Munich
 

I thought that LH were developing Munich as a hub and spoke destination, much more suited to a LH interline arangement than a baby route


Centre cities

It's worth noting that there are a few cases where Germanwings operates the same route as LH, or at least serves the same city pair (e.g. Cologne-London). So the idea of bmi baby operating alongside LH isn't unrealistic. And it could be a useful competitive tool against Easyjet. Or yes it could be a decoy. But the one thing I don't see happenning if bmi baby replacing any LH service to MUC

Aer Lingus/March Pax
 

March seems to have ended well with some Easter increases this week
after a lean winter.

Thomson today upgraded the Luxor to a 767, the displaced 757 replaced the
738 on the FUE and the 738 started a second weekly Monastir. They
also bring back Faro tomorrow and Naples on Friday.

Monarch schedule is in full swing with 4 x 321's at present with
two Larnaca's today, they have restated Mahon (2 weekly) & Palma
(4 weekly) already and Almeria operates again tomorrow.

Two Eurocypria by the look of it today although the one is on the
Cyprus schedule service.

Thomas Cook have added a second AYT this last Sunday and Dalaman
Monday.

Lufthansa not to be out done have operated a 321 on the LH4900/1
for the last two days which only last week was a EMB190.

Winter

Aer Lingus to Dublin released at three daily which is the same as last winter.

However they are now operating four daily with 320's.

Cork is not yet bookable for winter, still believe a double daily AT7
could be on the cards and if not perhaps staying as now as one
daily 320. The double daily of recent times on the 320 seemed excessive.

Pete

PGT-AYT
 

Does anyone have a start date for this new service?
Daza

PGT
 

Daza

Still showing on their website as Sunday 2/5/2010 for AYT.

Dalaman I assume is a full charter showing from 31/5/2010
as PGT1482/1 09.40/08.50.

The DLM is definitely not on sale on the PGT site.

Pete

PGT-AYT
 

Cheers Pete
Daza

Anyone take pics of the new PK livery applied on its aircraft which came into BHX recently (i think it was last saturday)

You can find it on here Bab_zz......Welcome to Birmingham International Airport's No.1 Enthusiast Web Site. Last Updated: 31/03/10

Or here >>>>>

http://bhxflightguide.********.com

If you just want movements try here >>>>>

http://bhxmovements.********.com

AI European Base
 

Taken from sify.com

BUSINESS_STANDARD
Air india board to discuss international base plan
Mihir Mishra | 2010-04-06 02:00:00


The first board meeting of Air India with four new independent directors inducted last month will discuss a proposal for a base in Europe for its flights to the United States. The meeting, to be held on Tuesday, will discuss the viability of the cities of Dublin in Ireland, Birmingham in the United Kingdom, Barcelona in Spain and Copenhagen in Denmark as a base for Air India flights from India to the US.

"The viability of the new destinations will be reviewed in the first board meeting with the new directors and only after that will any decision will be taken," said a senior ministry official, who did not want to be identified.

Air India operates four daily flights from New Delhi and Mumbai to New York, Newark, Washington and Chicago.

Air India had earlier decided upon Frankfurt in Germany as an international hub but gave up the idea after it found the place to be too expensive to operate from.

"The cost per passenger at the Frankfurt terminal is at 10 per cent of the fare charged per passenger, which is high by every standard. This forced us to look for other cheaper destinations," said a senior Air India official, who did not want to be identified.

The new 13-member Air India board has Mahindra & Mahindra Managing Director Anand Mahindra, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry General Secretary Amit Mitra, industrialist Harsh Neotia and Air Chief Marshal (Retd) Fali H Major as independent directors. They have joined the airline for a period of three years.

After the new terminal at the Delhi airport starts commercial operations, the merged entity will make Delhi its hub. Air India operates 12 international flights from Delhi and 17 from Mumbai, a large chunk of which is expected to shift to the capital now. Erstwhile Air India had its hub in Mumbai and erstwhile Indian Airlines' hub was Delhi......

Lets just hope BHX manages to bag this one its just that runway may go against us! Certainly BHX has a lot of VFR traffic much more than any of the other cities mentioned and certainly less US traffic than DUB,CPH or BCN.
Daza

The airport team flew to Mumbai yesterday........We have as good a chance as any of the others methinks...

The airport may well rue the day if this goes against them. It would probably mean any other long haul carrier would not bother with BHX until the runway is extended. With a very large Indian community in Brum it would make sense the have some sort of base at BHX by an Indian carrier.

Shame that Management didn't sort the runway out in the boom years at BHX, but that's another story.

European base
 

The very fact that Manchester is not being considered and Birmingham is, leaves me to believe that the Air India board are already fully aware of the runway status at the airport.

I would hope that behind the scenes airport management at BHX are burning the midnight oil to convince the airline that whatever they require will be achieved - and soon.

Independent of the airline board's views, BHX has stood out from all the other candidates as being aggressive in it wanting to re-instate and cultivate the city's link with the sub-continent.

That's positive, the glass is half full, not half empty!!!

Runway length shouldn't be an issue for the US destinations listed in that article, IIRC Air India operated to Toronto from BHX before they pulled out.



S78

BMI Baby Cologne
 

What a nightmare they are turning out to be.

Cologne has gone from the booking engine, yes Cologne which
was announced barely a month ago and still had six months
before it starts.

Unless less this is another website blip, I just can't believe what
they are doing.

What a total shambles. You can understand cancelling routes that
are making a loss but this chopping and changing is just potty.

Alicante and Malaga are back this winter at two weekly and Prague
which ended last Monday returns late October and then is cancelled
again in the New Year.

BHX down to two based units this coming winter.

Destinations now only AMS, ALC, BFS, AGP, NOC & GVA plus
the odd Prague.

Pete

Plenty going on.....We Need Your Help - India to Birmingham Direct...........Just in case you missed it...:)

Pete

I suspect what you are seeing is the result of the change of MD at baby, i suspect (hope) it will be a more stable time table going forward, i don't think anyone thought CGN from both EMA & BHX was a runner, i can't understand why it was put on sale in the first place?

Non-materialising BHX-CGN
 

.. and you guys complained about the departure times ...
EMA-CGN at least is bookable, but with such an attitute towards customers, no way one should book it (plus no public transport back to B'ham that late). Good news of course for FlyBe, they have their weaknesses, but where would we be without them. Am now probably at my 200th flight, half of those from BHX, and was on _one_ WW flight to GVA, aircraft interior the worst I've ever seen, check-in queue at BHX stupid, so gave up on them.

Ww Bhx-cgn
 

Hate to say I told you so!:ugh::ugh:
BMIBaby seem to be in planning chaos at the moment are they operating bucket and spade routes or city-to-city routes?
Daza

Munich seems to be on offer as a codeshare on the lufty service again, back under the main bmi group.
It seems all other bases are going to be left in the shadows now that they are hell bent on creating fortress EMA.
I was really hoping that a tie in with 4U would have worked this time, but ah well.