Wellington Bomber

I usually find that people who have lost the argument resort to personal abuse of this sort.

flappycats - Wellington Bomber may have been a little over the top (rather like me most of the time) but he does have a point. Anyway, Brum's runway will never be big enough to trouble you down there in the garden of England. If I was you, I'd be more worried about the DRAX power station and it's emissions. DRAX makes any resultant increase in CO2 emissions from a runway extension at Brum look like a Blue Tit's fart!

???
 

What do you mean exactly 4L3X ?
If you mean runway expansion i.e. the additional short runway? well I'm not sure how valuable it would be to Birmingham.
If you mean the runway extension, it's a no brainer. Of course the airport needs its extension, it needed it years ago. It also makes sense from an environmental perspective, larger more modern aircarft with larger payloads full of passengers who would not need to leave their carbon footprints (ugh) all along the M42 / M40 / M25 / M23 / M6 etc etc etc.

Just is it who is resonsible for this failure. Senior Managers? the Airport Board ? Actually come to think of it who is it that sits on the Board - is it a mixture of the business stakeholders (McQuarie ?) and local Councillors (God forbid). Does anyone out there know ?
I've heard it said that working at BHX is like working for a poor local authority, I don't know whether that's true...but in it's strategy (lack of it, it seems) it does seems to reflect some of the drift and lack of focus and proactivity that you see in some town halls. Or am I being unfair.
I do recall some local politicians not being fully supportive of the airport also, I remember a couple of years back one in particular saying that a proportion of flights should be moved to CVT which could be developed. I hope he isn't an influencer at BHX.
He seems to have got his way though.

Maybe the airport should encourage BMI Regional to return to BHX and take on some of the former BACON routes. Perhaps even have them operated at least to some sort of timetable?
Daza

The moaners might as well give up because the extended runway is going ahead. The pier is coming down and replacement going up. New ATC tower to be built first.
It's not like working within a local authority, far from it. However the local authorities don't realy contribute anything. They just take their money and waste it. Coventry is in direct competition but have shares in BHX. Hardly helpful when they offer up CVT on the cheap to fleece 2 million pax from their other asset?????
They all need to be bought out. Then and only then will we be able to plan for the future.
LOCO ops are not the answer. The quality of pax is very low business wise. They don't tend to spend enough in the commercial outlets. It's a case of more pax do not always translate into more income.

Call 100
I agree with you about local councils best keeping away from airports. Coventry Council's only financial interest in Coventry Airport is that it receives ground rent from the site. They sold it in 1999(?) to Air Atlantic Group having managed to put off all serious airport operators. They were certainly not responsible for CVT getting passenger flights. The number of passengers in the last year is just over 600,000, not 2million.
Birmingham has got to live in the real world where there is competition. You don't hear Tesco whingeing that ASDA have a new store down the road - they just get on with trying to be better than the competition.
IMHO EMA is a much bigger threat to BHX than CVT and likewise to CVT rather than BHX

The 2 million I was refering to is not the present pax but the limit they are supposed to be being held to.
Coventry council are responsible for it still being an airport. The land rental stipulates that as its use. Had that not been there then it would have been housing by now.
It wasn't BHX complaining about the competition just me. However, Tesco would complain if Asda were blocking the road to their store, restricting customer access.
My own view is that BHX should have purchased CVT when they had the chance. Then restricted the usage to cargo.
I agree with you that EMA is our biggest threat at the moment.

I don't think Coventry council can take all the blame for the CVT/BHX situation. Thomsonfly were already a BHX operator, why wasn't a blinding deal done for them to keep them?! Ok, the costs at Coventry were a fraction of that at BHX, but BHX could have done more.

I don't see how CVT is blocking or restricting access to BHX? Its a bit of healthy competition, thats all, and many airports around the country have, and deal with similar situations in a far more proactive manner than dear old BHX. Furthermore, to go back to the supermarket analogy, the BHX/CVT situation can't be compared to Tesco/Asda. More like Tesco and a cornershop! BHX has far, far bigger things to worry about than Coventry...

To stretch the analogy a bit the cvt/bhx situation is less Tesco and Asda and more the supermarket and the corner shop. The corner shop which was there before the supermarket grew from its humble beginnings has co existed under various owners with the supermarket for years but suddenly upsets the complacency of the supermarket by starting to sell some cut price goods and increases the number of customers it serves although there is no proof that any of these customers would have gone to the supermarket. It even puts in a planning application to extend its customer service area although there is no proof that this will increase its number of customers at all never mind attract any from the supermarket. The corner shop does not restrict access to the supermarket but its customers do use the same public roads and just occassionally under certain conditions one of its new customers might delay a vehicle on its way to the supermarket but not by very much. Of course the supermarket might get rid of this irritant by buying it out and either closing it or controlling what it sells but this just might end up with the supermarket in court on a restrictive practise or anti competition charge much better to ask itself why some people prefer to shop at the corner shop and see if it can alter its own practices to be more attractive to these customers.
To abandon the anology it seems to me that the management at BHX has become somewhat obsessive with CVT and has exagerated any potential threat to its own business totally out of proportion.

Exactly! A four 737 operation flying to the usual European cities and bucket and spade destinations is not what Birmingham needs!

The TUIFly Cologne route now appears to be picking up (load wise at least).

According to the CAA provisional statistics for April, 4187 passengers used the 5x weekly service. MAN - CGN for the same month on the same frequency had 4279 passengers. 92 passengers difference.

Cologne
 

I must admit I feared for the Cologne after a bad start to the year but I wonder if it has been aided by the BACON saga?

BACON were flying 4 a day to DUS, which is the same as flybe now but two were RJ100's which is over 240 seats a day less (Monday - Friday).

Dusseldorf was down (10699), still plenty of empty seats but I bet
a few leisure pax changed to the Cologne.

Out of interest Norwegian carried 1099 pax to Warsaw at about 69 per flight which is not too bad but I am sure they will be looking for at least 100 in the coming months.

SkyEurope managed 2205 pax to Krakow at an average of 123 - time for a third rotation?

Flybe's old French routes continued to nosedive but many were reduced
to the 145 so showed slightly better load factors.

Emirates was up to 29060 or 242 a flight which was a nice surprise after hearing of some dire individual loads at times during the month. This is a load factor of about 78%!

Newark was slightly down but still averaged 159!

Domestics were dire with the massive decrease in Edinburgh (down 9000) but Aberdeen and Glasgow performed well. Glasgow had one less rotation a day and the 195 was moved to the Edinburgh.

Pete

Jet Airways
 

I see that Jet Airways are to start codesharing with Brussels Airlines on their BHX-BRU route to link in with Jets flights from BRU to Mumbai and Delhi (Jet are to use BRU as their European stopover for India-US and Canada flights)- is this an end then to their (alleged) aspirations to fly from BHX or a testing of the waters?? I believe at AI probably put a stop to their ideas of flying from BHX although a Mumbai flight would be nice all year round (it operates Feb and March if i'm not mistaken??)
PS I believe that subject to Govt approval codesharing to MAN and NCL will happen too.

Would be surprised if MAN doesn't go direct when the airlines starts receiving T7s.

MAN are always looking for more Long Haul, and after China and the Middle East, India is a new country that is breaking into this major expansion with King Fisher, Air Deccan etc.

Good to see BHX getting the code-share, maybe it will go direct from BHX when the runway is extended!;)

MAN-India is a much lesser market than BHX-India; it was a bit of a surprise when AI operated into MAN between 1994 and 1997 when they had previously operated into BHX with 707s.

As for 777s, I believe there won't be too much of a problem operating non-stop to India from BHX with it's current runway length.

Norwegian stats
 

Dunces hat for me this week, I thought the service started on 12/4/07 and in fact it was 17/4/07 and thus 12 rotations not 16 :ugh:

However this makes the average per flight a much better 92 or 62% load factor, which is fairly decent for the first few flights:).

As for Air India, they have been operating for two years (might even be to the day) direct to Amritsar but I have no idea if it takes a payload hit.

Certainly VT-AIR has had problems in the past (baggage left behind) as it is different (I think weight rather than engines) to VT-AIJ, K & L.

Pete

Ork-bhx
 

EI Cork to Birmingham is to go daily from end of October. EI and Baby will then both offer daily services.

Bhx-ork
 

Good to see EI go daily but it a lot of seats to fill in winter.

Will Baby now withdraw?

I believe they usually release their winter schedule in early June.



Pete

Birmingham Airport Press Release

SALE OF AER RIANTA AND MACQUARIE SHARES
IN BIRMINGHAM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Birmingham International Airport (BIA) today welcomed the
announcement of a preferred bidder for the 48.25% of shares
in the company offered for sale by Aer Rianta International
and Macquarie Airports Group.

The preferred bidder - the Airport Group Investments Limited,
(AGIL) a limited company owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension
Plan and Victorian Funds Management Corporation – made an
unconditional offer of £420m for the 48.25% joint holding.

Aer Rianta and Macquarie have accepted the offer.

Airport Group Investments Limited will now open discussions
with the seven West Midlands Districts who retain pre-emption
rights.

BIA also acknowledged the continuing commitment of the seven
West Midland District Councils, the Airport's main shareholders,
to ensure that BIA continues to play a fundamental role in the
economic success of the Region.

Back in 1996 there were just 5.4 million passengers travelling
through BIA – compared with 9.3 million in 2006. Such tremendous
growth has only been achieved with the support of the shareholders
working in partnership enabling BIA to provide the additional
capacity and facilities demanded by the region.

The Airport Group Investments Limited has already committed to
progressing the runway extension which will create global links
that will further develop the region's competitiveness on the
World stage.

BIA's Acting Managing Director, Joe Kelly, said: "Under the
current public/private partnership shareholding arrangements,
Birmingham International Airport has grown and developed
tremendously over the last ten years. The Airport now supports
some 11,000 jobs and directly contributes over £220m per annum
to the Midlands economy. The Airport plays a pivotal role in
providing international connectivity vital to supporting and
developing other businesses and inward investment into the wider
Midlands region. All this continues to be achieved in a
sustainable manner, with some of the strictest environmental
policies of any airport in the UK."


Notes to Editors:

BIA Ltd is a public/private partnership established in 1997.

The seven West Midland District Councils (Birmingham, Solihull,
Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton) are the
principal shareholders of Birmingham Airport, with a 49%
shareholding.


About The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan is one of the largest public
pension plans in Canada with $106 billion in net assets. An
independent organization, it invests the pension fund's assets
and administers the pensions of 271,000 active and retired
teachers in Ontario. Its infrastructure group focuses on the
acquisition and long-term retention of low-risk assets that
generate stable returns linked to inflation. Teachers' has a
diversified portfolio of global investments in public and
private companies; government and corporate bonds; hedge funds;
real estate; and inflation-sensitive investments that include
infrastructure and timberlands.


About Victorian Funds Management Corporation

VFMC is based in Melbourne, Australia, and manages investments
on behalf of Victorian Government entities, including pension
funds, insurance funds and endowments for hospitals and
universities within Victoria. VFMC was founded by an act of
State Parliament and reports to the Treasurer of Victoria
through the Department of Treasury and Finance. It currently
manages assets totalling more than A$40 billion (£17bn). The
benefits of VFMC's investment decisions effectively accrue to
the citizens and employees of the State of Victoria.


BIA is the UK's second largest airport outside London, the third
largest for charter traffic, and the UK's sixth largest overall.


In 2006, BIA handled 9,153,047 a decrease of 2.5% on 2005.


BIA has just completed a major (£30m) phase of investment and
development in new passenger facilities including major new Duty
Free and other shops, new Frankie & Benny's, Yates, and other
catering outlets, new automated check-in facilities, new
Immigration Hall and Baggage System.


BIA has received a National Clean Air Awards, from the Roy Castle
Lung Cancer Foundation, for being the first Airport in England to
become a smoke free zone.


BIA is ideally suited to connect into the UK's surface transport
systems with a recently installed 90sec light rail connection to
Birmingham International Railway Station, which in turn is a major
station on the West Coast Main Railway line with over 200 trains
calling every day. The airport also has a comprehensive network of
bus and coach services with over 250 services from the airport every
day. The M42 Motorway is also less than a kilometre from the airport
with short connections to the M6 and M40 motorways.