BIRMINGHAM - 6

[compton3bravo]

Two chargers!!

[Ian Brooks]

3rd prize was the phone to go with it

[getonittt]

flybe

hence the premature closure of Oslo and the other routes they are apparently abandoning this summer.

This time last year they were gearing up for a big expansion from their BHX base , mostly with extra flights on their proven core routes i.e MXP,STR & AMS etc and also to Toulouse . While I can forgive the routes that were new to last year now being dropped I cannot understand how they think an established route like TLS has not performed as I used this frequently and it was always at least three quarters full even in the off peak months usually with a lot of Airbus related staff presumably with connections to rolls Royce at Derby. Please don't mention the dreaded Y word because a route as popular as this you should be making money without having to sell nearly every seat and people were even prepared to fly on a dash eight for 2 hours each way to boot.
So they now think Deauville and Bastia will be winners ...lets see if they are still in the S16 schedule.

[nigel osborne]

getonitt,

I gave up some months ago trying to understand what Fly Bes new management are doing now.

All seemed well when they took over but some of their recent route decisions especially Bournemouth and London City are puzzling.

Launching new routes from BHX then cancelling some before they even started doesn't inspire much confidence.

With the Republic Dash-8s coming through soon, they seem to have decided to base their future mostly around props.

The downside with that is that they are limiting many destinations due lack of range ,although on the plus side they are cheaper than jets on the shorter routes.

Have a vision at present of the bosses route development meeting having tails pinned on donkeys whilst blind folded , but sure underneath they have a proper strategy ....

Nigel

[Matt995]

Summer IT Flights 2015

Thomson Airways

Quite a few changes since the 2014 release of their schedule. Gone are Djerba (Wed – Now on Thomas Cook), Ibiza (Wed), Agadir (Thu), Almeria (Thu), Izmir (Sat) and Dubrovnik (Sun), replaced by Enfidha (Thu), Palma (Thu, Sat & Sun). New destinations are Porto Santo (Mon), Chania (Tue), and Sal returns (Tue) and an extra Cancun (Wed) by B788. Verona again operates twice a week (Wed/Sat) and P&O cruise flights to Venice & Genoa (Wed as per last year). Non based aircraft flights to Naples (Mon) and Palma (Tues) should be operated by EMA B738 aircraft. The flights scheduled to be operated by Onus Air, Air Europa, TUI Fly and Nouvelair have all been switched to Thomson or Thomas Cook Flights, leaving just Air Malta (Tue) and a new Germania flight to Ibiza (Wed) which is the Norwich based B73G aircraft for the other non based aircraft. I believe the Thomson based aircraft will be :- 3 B757’s, 2 B738’s and 1 B788 (Wed-Sun)

Thomas Cook

Schedules appear unchanged,with 3 A321’s and 1 A320 based to operate all flights, with just a few minor time changes, and new flights to Djerba (Wed), Paphos (Fri), Mytilene (Sat) and Kalamata (Sun). Dalaman is now daily, and increased frequences on several other destinations.

Other IT Airlines

Small Planet A320 is showing flights to Corfu (Mon), Zakynthos (Thu), Kefalonia (Sat) for Cosmos from the end of June, Corfu is showing as a BHX based aircraft (I suspect this will change), the other flights as non based aircraft. BH Air A320 usual flights to Bourgas (Sat) and peak season (Fri). Estonian Air E170 to Salzburg (Sat), Denim Air F100 to Innsbruck (Sat), and FlyBe E175/E195 are showing flights to Salzburg (Sat), and Kefalonia (Sat)


I’m sure there will still be a few more changes before May, hopefully I haven’t missed anything!!

[jon01]

Summer IT Flights 2015

Other IT Airlines

Small Planet A320 is showing flights to Corfu (Mon), Zakynthos (Thu), Kefalonia (Sat) for Cosmos from the end of June, Corfu is showing as a BHX based aircraft (I suspect this will change), the other flights as non based aircraft. BH Air A320 usual flights to Bourgas (Sat) and peak season (Fri). Estonian Air E170 to Salzburg (Sat), Denim Air F100 to Innsbruck (Sat), and FlyBe E175/E195 are showing flights to Salzburg (Sat), and Kefalonia (Sat)


I’m sure there will still be a few more changes before May, hopefully I haven’t missed anything!!

Plus the Evelop A320 Sat Palma 08:40/09:40 for Thomas Cook

I think the Small Planet flights are with the Manchester based B737

I'm certain there will be some changes and additions, bookings are well up on last year!

[GayFriendly]

GOT

Good news about Sun Air who are taking over the BHX-GOT route. I believe that these aircraft fly in BA colours so we will finally see BA liveried aircraft back at BHX on a regular basis! BHX-GOT is certainly a survivor with B'ham European, BA/Maersk, Skyways, City Airline and BMI Regional all having operated it.

One World seems to have suddenly noticed that BHX exists, lets hope there are other member airlines who have BHX on their radar.

[CabinCrewe]

I think these are unrelated random routes rather a concerted effort from OW to make BHX an up and coming OW hub....

[ATNotts]

CabinCrewe

I think these are unrelated random routes rather a concerted effort from OW to make BHX an up and coming OW hub....

I'm sure you're right on that. I don't believe that One World has any sort of veto on any carrier, on any route, and aside of strategically using slots at restricted airports to the best advantage of the alliance, has little or no influence on where and between which city pairs member airlines operate.

Still, if you like that sort of thing, it's good to have "BA" flight numbers back at BHX.

[insuindi]

How are the departure and arrival boards updated at BHX? Is that a manual process?

I am asking as once again it took nearly 20h for a flight cancellation to appear on the BHX board. Today's 4U's BHX-HAM was cancelled yesterday afternoon, and only recently this cancellation appears on the BHX board. On the HAM arrival board it appeared cancelled yesterday shortly after it got cancelled on the Germanwings website.

I have seen this a number of times before with flight cancellations (as a regular user of BRU-BHX you get very used to canx...)

EDIT: Different approach for the BHXHAMBHX flight by BE. Rather than showing on the boards as canx, it has been completely deleted from the list of today's flight.

[GayFriendly]

One World

Guys I wasn't suggesting that OW airlines en masse are about to set up a hub at BHX, I was just trying to be positive having been criticised in the past on here for negativity. It's just nice to see OW carriers at BHX as until now airlines in this alliance have given BHX a wide berth even though as you say they are unrelated random new routes for each carrier concerned.

[OltonPete]

flybe

insuindi

To be fair BHX is usually pretty good with cancellations and I am sure they would only blame the operating airline for failing to tell them.

Flybe BHX - HAM was showing as cancelled earlier and so was BE791 from Glasgow which mysteriously has also disappeared completely. This was not a planned cancellation from days ago (see flybe website) but are BHX trying to spare flybe blushes for what has been a shocking day. Full list below

BE7040 DUS BHX CANX
BE501 BHX JER/GCI CANX
BE831 BHX -INV CANX
BE103 BHX - AMS CANX
BE502 JER - BHX CANX
BE785 GLA - BHX CANX
BE787 BHX-GLA CANX
BE104 AMS-BHX CANX
BE832 INV - BHX CANX
BE790 BHX - GLA CANX
BE1854 BHX-HAM CANX
BE791 GLA-BHX CANX
BE1855 HAM-BHX CANX

BE191 IOM-BHX delayed 2 hours 45

Obviously Hamburg is strike action was not flybe's fault but added to GLA-BHD, DUB-INV, BHD-MAN, NOC-BHD, SOU-GLA, NCL-BHD all Q400 flights you can't blame airports sometimes failing to keep up with some airlines.

Note flybe have 15 jets in use and 15 operational today but no way can they compete with the economics of the Q400 - lets face it about 25 flights there where not a penny was spent of fuel - no wonder these e-jets look useless

When does the superior economics (fuel and lease costs) of the Dash become irrelevant if the said Dash is only good for messing up the plans of your business pax? Perhaps one for the flybe thread. I would guess at least three Dash 8's not flying today.


Pete

[manx crab]

Pete,

Do you think their problems are equipment related or staff shortages?

[OltonPete]

flybe

manx crab

I do not know for definite but logic tells me it would be equipment problems unless it was last minute crew illness but not all three aircraft.

In general I can't believe it would be staff shortages on a Monday as you would not compromise your Monday, Thursday or Friday flying unless totally unavoidable and any cancellations would be restricted to Tuesday and Wednesday when the flights are quieter.

I would like to think any reasonable airline would not P**-off their business customers on a Monday morning unless there wasn't an alternative. The Cello RJ85 sat all day at BHX but I don't whether flybe enquired about using it or maybe things at a bit tight to keep hiring in.

Things seemed to improve later in the day.

Pete

[getonittt]

How are the departure and arrival boards updated at BHX? Is that a manual process?

Maybe it's done by the same person who updates how long the security queues are at the bottom of the arrivals/departures pages of the new improved BHX website.
How can that be accurate at any given time?

[crewmeal]

They've spent a lot on upgrading their website, lets hope they tighten up everything else with regarding communication to passengers.

https://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/

[jon01]

Summer IT Flights 2015

Other IT Airlines

Small Planet A320 is showing flights to Corfu (Mon), Zakynthos (Thu), Kefalonia (Sat) for Cosmos from the end of June, Corfu is showing as a BHX based aircraft (I suspect this will change), the other flights as non based aircraft. BH Air A320 usual flights to Bourgas (Sat) and peak season (Fri). Estonian Air E170 to Salzburg (Sat), Denim Air F100 to Innsbruck (Sat), and FlyBe E175/E195 are showing flights to Salzburg (Sat), and Kefalonia (Sat)


I’m sure there will still be a few more changes before May, hopefully I haven’t missed anything!!
Plus the Evelop A320 Sat Palma 08:40/09:40 for Thomas Cook

I think the Small Planet flights are with the Manchester based B737

I'm certain there will be some changes and additions, bookings are well up on last year!

Thomas Cook now have a Corendon B737-800 showing on Fri 18:45/19:45 from Antalya

[LAX_LHR]

Another non-based charter to add to the roster is Enter Air using a MAN based B737 on Tuesdays.


ENT414 ZTH 1430 BHX 1550
ENT413 BHX 1635 ZTH 2155

[jon01]

Another non-based charter to add to the roster is Enter Air using a MAN based B737 on Tuesdays.


ENT414 ZTH 1430 BHX 1550
ENT413 BHX 1635 ZTH 2155

This flight is on Thu not Tue and is for Olympic and Cosmos, it replaces the Small Planet flight that was originally planned

[nigel osborne]

Jon01

Do you have inside info on the Antalya as all sites I have checked just have Thomas Cook flights there with there own planes still ?



Nigel