't on the to-do list unless its on the scale of the MAEL hangar.
FC
FC
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Suzeman,
It was supposed to be open by end of Spring this year for the start of the JFK-BHX-Dhaka 77W flights, which were due to go direct..Dhaka needing our extension for that
This from an airport spokesman.. not attached the whole story as think breaks Pprune Rules to advertise the article source as its a newspaper with the header showing ;
<< "Thanks to the scheme, the airport will be able to run twice-weekly scheduled flights to both New York and Dhaka for the first time from next year.
David Lavender, a spokesman for the airport, said: “It’s all on schedule. Spring 2014 has always been the aim and we’re on track for that" >>
Nigel
It was supposed to be open by end of Spring this year for the start of the JFK-BHX-Dhaka 77W flights, which were due to go direct..Dhaka needing our extension for that
This from an airport spokesman.. not attached the whole story as think breaks Pprune Rules to advertise the article source as its a newspaper with the header showing ;
<< "Thanks to the scheme, the airport will be able to run twice-weekly scheduled flights to both New York and Dhaka for the first time from next year.
David Lavender, a spokesman for the airport, said: “It’s all on schedule. Spring 2014 has always been the aim and we’re on track for that" >>
Nigel
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Busiest ever April!!
Simon Corbett wrote
More good news passengers were actually up 16.7% 
Link http://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/m...n-history.aspx
Even with Easter in April (Many of Birminghams business routes fly reduced schedules during Easter) This is an amazing figure! Lets now try to be positive about Birmingham Airport.
The busiest ever April ... 2014 up 16% at758,456 and EK up again
Link http://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/m...n-history.aspxEven with Easter in April (Many of Birminghams business routes fly reduced schedules during Easter) This is an amazing figure! Lets now try to be positive about Birmingham Airport.
Daza
I'll second that! Too much time spent in some quarters constantly bemoaning everything the airport does. Whether it's infrastructure, or new routes - there always seem to be naysayers willing to rubbish what is being achieved.
If people "support" the airport (and it's not the aviation equivalent of your local footie team!) then support it, rather than pick flies.
The place ain't perfect - but credit where credit is due.
This is an amazing figure! Lets now try to be positive about Birmingham Airport.
If people "support" the airport (and it's not the aviation equivalent of your local footie team!) then support it, rather than pick flies.
The place ain't perfect - but credit where credit is due.
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Positivity!
ATNotts wrote
I completely agree ATNotts. You don't see so many negative posts on other pages here, Manchester for example.
This is good news and illustrates the improving state of the West Midlands economy.
I'll second that! Too much time spent in some quarters constantly bemoaning everything the airport does. Whether it's infrastructure, or new routes - there always seem to be naysayers willing to rubbish what is being achieved.
If people "support" the airport (and it's not the aviation equivalent of your local footie team!) then support it, rather than pick flies.
The place ain't perfect - but credit where credit is due.
If people "support" the airport (and it's not the aviation equivalent of your local footie team!) then support it, rather than pick flies.
The place ain't perfect - but credit where credit is due.
This is good news and illustrates the improving state of the West Midlands economy.
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April Pax Figures
Great news for BHX, this is the first time in ages that I can remember double digit monthly pax growth. The trend for 2014 as been very much upwards so lets hope that continues. I will be interested to see OP's monthly stats analysis, particularly for long haul destinations. With DXB showing growth again, a third daily EK must at least be being considered by the planners over in EK HQ? BHX has shown that with the right long haul routes it can pull in the punters, lets hope there is growth in long haul, sadly at the moment there is nothing on the cards even charter wise. PK to KHI/LHE could be a possibility, I have always wondered why PK only fly to ISB from BHX. As for short haul, I hope Berlin, Stockholm and Hamburg have done better than the last few months.
I have certainly voiced criticisms about BHX on here in the past and am therefore probably seen as a 'naysayer' however it's easy to be positive on here but the most positive thing any of us can do is to actually get out there and use BHX! I flew out from BHX four times in April (all at my own expense!) and have more flights booked over the summer, now that's what I call support!
The reason that the MAN thread is (quite rightly in my opinion) so positive right now is due to the fact that they are riding a wave and have pulled in so much long haul - Riyadh, Jeddah, Miami, Charlotte, Hong Kong amongst others, as well as good growth in short haul from Jet2. Monarch and Ryanair - however if you have the time and willpower to do so, go back about 12-18 months and you will find outpourings of negativity that easily out moan anything on this thread.....
I have certainly voiced criticisms about BHX on here in the past and am therefore probably seen as a 'naysayer' however it's easy to be positive on here but the most positive thing any of us can do is to actually get out there and use BHX! I flew out from BHX four times in April (all at my own expense!) and have more flights booked over the summer, now that's what I call support!
The reason that the MAN thread is (quite rightly in my opinion) so positive right now is due to the fact that they are riding a wave and have pulled in so much long haul - Riyadh, Jeddah, Miami, Charlotte, Hong Kong amongst others, as well as good growth in short haul from Jet2. Monarch and Ryanair - however if you have the time and willpower to do so, go back about 12-18 months and you will find outpourings of negativity that easily out moan anything on this thread.....
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DAZA
Great news indeed for BHX for them to be proud of.
However you are only as good as your last lot of figures and as Gayfriendly has said MAN is able to point to multiple new airline and route gains in the last 12 months or so for a lot of their success.
The only worry for BHX is that most of our growth has come from current airlines in particular Fly Be and Monarch. Also some from the highly successful Air India route,Emirates and increases in our full fare euro airlines to main destinations such as FRA,CDG,IST.
To keep these great figures rolling and with the economy now back on track BHX needs to attract more airlines and routes.
There is a slight danger in having to rely on just Fly Be and Monarch for significant Euro growth if anything happens to them then they have a problem.
Obviously if you cannot attract other airlines you have to make do with any expansion you can get with your regular ones.
However heres to BHX getting some significant new carriers as well.
Nigel
Great news indeed for BHX for them to be proud of.
However you are only as good as your last lot of figures and as Gayfriendly has said MAN is able to point to multiple new airline and route gains in the last 12 months or so for a lot of their success.
The only worry for BHX is that most of our growth has come from current airlines in particular Fly Be and Monarch. Also some from the highly successful Air India route,Emirates and increases in our full fare euro airlines to main destinations such as FRA,CDG,IST.
To keep these great figures rolling and with the economy now back on track BHX needs to attract more airlines and routes.
There is a slight danger in having to rely on just Fly Be and Monarch for significant Euro growth if anything happens to them then they have a problem.
Obviously if you cannot attract other airlines you have to make do with any expansion you can get with your regular ones.
However heres to BHX getting some significant new carriers as well.
Nigel
Nigel,
What is really impressive is how good the figures are without new carriers and masses of new routes. It means the broad spread of carriers that BHX has - and it has a broader spread than most UK airports outside London - are enjoying success, and hopefully making good money, which is what their businesses are supposed to be all about.
I really don't see the range of airlines that BHX has as a worry. I would worry more if another "cheap" carrier parachuted half a dozen extra aircraft in and flooded the market.
Over time those existing carriers will grow organically - perhaps AI going daily; Emirates increasing capacity - perhaps a third service, increased capacity from the likes of LH / TK / KL / AF and new routes from the two biggest based carriers. I must admit I am concerned how long a single daily Newark can survive - but as long as it remains profitable enough, I guess it will hang on.
What is really impressive is how good the figures are without new carriers and masses of new routes. It means the broad spread of carriers that BHX has - and it has a broader spread than most UK airports outside London - are enjoying success, and hopefully making good money, which is what their businesses are supposed to be all about.
I really don't see the range of airlines that BHX has as a worry. I would worry more if another "cheap" carrier parachuted half a dozen extra aircraft in and flooded the market.
Over time those existing carriers will grow organically - perhaps AI going daily; Emirates increasing capacity - perhaps a third service, increased capacity from the likes of LH / TK / KL / AF and new routes from the two biggest based carriers. I must admit I am concerned how long a single daily Newark can survive - but as long as it remains profitable enough, I guess it will hang on.
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ATNOTTS,
Andrew,
Yes understand what you say. However Fly Be are a worry. They have had to axe lots of flights in the UK and re organise due to big losses.
Its great to see them finally making much better use of their fleet utilization,more rotations etc. They have to bring their costs down a lot.This reorganisation might be their last throw of the dice so hope they are successful.
With the economy picking up, I think they have a good chance of surviving and thriving,but we shall see.
Yes agree another big base with Easy Jet etc might overcook some routes. However there are lots of routes not covered from BHX where an away based Easy Jet plane flying to a new destination could benefit us.
Lisbon, Madrid, Vienna, Helsinki come to mind ,although Id prefer a full fare airline.
Keeping everything crossed for some more new route announcements soon.
Nigel
Andrew,
Yes understand what you say. However Fly Be are a worry. They have had to axe lots of flights in the UK and re organise due to big losses.
Its great to see them finally making much better use of their fleet utilization,more rotations etc. They have to bring their costs down a lot.This reorganisation might be their last throw of the dice so hope they are successful.
With the economy picking up, I think they have a good chance of surviving and thriving,but we shall see.
Yes agree another big base with Easy Jet etc might overcook some routes. However there are lots of routes not covered from BHX where an away based Easy Jet plane flying to a new destination could benefit us.
Lisbon, Madrid, Vienna, Helsinki come to mind ,although Id prefer a full fare airline.
Keeping everything crossed for some more new route announcements soon.
Nigel
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ATNOTTS,
Sorry Andrew missed covering United.
They seem to do well 10 months of the year on it. I think the 757s might have another 4 to 5 years left on such routes, what do you think ?.
However the bigger worry would be other UK airports.
If MAN,EDI etc get upgraded to 767 or 787 to EWR and they pull the 757s off LHR too would they want to keep just BHX in the UK as a 757 route, I don't know ?
If they don't then its a big step up in premium seats for BHX front end on a 767 or 787.
Hopefully BHX will have grown its yield and be able to absorb the larger plane otherwise we might loose it.
Nigel
Sorry Andrew missed covering United.
They seem to do well 10 months of the year on it. I think the 757s might have another 4 to 5 years left on such routes, what do you think ?.
However the bigger worry would be other UK airports.
If MAN,EDI etc get upgraded to 767 or 787 to EWR and they pull the 757s off LHR too would they want to keep just BHX in the UK as a 757 route, I don't know ?
If they don't then its a big step up in premium seats for BHX front end on a 767 or 787.
Hopefully BHX will have grown its yield and be able to absorb the larger plane otherwise we might loose it.
Nigel
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Well the first flybe NQY-BHX rotation is in the air, fingers crossed to them, looking at prices going forward, they are looking for a decent amount for some days ! Any ideas on loads ongoing ?
cs
cs
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United
Don’t forget that it’s not just the UK that sees these jets – they cover a lot of secondary European markets and United are not going to want to lose all that feed when the 757’s are retired. United currently have options for 35 788’s and I think it’s safe to assume that these will be switched to firm orders soon enough and will begin to replace the transatlantic 757s – the domestic ones are to be replaced by the 737-900s/MAX.
If anything the 787 - with its lower operating costs - could actually help make the route more lucrative. If United configure them much like Air India have done then they could be a good fit for the likes of BHX.
CO/UA have served BHX for over 15 years now; there have been highs and lows but they are still here and have obviously built up a strong customer base. If dropping a few rotations in the low season during a global economic crisis was what was needed to keep it going them I’m all for it and hopefully as the economy continues to pick up we’ll begin to see some improvement.
If anything the 787 - with its lower operating costs - could actually help make the route more lucrative. If United configure them much like Air India have done then they could be a good fit for the likes of BHX.
CO/UA have served BHX for over 15 years now; there have been highs and lows but they are still here and have obviously built up a strong customer base. If dropping a few rotations in the low season during a global economic crisis was what was needed to keep it going them I’m all for it and hopefully as the economy continues to pick up we’ll begin to see some improvement.
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True, but if you just about fill a B757, the B788 is a much bigger aeroplane. It's bigger than a B763 and a lot of the routes flown by B757s just won't make the step up, though I suspect BHX will.
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Newquay/United
cornishsimon
Sorry all I have like you is the booking engine to monitor seat-maps and fares.
However last night when I checked for the first outbound today from BHX it was showing full but the only real way of getting a bit of an idea is to monitor fares on a daily basis and that takes time.
United
In respect of the April figure it has to be noted that there were 5 Wednesdays in the month which of course was the non-ops day and the actual pax per flight was 148 or 87%.
As sort of point of interest I was 50 in April and my intended destination was New York and I monitored fares for 11 months for the whole of Apil 2014, although in reality I was restricted to the school holidays. United fares at BHX never came close to anywhere near what I could afford at any point in those 11 months (£600-900 economy return), which I would like to think is good in one way and although I am under no illusion that 87% is probably the least they would expect on an ageing 757 with only 16 BF seats.
The thing is, I doubt we will have to wait that long to see whether it survives despite information to suggest they will be around to 2018, as things can change quickly and the 757 is slowing getting more unreliable with one tech in BHX for nearly three days this month although I haven't got access to the UA 757 despatch reliability but the number of outbound cancellations in the last year has risen compared to nil from AI (although not daily) on the much-maligned 787 although that might be masked by the sheer number of spare wide-bodies they have at times.
On a positive note, a post on another site mentioned that American Airlines 787's will be configured 28/198 and that is not a bad config for a secondary airport like BHX, if they ever do consider ORD sometime in the distant future.
April Passenger figures
This is the CAA version rather than BHX's.
April 2014 passenger figure for BHX 758692 up 16.7%, rolling year 9347077 + 5.5%
April ATM's 7124 +11.5% rolling 86415 +4.8%
Some very encouraging figures on the routes with EK at 90% again, AI and PK around 80%, amazing increases on Stuttgart and Milan even when taking the Easter effect into account and the dreadful April 2013.
Pete
Sorry all I have like you is the booking engine to monitor seat-maps and fares.
However last night when I checked for the first outbound today from BHX it was showing full but the only real way of getting a bit of an idea is to monitor fares on a daily basis and that takes time.
United
In respect of the April figure it has to be noted that there were 5 Wednesdays in the month which of course was the non-ops day and the actual pax per flight was 148 or 87%.
As sort of point of interest I was 50 in April and my intended destination was New York and I monitored fares for 11 months for the whole of Apil 2014, although in reality I was restricted to the school holidays. United fares at BHX never came close to anywhere near what I could afford at any point in those 11 months (£600-900 economy return), which I would like to think is good in one way and although I am under no illusion that 87% is probably the least they would expect on an ageing 757 with only 16 BF seats.
The thing is, I doubt we will have to wait that long to see whether it survives despite information to suggest they will be around to 2018, as things can change quickly and the 757 is slowing getting more unreliable with one tech in BHX for nearly three days this month although I haven't got access to the UA 757 despatch reliability but the number of outbound cancellations in the last year has risen compared to nil from AI (although not daily) on the much-maligned 787 although that might be masked by the sheer number of spare wide-bodies they have at times.
On a positive note, a post on another site mentioned that American Airlines 787's will be configured 28/198 and that is not a bad config for a secondary airport like BHX, if they ever do consider ORD sometime in the distant future.
April Passenger figures
This is the CAA version rather than BHX's.
April 2014 passenger figure for BHX 758692 up 16.7%, rolling year 9347077 + 5.5%
April ATM's 7124 +11.5% rolling 86415 +4.8%
Some very encouraging figures on the routes with EK at 90% again, AI and PK around 80%, amazing increases on Stuttgart and Milan even when taking the Easter effect into account and the dreadful April 2013.
Pete
Last edited by OltonPete; 16th May 2014 at 17:33. Reason: added text