BIRMINGHAM - 6

[nigel osborne]

BHX-BOD.

What i have read is not all NON CDG Euro flights to Europe are going to HOP and Transavia, with 20 AF A320s being transferred to HOP.

There are a few internal flights to main destinations that stay AF and all the big airports like LHR to other French destinations..

So as BHX has CDG ,seems we should keep AF ?

BHX Paris figure are doing well but certainly not out the question we could get swapped to a HOP A320 or HV 738.


Nigel

[ATNotts]

FFHKG

It is likely to lead to a confrontation with the French Pilots Union who are prepared to strike about this.

The French striking again? There's a surprise (not)! It doesn't take much to get them out.

[kgoodall]

Air Transat

Hi Nigel,

So an extra 400 seats give or take over this year then. I wonder what will happen in a couple of years when they retire the A310s, they seem to be going for a more short haul fleet for the Canadian bucket and spade routes (Mexico, Cuba etc). You never know though - we might have a Westjet service by then!

I have to return to Coventry in November and will trying out the United service this time. It's not quite as practicle as the direct Toronto flights but it does mean I can avoid London.

[Centre cities]

A340-600

Did not realise that BHX is unable to take the A340-600 due to limitations on the taxi way curves according to the local regulations on EAD charts.

[crewmeal]

All that work on the runway. Why didn't they adjust taxiways to take larger aircraft? Seems strange to me.

[ericlday]

Don't suppose there are too many A346 queuing to come to EGBB.

[groundhogbhx]

There aren't that many A346's queuing up to fly anywhere are there? Not the most popular of products on the TLS production lines.

[nigel osborne]

Crewmeal,

As many A340s are slowly being phased out ,suppose it was hardly worth widening the taxiwa points just for A346s if they will be mostly gone in 5 yrs or so.

It might stop Virgin diverting any to BHX but can't see anyone else willing to drop one in.

[crewmeal]

Nigel I agree with you. However I cast my mind back to when an EK 777 got stuck in the mud. Now I'm no technical expert neither am I a pilot but if the taxiway turning points were widened then it would give extra maneuverability for bigger jets such as 340s 380's.

BBC News - Emirates jet stuck in grass at Birmingham Airport

[LiamNCL]

I was suprised we fitted one in at NCL a few month ago , Absolutely massive in terms of length .

[nigel osborne]

Crewmeal,

When they did the runway extension they added extra fillets to slightly widen the area end of old runway 33 and its wider at S too, but no change 15 end.

However its the extra wheelbase of the 346 thats the issue. The 77W wheelbase is less than a 346, and the sliding of the 77W was not due to the narrowness, so it was claimed.

To be fair we have had dozens (77W) turn in the same area in extreme iceing and heavy rain without an issue, and don't forget we had a Dash and a 737 off the taxiway so it was probably more a pilot error.

However on watching the video of the EK A380 we had it did look pretty tight..yet meets CAA regulations and the NATS A380 BHX taxiing maps loaded would suggest things are wide enough...

[crewmeal]

Nigel I bow to your superior knowledge on the subject. If the CAA are happy then so am I. (Shame about the turns on rw 15).

[j636]

EIR have added an extra daily DUB flight M-F for winter to take it to 4 daily Sun-Wed, 5 Thur-Fri and 3 Sat. The late evening planned EIR flight on Thur and Fri has being changed to mainline.

[groundhogbhx]

EK

The EK ended in the grass because it was told to take Delta and turn back on to Echo after a late stand change. The EK Captain told ATC that his charts said that he wasn't able to do that but ATC insisted that he could. Several of us who were listening went to watch the fun as it turned into the mud, just as predicted by EK's charts. Que hours of chaos while we tried to sort out the mess!!

I'm going to miss this kind of thing!

[111KAB]

Birmingham airport owners reap £82 million dividend - www.travelweekly.co.uk

[crewmeal]

Taloula's nappy needed changing

Not sure what happened here but Monarch's handing agents around the UK don't seem to be doing a very good job.

100 passengers forced to wait THREE hours to collect luggage at Birmingham Airport... after being told they could not leave until bags arrived | Mail Online

[Hotel Tango]

I wonder how Menzies' management would have reacted if they would have had to wait 3 hours? Only one way to teach these incompetent managers that "apologies" are just not good enough when they cut staff levels to the absolute minimum and even below, let all 100 pax take a group court action for compensation against the buggers!

[getonittt]

which airports baggage claim area is shown in the picture?

[Airfrance7]

Terminal 1 Manchester!

[OltonPete]

July International route analysis

Finally got round to these with help of logs and blogs, libhomeradar and of course the CAA for the monthly passenger figures.

Some remarkable business route figures with flybe and also Ryanair upping load factors.

July 2014 saw five Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday helping such routes as BZG, BTS, VCE, DBV & SSH.


Brussels.........9652 (7485)..... 49 per flight..62% load factor - very good and more flights operated than last year
Dubrovnik.......5060 (2888).....181 pax.......90% 3 a week compared to 2
Split..............4031 (3475).....155 pax..... .89%
Larnaca..........8705 (8380).....198 pax.......92%
Paphos.......... 3373 (4665).....187 pax.......88% 2 a week v 3 a week in 2013
Copenhagen... 6106 (4134).......95 pax.......75% about the same flights but many more Airbus flights
Avignon...........512 (492)........64 pax........82%
Bergerac........1518 (1122).......69 pax....75%
Bordeaux........2545 (2557).......75 pax.... 85%
Brest..............1126 (998).......63 pax........80%
La Rochelle......758 (686).........63 pax........75%
Lyons............4371 (4216).......81 pax........92%
Montepellier.......nil (2533)......................
Nice...............5504 (7044)......131 pax.......66% 5 a week down from 7 in 2013 but struggling
Paris CDG......36281 (34620)....104 pax........89% simply crackers for a so-called business route in low season
Perpignan........3076 (3485).....118 pax........77% one less FR frequency per week
Toulouse.........3814 (1107)......71 pax.........89%
Berlin TXL.......3622 (5514)......107 pax........75% not sure BE at 5 a week will be enough!
Cologne..........2757 (nil).........44 pax.........55%
Dusseldorf.....16956 (16597)....56 pax.........64%
Frankfurt.......30042 (26944)..124 pax.........78%
Hamburg.........3228 (3403).....60 pax..........67%
Hanover.........6103 (4164)......57 pax.........65%
Munich..........16593 (15609)...98 pax.........80%
Stuttgart........7138 (4631).....66 pax.........75%
Gibraltar..........4149 (3862)....150pax.........86%
Athens............2428 (0)........135 pax.........80% - good start as fares crept up in July
Heraklion.........2521 (3023)....140 pax........65% - can't get my head round this one - hardly over capacity
Cork...............6663 (7054)......54 pax.........75%
Knock.............3305 (2704).....53 pax.........68%
Dublin............53517 (50573)..134 pax.........92% - load factor says it all much reduced frequency in July & Aug
Shannon..........4712 (2966).....38 pax.........71%
Waterford........2361 (2060).....69 pax.........89%
Florence..........5171 (nil)........ 83 pax.........70% - partly sold at 88 seats at first
Milan MXP........9144 (5118).....74 pax.........84%
Rome FCO.......11162 (10142)...180 pax.......88%
Trieste.............2595(2335).....144 pax......76%
Venice.............5676 (4724)...158 pax.......74%
Malta..............2775 (3114)...170 pax........90%
Amsterdam.....45256 (40116)...90 pax.........83%%
Faro..............21650 (19680)..175 pax........88%
Oporto...........2585 (nil).........76 pax.........86%
Funchel..........2532 (2675)....158 pax.........82%
Alicante........31867 (29543).,.187 pax.........94%
Almeria...........4487 (3531)...160 pax.........86% - extra weekly service but still maintained 86% LF
Barcelona......17132 (18022)..165 pax.........82%
Girona...............nil (2448)
Ibiza.............13270 (12937)...125 pax.......77%
Mahon............5469 (6799).....161 pax.......83% 2 x 320 & 2 x 321 compared to 4 x 321 in 2013
Malaga.........28777 (30455)..180 pax........89%
Murcia...........5882 (5868)...164 pax.........86%
Palma...........24228 (22280)...150 pax.......84%
Reus.............2357 (3548)....131 pax....... 69% one less flight per week
Arrecife........13819 (11389) incorrect split shown between schedule & IT
Fuerteventura 8118 (6765) incorrect split shown between schedule & IT
Las Palmas.....7258 (7874)...165 pax.........81%
Tenerife.......21043 (16649) incorrect split shown between schedule & IT
Gothenburg....1350 (1175).....25 pax.........51%
Reykjavik.......1604 (0)..........62 pax........70%
Zurich..........9039 (9497)......84 pax.........84%
Bodrum.........4517 (4212)...174 pax.........81%
Dalaman........8972 (9687)...145 pax.........73% a real downturn on this route
Istanbul.......9950 (10422)...113 pax.........73%
Kaunas.........3205 (3233)...178 pax.........94%
Bydgoscz......5108 (4726)...182 pax.........97%
Gdansk.........3236 (3212)....180 pax........95%
Katowice.....2875 (4838)....180 pax.........95%
Krakow........3282 (3170)...182 pax..........96%
Bratislava....5054 (4593)....181 pax.........96%
Hurghada.....1400 (0).........175 pax.........82%
Sharm.........5262 (4846)....195 pax.........91%
Ashkhabad....4254 (4151)...164 pax..........86%
Dubai.........42321 (41909)..341 pax.........81%
Delhi...........5984 (nil)........166 pax.........65%
Islamabad....6627 (7527).....237 pax.........64%
Toronto.......3134 ()...........313 pax.........92%
Newark........8350 (9449)....135 pax.........80%

Pete