Xpress lanes
 

This is nothing new, numerous airports have them, including Manchester unless I am mistaken.

Centre cities.

New Control Tower
 

According to the Birmingham Mail, our local rag, work on the new 115ft tower begins next month.
That's the good news, the not-so-good news is that it will be two years before it's operational.
A year to build and another year to fit it out with 'state of the art' equipment, commission it and train staff.
Most countries could build an entire airport in two years.
Is there any chance a start could be made on the Runway Extension before the new tower is ready for use?

Security channels
 

MAN has fast lanes but you dont pay for them, its for aircrew and business class (they do after all pay a massive difference in fares)

The point I was trying to make is that the whole of british society is slowly being fleeced into accepting that everything comes at extra cost and I object to that.

Quote

Or on the other hand it may be that since Swissport have started handling TCX ,they are short of basic handling aids and have bought an old conveyor from Menzies :ugh::rolleyes:

OH hang on....what date is it today :E;)

............................................................ ................

I was told it looked Brand New.

Ua/co, lh af
 

UA/CO

The 2011 cuts although are not savage it is a worrying trend especially Manchester dropping to daily from early September. BHX still appears to
be six weekly in November, as it was thought it might be five.

BFS was even worse as one site it came back as no availability but the
egg-timer had not run its course and that is still bookable at five weekly.

Smisek was interviewed in London but gave little away just insisting the
competition will be scared of them when full integration has finished. He
like most CEO's had a go at Government taxes especially the UK but again
nothing new in that.

Customer Service was mentioned and some have pointed out that this
will go down the CO route and the operational side the UA route. I am
sure it won't be as simple as that but I do fear changes might be the
order of the day eventually.

Lets face it, some CO 757's are already being moved to Washington
for European services rather than the much rumoured switch to Chicago.

Lufthansa

Lufthansa flying high after 25 years at Birmingham - Birmingham Airport

I remember working the first day (just) the Frankfurt started although
I thought it was earlier than 1986!

No mention of the Munich upgrade to all 195's in late May. Some very
impressive figures for early 2011 including the Middle East connections.

Air France

It seems an extra early morning departure was due to start (flybe Q400)
but this was only a slot application. Seemed logical in one sense considering
the cut in capacity with the flybe tie-up compared to summer 2010 but
I wonder if this was canned due to flybe not basing aircraft number 10.

This also affected the Inverness which was due to switch back to BHX
based but this changed as well, back to the winter schedule times.

Pete

OP,
Note your remarks about Manchester in your first line, but don't forget AA
are starting shortly to New York,so capacity will not suffer through the winter.
Although a different airport (JFK).
Regards,
Jubilee

UA/AA/DL
 

jubilee

Yes, I believe capacity will actually be up next winter at Manchester re
the New York area. AA five weekly, DL five weekly and CO/UA daily?

Compared to 2010/11 which was DL 5 weekly and CO 10/11 weekly
(can't remember exact figure).

Pete

I think DL - MAN - JFK was daily in winter 2010/11.

DL/PK/FR
 

Jamie2k9

Definitely five week per the CAA stats and still not daily now. Monday and
Friday ex Manchester are the days it does not fly at present. It returns to
daily in May or June but of course AA are back on the route.

On a different matter, their are still gaps in the Ryanair summer schedule
at BHX, have you heard anything? I understand it in winter but summer and
Easter coming up as well. Things are tight in the West Mids but I not sure
that they are that bad. Monarch have squashed in an amazing amount of
schedule flying this April and they are hardly the cheapest for us cost-concious Midlanders ;)

PIA

All four weekly flights are operating but all appear to the 772 now rather
than 3 x 77W and 1 x 772. Airport timetable also has the whole of April as
the 772.

Pete

It really amazes me. Reading through UK airport news you find really interesting items such as EMA's record breaking year for cargo, route expansion at MAN etc etc. What does BHX provide? An M&S outlet. Says it all. If expansion plans are in the form of shops and boutiques etc great so be it, why bother with an airport at all!!!

Gayfriendly says it all with his post on superdry and I'm in full agreement.

Actual Aviation Related Progress..
 

There is some positive news about something that actually relates to aviation..

New £10m control tower to built at Birmingham Airport - Latest Business News - Business News - Business - Birmingham Post

Although it hasn't been confirmed through any official channels..

Start in May?? We'll see

Adie

PS oh and the sign outside the main terminal has been changed :ugh:

rebecca
 

details ofthe new co ntrol tower appeared on the airport official website on april 1st- hopefully details of the runway extention will follow in due course...

BHX cargo up 65%
 

Good news is out there - you just need to look for it.....


http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/80/airport..._2000_2010.pdf

Not an achievement of marketing.....the increase in freight would be the result of the failure of CVT....:ugh:

Guess again, NPT originally considered operating out of Southend when CVT closed, I believe EMA was an option as well.....

Cargo
 

It amazes me that the airport are all of a sudden happy about the cargo flights (and doing everything they can to keep them) and the extra tonnages the airport are handling when upto a couple of years ago the airport didn't give a stuff about cargo flights, they missed a trick here as they should have tried to secure some of the flights that went into EMA/MAN....being in the midlands and having a great road network BHX could have been a great cargo airport too.......too little too late again i'm afraid......(and Manchester have over shadowed us once again on this)

easyjet
 

Both Grenoble and Geneva now bookable for winter 2011/12

Very small decrease in frequency with the third GVA on Saturday
evening only operating Christmas, New Year and from early Feb.

Good to see them persist with the ski routes but a pity they can't
be persuaded to operate from other bases such as Rome & Madrid.

Pete

Agreed, however, it wasn't marketing that got them to move to BHX...;)

It was the quality of the Cargo handling that got them here :ok: and one of the reasons they haven't gone elsewhere still

Delta-Hotel

The former ineptitude of the then cargo handling agents, combined with the inevitable restrictions on night operations at an airport so close to residential areas essentially resulted in BHX being an impractical location for the sort of intense operations that happen over my head each night at EMA!

I think the heyday for cargo at BHX was the late nineties when Ford were using BHX to resucue the production of the new Jaguar S Type with at times almost daily 747 and DC10 freighter operations from Detroit Willow Run - remember the Kalita and Atlas 747s, and the Gemini DC10s - ahh, those were the days!

BHX Website
 

Does no-one bother to update the BHX website anymore? On the home page new destinations are listed as Perpignan, Rennes (both now discontinued) and Shannon (still operating but hardly new) and the online scheduled timetable (the pdf downloadable one) still shows flight operational dates for December/January and flights listed with KM and CY both who have now upped sticks and left BHX. I can I suppose understand the new routes section, as there are none to add :ugh:but surely someone should keep an eye on keeping the timetable up to date especially as we are now into summer schedules?? Its quite a useful tool for planning (if only to find out where you can't fly to) rather than trawling through all the individual airline websites to find times

BHX Website
 

Another thing that they have not bothered to update is the map.
The homepage tells you that the airport is a one terminal airport with a single security area and a single arrival/meet & greet area. It also gives the new check-in desk numbers for KLM flights (117-120).
If you download the (4.9Mbyte) map, you get the old map with T1 and T2, with no indication as to where the entrance to the new security area is, the new arrival point or where the KLM check-in desks might be. (The desks on the T1 map are numbered but not those in T2).

BHD February figures
 

Just posted on the Belfast City thread the February 2011 CAA figures which
now include BMI baby.

It seems BMI Baby have gained some market share by the move but overall
combined figures in 2011 are down on 2010.

BHX-BHD - 23210 compared to 23597.

flybe be 2011 12700 compared to 14720 (slightly less flights)

BMI Baby 2011 10510 compared to 8877 (slightly more flights)

My estimates show flybe average 56* per flight in 2011 down from 58
and Baby averaged 94 (63% load factor) up from 85 (61% load factor).

*This could change once the actual rotations are known.

Interesting one - BMI Baby BHD-EMA 10330, below BHX but with nearly
a third more rotations.

Pete

Ryanair Alicante
 

Despite all the hot air from Ryanair, BHX - ALC is bookable this winter
(November at least) at the same frequency as Winter 2010/11 -
three per week.

Yes a decrease from daily in summer 2010 and summer 2011 but
exactly the same as last winter Sunday, Wednesday & Friday.

I believe it was 2009 that Alicante last operated daily throughout
the winter.

Pete

BMI Baby BHD-EMA
 

Those figures really doesn't surpise me Pete, Baby seem even less clued up than the BHX route development team....Baby removing part of the base from BHX to EMA always seemed strange to say the least. It would be interesting to see other similar route comparisons between BHX and EMA.

Olympic Holidays have changed the airline they are using for Birmingham flights yet again! All flights are now due to be operated by SkyWings Airlines of Greece. Presumably this means there will be no based Travel Service Airlines plane this summer.

Sky Wings
 

sam1993

Amazing, some of these flights have now seen four different operators
at some point - what is going on?

Release No. 455 for 2011 appears to show Sky Wings based from mid May
and their website has a link to airliners.net to view their fleet - five
MD80's although one photo is a 757.

Five hours on a MD80 from Larnaca on a Saturday in summer sounds
just great. I notice they don't offer Sky Wings on a Friday to Skiathos,
that flight is still showing as the based Travel Service.

Olympic Holidays still offer the late Thursday night Zante by Monarch
as well as Sky Wings in the day (so they are still friends after all).

Nothing appears lost from the schedule although the Sunday Papfos
was coming up as Monarch schedule, which was down as the
Romanian Airline Blue Air.

Pete

OltonPete,

Skywings website shows that they have A320's and 757's as well so maybe it will be one of these that is based? Sky Wings Airlines

I think some of the flights on Olympics website are yet to be changed to Sky Wings which may explain why Travel Service are still showing as operating some flights. I would also expect Sky Wings to take over the Blue Air flight to Paphos on a Sunday to fill the gap in the schedule. Also, Olympic now only use Monarch when Monarch are selling the flight themselves (i.e - they no longer charter a full aircraft but just buy individual seats) which is why Monarch flights are still available on the website. :ok:

Sky Wings
 

sam1993

I was looking at the GR site which makes no mention of the A320.

CH Aviation lists two A320's without registrations and stored at SAW.

You would hope that the 320 is the aircraft to be used due to the nature
of some of the routes.

This is an extremely late change of airline for a complete flying schedule
with the first flight about five to six weeks away.

Pete

Progress
JLR and Birmingham Airport schemes among Regional Growth Fund bid approvals

Key schemes to create or safeguard 40,000 jobs in the West Midlands have been given funding from the Regional Growth Fund.
Under the first round of the fund, five bids by companies and partnerships to promote economic growth – directly creating 6,193 jobs in the West Midlands, with 34,669 more posts likely to be created in associated supply chains.

The schemes which have won funding in the West Midlands have been put forward by Jaguar Land Rover, Alstom Grid UK, Bosch Thermotechnology, Prince’s Regeneration Trust and Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of Birmingham City Council.
The latter will see £15.7 million put towards upgrading the A45 around Birmingham Airport, bringing hopes of an enlarged runway closer to being realised.
Leader of Birmingham City Council councillor Mike Whitby said: “The £15.7 million announced for the upgrading of the A45 will bring significant transportation and economic benefits to the region and will also remove the constraint the current road alignment has on the proposed runway extension. "


A research and development plan put forward by Jaguar Land Rover will also receive funding from the RGF.
The funding boost for the West Midlands came as RGF funding went towards creating or safeguarding 100,000 jobs by investing £450 million in businesses across England.
Across the country, ministers said 27,000 jobs will be directly created or safeguarded, with tens of thousands of others supported in associated supply chains.
The rest of the Government’s £1 billion fund will be allocated later following a second round of bids, which have now started.
Richard Halstead, Midlands region director at EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, said he was pleased to see a boost for the region’s production sector.


Read More JLR and Birmingham Airport schemes among Regional Growth Fund bid approvals - Other UK business news - Business News - Business - Birmingham Post

Finally some real progress..:D

Watch it, on the Jaguar Trabant comments....

.. our rebranding to Jaguar Land Rover was ran by the same people who renamed dropped the International from BIA. :8

Ohhh... it wasn't you - it seems the board software renames L4nd R0ver to Trabant. Comedy!!:D

BMI Baby
 

Winter 2011/12

As expected a bit underwhelming at present despite Cardiff and Manchester
bases closing.

Prague is back all winter at 4 to 5 weekly.

Knock remains four weekly and there appears to be little change
to Belfast and Amstserdam.

Alicante & Malaga both take breaks in January and early February rather
than just the former.

It appears just two based again with Nice, Palma, Faro & Palma still
summer only.

Geneva returns weekend only plus Friday in the school holidays.

Hopefully more to come?????

Pete

Bmibaby pulls out of Manchester and Cardiff - ttglive

There could indeed be more to come! :ok:

Runway extension
 

Should we be expecting some very positive news from the management at BHX?

By my reckoning, the total cost of the runway extension at £32.7m has now been covered by three separate budgets - £10m from Centro, £7m from the airport itself and now £15.7m from the government's Regional Growth Fund.

For the airport and Centro it may be possible to hold over their contribution into another year. But with the Regional Growth Fund, I doubt if that would be the case; it will be a case of USE IT OR LOSE IT. There will be plenty of other organisations up and down the country that would love to get their hands on that sort of pump-priming cash!

Now must be the time when this belated and much needed development for the airport is given a positive start date - like before the end of this year!

You have got to hope so. l We will have to see what the 'board meeting' (mentioned in the article) this month brings to the fore.

Let's hope it all really gets going and we see spades in the ground for the tower this month and the A45/ runway shortly after.

Adie

Oh hold one there was a second article..

BBC News - Birmingham transport scheme gets £15.7m boost

Birmingham transport scheme gets £15.7m boost

A road improvement scheme which would allow the runway at Birmingham Airport to be extended has been awarded £15.7m.
The cash from the government's Regional Growth Fund will form part of the £32.7m initiative involving the airport and transport authority Centro.
The A45 Coventry Road near the airport would be diverted under the scheme, which would also allow better access to Birmingham International train station.
Runway extension proposals would be discussed this month, the airport said.
It added the board was minded to go ahead with the runway extension scheme and details would be discussed at its next meeting.

'Excellent news'

The Regional Growth Fund is a £1.4bn fund designed to encourage enterprise, growth and jobs in the private sector and support communities which are dependent on the public sector.
A total of £10m has been provided by Centro and £7m by the airport towards the £32.7m transport initiative involving the A45.
An airport spokesman said: "The Regional Growth Fund investment in the A45 transport corridor is excellent news for all the businesses operating along the corridor between Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry."
Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby said upgrading the A45 would bring "significant transportation and economic benefits" to the region.
He said: "[It] will also remove the constraint the current road alignment has on the proposed runway extension."
Birmingham Airport said it was hopeful the extension would be operational by 2014.

March Pax Figures
 

Down 6.2% in March, dire. Surely BHX management must be a bit worried?? No new routes, increases in frequency or new carriers on the horizon, apart from one more based unit from WW (in 2012!!). Although this is welcome, it is simply (at this rate of decline) not going to make a difference. Meanwhile LTN and EDI storm ahead (EDI over 700,000 pax in March against BHX 612,000......). Someone needs to think of something and bloody fast!!

A question for OltonPete regarding the FR aircraft... have any of those three slots you told be about been filled yet... or can we still hope for extra LDY rotations? :\

GayFriendly - They are more interested in the latest M&S outlet in the terminal so they can buy the new range of sandwiches. The new hologram in the new combined arrivals hall, wow that must be a first!! Oh we mustn't forget the brand new logo on the wall at the front of the terminal.

Route development? what's that? Passenger numbers? they will hold their own, the summers here in a couple of weeks!

Air India
 

Air India had all thier equipment removed from thier old offices last week and had it sent to LHR, (Desks, Chairs, everything).