A Jordan Aviation A310 arrived at Birmingham this evening from Amman, departs tomorrow morning. Possibly a Hadj visitor?

FC

I've heard that SAS are to replace Skyways on ARN-BHX, anybody confirm?

Presumably we'll have the usual Irish charters soon for Cheltenham

Fried Chicken

SAS to Stockholm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays with dash8-400s

Looks like a good summer ahead for BHX!

Mark

Only 3 days a week against daily sounds like a backward step to me

G-I-B

What is the point of any serious European city route only doing 3x per week?

If this is within range of the Q400, couldn't Flybe look at this sort of destination, as they would offer low enough fares to fill at least a daily service. Not to mention numerous other cities in that direction they could serve. Presumably any SAS interlining from BHX goes via CPH? Also, could BE go into Bromma, or is that restricted to domestic only?

Indian Airlines
 

More good news for BHX although its not yet confirmed:


IA seeks to operate to Birmingham, Manchester

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Posted online: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 at 1423 hours IST




NEW DELHI, MARCH 15: Indian Airlines has sought permission to
operate four flights per week to Birmingham and three to Manchester
from December, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Tuesday.



"Indian Airlines has already been designated for operations in UK.
IA has only requested for permission to operate four flights per
week to Birmingham and three flights per week to Manchester
effective December, 2005," he said in a written reply to a question
in Rajya Sabha

On a visit yesterday, I noticed Stand 40 was closed & building work going on, any reason why?

Fried Chicken

Extension of dep lounge, they are bringing it further out

Does anyone have updated status for Flywho and Midland Airways?

See the thread on cabin crew forum

Looks like Flywho have either gone bust or have stopped taking bookings and delayed start of operations yet again.

As for Midland Airways, they dont seem to be running anymore. I think the 767 they were using in co-operation with Slovak is still impounded at BHX, although its been moved and having engine tests so I hear.

baby at BHX
 

bmibaby is increasing the frequency on BFS-BHX

http://www.belfastairport.com/en/news.asp?id=143

:ok:

Probably a reaction to suggestions on another thread that Flybe will be using 737s on selected BHX/BHD/BHX rotations - even at 3X weekdays WW still someway short of Flybe's 7X on weekdays from BHD.

Midland Airways 767 moved to free up stand as flybe's 737's and also BMIbaby have another or 2(not sure?) 737 arriving this weekend

BHXviscount

Flywho
 

Probably no suprise but found this post from the C.E.O. posted yesterday:


Flywho Ceo Here Again!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Hi.

I would like to ensure that the record is set straight regarding the
various messages on this and other forums that speak of us having
CEASED TRADING. I appreciate that word is going round about our
status and I will clarify that in a moment, but this statement is NOT
TRUE. I am especially troubled to read posts that refer to calls
purportedly from us and telling this news. We have made no such calls.

A BRIEF EXPLANATION

After the troubles of 2004, we felt it necessary to protect
passengers who wanted to take a chance on a booking with us by
pairing up with a large ATOL bonded sales agent. This agent would
actually have the legal charge of chartering all our flights. It
would be their tickets you would have purchased when booking with us.

Regrettably, when the time came for us to deposit the first non-
refundable $1m on the first aircraft, the ATOL agent cried off the
deal claiming all kinds of issues were still unresolved. That is
unquestionably true. We had no satisfactory account why they had not
actually established the computer reservations system and begun
taking payments on the dates agreed. These significant issues were
indeed doing us no good and we had to call a halt.

So despite the disappointments once again, we felt it necessary to
call a halt to the Florida programme for the foreseeable future WHILE
we get our ducks in a row and actually start to operate. Only THEN
will we tell you about it!

==================================================
==========================
We have made arrangements to re-accommodate every single passenger
who had booked with us, and those flights were secure. We will be
happy to hear from anyone who has not been so advised as we can still
secure your travel if you move fast. Call me directly if you need
further help on this matter. I am available through our reservation
number on 0870 11 22 767.
==================================================
==========================


I do have to say that we have been saddened to see how people can be
so quick to condemn us when they have no idea what is involved in
this venture.

I had actually considered offering £200,000 per annum to anyone who
can do a better job than me to get this venture started when you have
to raise the money yourself, develop the team, establish the
transatlantic relationships, establish secure ATOL protection,
develop a trade and direct sales team with systems and a distribution
network, train that team, create the aircraft lease fund, find the
aircraft and contract that, establish USA license approvals (dept of
trade, dept of transport, CAA and US lawyers!), engage approved
maintenance contractors and managers, flight deck team, cabin crew
team, design and make the uniforms, the lit and print, the catering
package, develop the staff training programme, field calls from
complaining people, deal with the BBC, the national and travel press
and the local papers too, hire staff to help build this, relate to
local and foreign suppliers, attend dinners and speak at most of them
and then deal with letters of complaint from people who think you
should have phoned them back a little sooner!!!

This is only a scratch on the surface of my week. Poor old me!

FlyBlu/who has been a genuine attempt to bring a little more style
and comfort to your otherwise `hard work' Florida travel experience.
We invested huge sums in this effort (it would make you weep I
promise) but we still missed the target simply because we tried too
hard to secure your position and to ensure the product was perfect
before we delivered it.

We will continue to work on this and continue to look forward to
launching this service, but for the time being I feel I cannot even
consider giving any indication when that will be.

Thank you for your support, and for your hope.

Aden and the team.

I've got to give Flywho credit for being so "honest", but do they really expect anyone to have any faith in them?

It was a bold idea, but I think for the wrong market at the wrong time. I can think of ways this concept might work - perhaps 35" instead of 38? Would have to start from London, where there are more people around who are prepared to pay a little extra - LTN is still near the shires, and could be "fed" by EZ etc - if they were to ever offer any kind of connection promise (oops, I know that's an old chestnut).

Arriving into BHX this a/n, an airbridge was fixed to the a/c, then we were bussed round to baggage reclaim. Are there some works going on in the main terminal, or is this Flybe's latest version of no-frills/full frills hybrid?

or possibly arriving passengers bussed to terminal, departing passengers use the airbridge if segregation can't be kept to in the terminal?

Fried Chicken

Germanwings
 

The following article from the Birmingham Evening Mail

Birmingham is set to benefit from a massive boost in tourists from Germany
when the country's biggest low cost airline starts its first Midland flights
next week.

Germanwings will fly every day except Saturday between Birmingham and
Cologne - and intends to make its flights twice daily from the end of the
summer.

It's also good news for Birmingham holidaymakers and businessmen heading for
Germany - with the airline selling seats from £13 one-way, including taxes.

Germanwings already operates into Stansted and Gatwick and both regions have
seen boosts in German visitors with around 300,000 flying into the London
airports last year.

Andreas Engel, the company's director of international public relations,
said a photograph of Birmingham's Selfridges store had appeared in numerous
magazines and newspapers in Germany in recent weeks and there was a great
deal of interest in visiting the city.

"Because of the interest in this service both in Birmingham and Cologne we
anticipate having an 80 per cent load factor. On the back of this we expect
to launch the service twice a day in due course."

He said the new service would use 142 and 150-seater Airbus jets - far
bigger than any aircraft currently flying between Birmingham and Germany.

"Other airlines use 50-seater regional jets which businessmen hate," Mr
Engel added.

"We wanted to launch a new service to Birmingham because it is one of the
top 10 catchment areas in Europe and we anticipate good seat sales."

Most of the airline's seats are sold on the internet and sales for the
Birmingham service are looking good.

Already booked three roundtrips for peanuts. Though only once daily at present, the timings are perfect for me. Worried they might change when they go twice daily. I've used GWI before and I like them. CGN is also a nice airport to fly from. I hope they do well.

The easyJet service to CGN from NEMA seems to do well so there is obviously demand for services (from both ends of the route I suspect).

March Passenger Figure
 

Birmingham International Airport (BIA) handled 658,269 passengers in March,
a slight fall of 1.2% on the same month last year. Despite the overall fall,
charter traffic grew by 5.7% during the month as tour operators increased
capacity from Birmingham for the Easter period, which fell earlier this year
than usual. The most popular charter destinations were Cyprus (+123.9%),
Bulgaria (+68.7%), Austria (+61.7%), Switzerland (+15.3%), France (+14.5%)
and Italy (+7.2%). Although the number of scheduled passengers fell by 2.9%
overall during March, growth was achieved on transatlantic routes which
experienced a 34.1% rise, on domestic services which grew by 6.7%, and on
flights to Asia which saw an increase of 4.9%.
Other scheduled routes which saw a rise in traffic over the month were,
Prague (+127.8%), Larnaca (+93.7%), Milan (+71.5%), Bratislava (+19.7%),
Edinburgh (18.8%), Amsterdam (+18%), Munich (+9.5%) and Zurich (+7.7%).
Scheduled traffic accounted for 79.6% of the total March figure while
charter passengers made up the remaining 20.4%.