BIRMINGHAM - 6

[j636]

nigel Osborne

Thanks for the link, had always know that MAN was much lower to operate from but didn't expect BHX to be so high on a European level.

[FQTLSteve]

BA at BHX Summer 2005

Clearing out a cupboard and I found a BA BHX Timetable for 2005. Services as follows:-

Aberdeen x3 1-5, x1 6, x2 7
Barcelona x1 Daily
Billund x1 Daily x6
Brussels x4 Daily x6 5, 1x6, 2x7
Dusseldorf x4 1-5, x1 6, x3 7
Edinburgh x6 1-5, x4 6, x5 7
Frankfurt x5 1-5, x1 6, x3 7
Glasgow x5 1-5, x3 6, x4 7
Hamburg x2 1-5, x1 7
Hannover x1 Daily
Lyon x2 1-5, x1 6-7
Madrid x1 Daily
Milan x3 1-5, x1 6, x2 7
Paris x5 1-5, x3 6-7
Rome x1 Daily
Nice x1 6
Stuttgart x3 1-5, x2 7
Vienna Daily x6

Those were the days! 18 Destinations BA alone!

[LGS6753]

In fact, the "Eurohub" terminal was built for BA.

[ATNotts]

FQTL Steve

Many of those routes weren't operated by BA, but by Maersk (or was it Duo by then?) and Sunair.

To the best of my knowledge these were:-

Billund: (Sunair)
Lyon, Stuttgart, Vienna (Maersk or Duo)

Drilling deeper, today BHX benefits from a higher daily frequency on the Scottish trunk routes (EDI and GLA).

The point of the BA operation at BHX was that it was used as a hub, feeding in passengers wishing to go to and from Scotland through the BHX hub. When BA's policy changed, the the levels of frequency on some routes obviously had to fall.

Whether Scottish passengers feel service has improved by being forced towards hubbing at LHR is anyone's guess, but I'd have thought transferring at BHX was an infinitely more pleasurable experience!

[FQTLSteve]

Eurohub

Indeed I remember may times when flying out of the Eurohub being held for incoming passengers to transfer across. It was a slick operation and very easy for pax to do.

[crewmeal]

Elsewhere it' been talked about the airport filling with diversons tomorrow. Seems the spotters are up early today. My predicition is that if there are any diversions they will certianly go north of BHX filling up Scotland and Newcastle where the storm is not predicted to hit.

[Cloud1]

If you take a look at what Flybe offer, having taken over BA Connect, and in challenging times (for them and for the industry in general) its not that bad. There is potentially still areas for BE to expand in to in the future - the CEO has made it very clear that the route structure will be reviewed so maybe some of the old BA Connect routes could be reinstated at some point.

As we move in to the winter schedule I have taken a look at each BE route in relation to those listed for week commencing Oct 28th and the approximate frequencies are below (based on M-F ops and not weekends and not taking in to account schedule changes and reduced frequencies at certain times of the year)

Aberdeen x3-4 daily
Barcelona Not Operated
Billund Not Operated
Brussels Not Operated (BE for SN Ops)
Dusseldorf x3-4 daily
Edinburgh x6-7 daily
Frankfurt Not Operated
Glasgow x6-7 daily
Hamburg Not Operated
Hannover 1xdaily
Lyon 1x daily
Madrid Not Operated
Milan x1daily
Paris 3x daily with additional frequencies on AF codeshare
Rome Not Operated
Nice Not Operated
Stuttgart x1-2 daily
Vienna Not Operated

Additional routes served:

Amsterdam x3 daily
Belfast City x6-7 daily
Guernsey x2 daily
Inverness x1 daily
Isle of Man x2 daily
Jersey x2 daily
Knock x3-4 weekly
Waterford x3-4 weekly

Plus additional summer and winter seasonal routes

I know that there will be points in the year where the above frequencies change, reduce or increase. The Eurohub no longer exists as it use to but terminal 2 does seem to be full of BE aircraft at times with the odd Ryanair scattered around.

There was talk a long time ago of making BHX a second 'hub' like BE have created at Manchester. So maybe one day Terminal 2 will once again return with hub status albeit in a slightly different way

[chaps2011]

Crewmeal
Or even Manchester as I think it will miss us too, gusting 25kts which is less than today and showers

[nigel osborne]

Crewmeal,

looks like LHR will get its usual good luck, winds to abate by 6am in London BBC Met claimed just .

Bang on time for the long haul arrival rush.

Might get some from LGW in the early hours perhaps if we are operational wind wise

[Elmdon Heath]

BHX expensive? - well it is certainly efficient

If I go to this atrsworld.org www site I find the most latest report on landing
fees etc is for 2012 and has only recently been released so why are we
discussing old 2010 data?

Maybe because when I scroll down the 2012 report the first reference to
BHX is as the 10th most efficient medium sized airport in Europe - and the
most efficient medium sized airport in the UK! - just shows what Kehoe
and his team have achieved at the old place in the last few years

OK Birmingham is probably no more efficient than expensive - you know,
stats, stats etc and of course you have to pay $950 for the full report to
find out how they reached that conclusion - ditto the landing costs

As atnotts has already noted its down to commercial reality - when Air Blue
had the choice of adding more flights at Manchester or starting a service to
Birmingham they chose the latter - must have had a competitive offer?

Elmdon

[GayFriendly]

BE Hub

There was talk a long time ago of making BHX a second 'hub' like BE have created at Manchester. So maybe one day Terminal 2 will once again return with hub status albeit in a slightly different way

Can't see that happening on the scale that has happened at MAN. BHX has domestic links to GLA, EDI, ABZ, INV, BHD, IOM with BE, plus T3 to NCL. There may be some limited hub connectivity appeal for pax from INV, ABZ and IOM, but pax from the other airports have perfectly good (sometimes better) non stop flight options to the same European destinations available from BHX. I'm not saying that no one would travel via BHX if such an option was developed but would the demand make it viable? In addition BHX has nowhere near the long haul options that are available from MAN particularly with TCX with whom BE have co-operated with at MAN - I think this is why BE have focused on developing a MAN hub.

Times have changed since BA tried to channel pax through from Scotland through BHX. EZY, FR and LS plus KL, AF and LH have exploded destination choices for pax from GLA and/or EDI in particular. Eurohub was a brave idea and must have had some substance as I seem to remember reading somewhere in the dim and distant past that through flights such as GLA-BHX-MAD carried a lot of Scottish originating pax, that probably accounts for the strong BA network at BHX in the 90's as flights to such destinations were not solely reliant on BHX originating traffic as they are now. Sadly, Eurohub fell foul of a change in BA policy to focus on transiting domestic pax through LHR: with their shiny and very nice T5 I don't think that policy will now change!

It's a pity that BHX hung on to the coat tails of BA for so long and ignore LCC carriers for so long. I definitely remember an interview again in the distant past with MOL who lambasted BHX for its close relationship with BA and that this would hamper its development. The usual MOL bluster and rant but perhaps a grain of truth in there somewhere?

[getonittt]

In reply to the poster enquiring about the evening departure on emirates I took a flight out 2 weeks ago and the experience was very good .As opposed to the morning when most of the based MON/RYR/ Flybe etc depart the security lanes were trouble free. One oddity was that when paying for my duty free the young lady in front of me when asked what her destination and airline was, she answered Sydney. I thought to myself oh she is on my EK flight but instead she said Air India! On checking later I see that the connection via Delhi is quite good and priced quite competitively too. On return to BHX aboard a 100% full flight it was another seamless operation getting through passport control and a slight wait for luggage , admittedly no other flights arrived at that time.

hope that helps

( a refreshingly non whinging post)

[ATNotts]

Times have changed since BA tried to channel pax through from Scotland through BHX. EZY, FR and LS plus KL, AF and LH have exploded destination choices for pax from GLA and/or EDI in particular.

Whilst I agree the the likes of KL and LH have to some extent changed the dynamic from GLA and particularly EDI, the LoCo's would have had little impact, since most of the routes don't operate daily at business friendly times.

Many passengers would have chosen BA, and routed through BHX because their corporate travel agents and frequent flyer programmes influenced the carrier / routing choices. It is very probably because of these same factors that the business routes that BHX would benefit so much from have not materialsed yet - passengers wishing to use One World have no avenue to fly from BHX, apart from some codeshares on FlyBe.

[groundhogbhx]

BHX Charges

Back in 2000 the handling agents were being charged more per sq ft than the shops in Piccadilly Circus, something that hasn't changed over the years. That would have a bearing on what the airlines get charged for handling and is totally outside the companies control, you want to have a base at BHX then you have to pay the rent the airport demands, the same applies to based airlines.

[crewmeal]

And maybe just maybe why carriers don't want to come to BHX

[GayFriendly]

China Bilateral Talks

Have seen in press today that the UK transport Minister and his Chinese counterpart are to start talks in the New Year about a new improved bilateral agreement with the aim of significantly increasing the number of UK-China flights permitted. Both countries agree that the 10 year old bilateral agreement in place does not allow the number of flights needed to meet demand.

Hope for BHX, well here's hoping, after all that's one of the reasons the runway is being extended? MAN will put up an extremely stiff fight for new routes. BA, VS and Air China at LHR who will probably look to expand their existing ops (slots permitting). I worry that BHX has perhaps too publicly stated its desire for a Chinese route and that it will look very bad for the airport if they don't get one assuming the bilateral is expanded.

[ATNotts]

groundhogbhx

Back in 2000 the handling agents were being charged more per sq ft than the shops in Piccadilly Circus, something that hasn't changed over the years.

I guess that the same accusations could be leveled at just about any major airport in UK - judging by the "cost-a-coffee"! However there are plenty of retailers willing to stump up, so their charges must add up commercially.

However I'm reluctant to get involved in another discussion about BHX costs in alleged comparison with other airports!!

[chinapattern]

Turkish Airlines

Some positive news; just read that Turkish Airlines will be x2 daily from next summer with the 737-900 scheduled to operate all the afternoon flights.

[nigel osborne]

Gay Friendly,

I think BHX chances depend on how many new slots each country agrees to, at present its just 31, assume each way.

BA have openly said they want to fly to another 6 Chinese cities from LHR. With VS also queuing up .Surely therefore would need to be a substantial increase for BHX or MAN to stand any chance.

Nigel

[GayFriendly]

As often happens at BHX good news and bad news always seem to come together - good news about TK, am not surprised they are planning to go up to 2 x daily, I have used them in the past for travels to/from the Middle East and they have always been a pleasure to fly with although IST can be quite chaotic at times. Good fares too!

However have just read this on the BMI regional forum

So BMI to pull out of BHX, MAN and EDI then according to staff murmurings

BMI pax loads at BHX have at best been average although GOT appears to be getting better. If true it will be a shame if they pull out but but no real surprise. it would seem overall according to that forum they are struggling at most bases right now.