BIRMINGHAM - 4
 

With regards to the flybe/bacon deal apparently it will be a BA/swissport partnership for 90 days. I dont know exactly how it will work though. Maybe ba will be left alone to handle some flights and swissport to handle the rest. However after speaking to ba guys they are admanat that they will not work with any swissport staff!!!! I think this will cause a few delays



Cntinuation of: http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...251024&page=14

Emirates at BHX
 

A selected quote from a local newspaper: -

"It means that Emirates will be looking to use larger aircraft at
Birmingham from summer onwards – and increases the chances of the
introduction of a third service in about a year's time".

I am not sure if was a direct quote by Emirates or an assumption by
the newspaper but as we know the lunchtime service is a 77W from
1/7/07 and with the threat of Qatar I wonder if the evening service
will also be upgraded soon.

The evening service started badly but now seems to be very healthy.

261 pax apparently last night on the outbound which had to return due
tech problem (ended up night-stopping, going out today).

OP

Gayfriendly,
I understand Aerosvit are looking at coming back with a 2/3 times BHX-Kiev flight. No dates yet but they've changed ticketing agents (in the UK end) & I believe they're trying to push Kiev as a destination (nice City apparently) in addition to the usual traffic to Asia.

As regards to the Emirates, todays lunchtime flight was upgraded to a B773 & the Manchester flight routed MAN-BHX-DXB to pick up the stragglers. I believe the evening flight is an A330 as usual.

From an engineer I spoke to today, it seems Emirates may have to airfreight a new engine in although this will probably be flown into East Mid's & transported down the M42. (apparently the handling agents [at BHX] turn away a number of cargo flights due to lack of staff/equipment & they end up going to East Mids or Coventry)

WNC

Iteresting seeing the so called deal for a BA/Swissport partnership for 90 days at BHX, we are all wondering in MAN what the hell is going on, cos as normall nobody is saying anything, the latest rumour heard today that SAS have won the contract for BE anyway!!
Sorry to say, that i did laugh when i heard about the staff levels with swissport at BHX, at least i know it looks like a all station agreement, i have given up with all the overtime we are not allowed to cover, can see us loosing contracts not gaining any!!

Has BHX to Boston ever been tried down they years? Had the idea that if Astraeus have any spare capacity going with the 737-700 in light of the end of FlyMe's operation that a consideration might be given to a BHX-BOS? The proviso being that the aircraft stop off at Cork two or three times a week!

Any takers to the idea or is the range of a 737-700 not enough for BHX/ORK to BOS?

Just an idea. Thanks.

Do Astreaus B73G's have buisness class? Doubt there would be much charter traffic to BOS from the Midlands
Fried Chicken

Think most of any BHX-BOS traffic would be connecting onto other destinations in the U.S. Would maybe work for someone like AA but can't see astreus making it work:confused:

On another topic it's very dissapointing not to have got Qatar, it was really our only chance of a new long haul this year. EK loads recently have been fantastic, and apparently they're looking at a 3rd daily from MAN with BHX not too far behind (think the A380 situation is messing things up a bit), could QR nip in and beat them too it???

Article from local paper:

Emirates Airline – now regarded as the premier carrier at Birmingham
International Airport – is again planning an increase in capacity
after notching up a 71 per cent rise in the number of passengers
using its Birmingham services in just two years.

From 187,000 customers flying with the Dubai-based international
carrier in 2004/2005, the latest figures for the year to March have
hit 320,000 for its twice-daily services from Birmingham.

It means that Emirates will be looking to use larger aircraft at
Birmingham from summer onwards – and increases the chances of the
introduction of a third service in about a year's time.

Emirates says that as well as the growth of Dubai as one of the
world's leading business and tourism destinations, the popularity of
Australian destinations has soared as Midlands travellers turn their
back on London's airports to fly direct from Birmingham.

Four of the top seven destinations for Emirates passengers are now in
Australia – compared with two in 2005 – with Perth, Sydney, Brisbane
and Melbourne overtaking Delhi and Dhaka in popularity as travellers
take advantage of connections through the carrier's Dubai hub.

Laurie Berryman, Emirates manager UK North, said yesterday: "Air
travellers in the Midlands have realised there's little point in
travelling down the M1 or M40 to the London airports when there's our
choice of services on their doorstep.


"There is a significant time saving by flying direct with Emirates
from Birmingham International to our destinations in the Middle East,
Asia and Australia.


"Business class passenger numbers have actually grown faster than
economy, in part due to our very popular chauffeur-drive service
within a 70 mile radius of BIA."

Boston
 

Tom

There has never been a Boston as far as I know (1976) and although it
would be the right size aircraft it would not work business only config.

This leaves a mix of business and economy and could any airline make that pay on a 73G from a regional airport to the USA?

However GLA - BOS will be a 73H and GSM must have done their sums for them to take this on but I am not sure about a 73G.

BHX at the moment is dismal across the pond and I would like to see
anybody have a go but not with my money ;) .

OP

Norweigan are starting WAW flights

FlyBe
 

So, the deal is done!! 31 new routes announced on website today. It would seem that BHX has, as previously predicted, lost Madrid, Berlin, Geneva and Lyon, thank goodness BMIBbaby have taken on BCN or that would have gone too - so, not good news at all :ugh: If FR can make these sorts of routes work from EMA why can someone not from BHX?? I guess with Flybe its lack of aircraft and quite simply I suppose CDG, FRA, STR etc make more money. I can't see anyone taking over the dropped routes for the time being, maybe Baby might look at them for the winter?? Perhaps Air Berlin might be interested in a Berlin flight?? Or maybe the mythical Birmingham European if they actually ever get off the ground. We can but hope!! Interestingly there is lots of expansion from MAN although they too have lost some ex BACON routes. Now I guess we just have to see how the Baby and newly expanded Flybe get along together at BHX...............

Both MAD & BCN are being looked at by Spanish Airlines I understand (possibly Click & Air Nostrum, who through Iberia's connection to BA, may have got wind that these routes were no longer to be operated).

With Air Berlin taking delivery of new aircraft, I guess a TXL-BHX with a Fokker100 may work.

WNC

flybe

you have a look at the BE website and it says all pax have to check-in with BE after the 23rd March!!!
Has BHX got any spare staff we can have in MAN, like 100 or so?

:uhoh:

Servisair Bail out Swissport
 

PIA 777 in today, I heard that as Swissport had never handled this type of aircraft at BHX and they hadn't a clue on the load control aspect of it and had to get Servisair to help them load the ULD's they didn't understand that being a 777 you have to leave gaps in between ULD's in the hold, it is not common practice to fill these gaps with bags, your supposed to use the locking pins!!! LOL - Made my day when i got told this. Bloody hilarious!!! Poor old PIA took a few hours of a delay, at least Servsair know what they're doing.

Perhaps after this performance PIA will re-consider bringing in the 777?

Dred,

As a regular user of Swissport, and frequent sufferer of their often poor performance I must on this occasion jump to their defence:eek:

PIA currently operate the 777 to BHX or don't operate at all! The EU has banned PIA (excluding the 777) from flying to EU destinations because of ongoing safety concerns that have NOT been addressed.

Swissport haven't handled a 777 before - is that their fault? Suddenly overnight (and we are talking that sort of notification time frame) they are told by PIA they will be getting a 777 on the service. No ramp staff trained or experienced on 777 as have never handled it before, probably no RAMP manual provided by PIA in advance either.

The mess is of PIA's own making my friend, on this occasion NOT Swissports! They will learn - as no doubt you did one day. If PIA were a good airline they would have sent a support team to assist an agent who had no prior knowledge, or expectation of handling an aircraft type for which they had no advance notification.

30W

Dred

No loadcontrol problem on the PIA, just short of loaders. As we don't handle 777's it's hardly surpirising that they had a problem. These things happen on all new types when you don't get any manuals or training before they arrive.

Pia 777
 

No problem at all with load control infact the best man for the job was load controling the flight just not enough staff and no training to deal with aircraft that big. as per usual not enough staff and no training given prior to its arrival

Swiss ground handling at MAN is now done by servisair, the ticketing is done by Swissport, all changed the end of Jan, and Brussels Airlines is done by Aviance here in Man

Security News
 

Anyone heard the latest in the security TUPe? Which company are going to be taking on the contract? Wonder where all this is heading with the cleaners gone to ISS( working well so it seems) and fire department gone to Serco ( not working well by all accounts) Which department will be joining them next I wonder? Is this heading for landlord only status for airport management?

Sleepy old BHX - haven't you realised that the 777 is currently the only a/c PIA are allowed to operate within the EU:ugh:

Gosh, thanks for telling us:mad:

Haven't you managed to work out that PIA provide no manuals to handling agents:sad: Makes loading the a/c for the first time really difficult if no one knows how it all works, even Servisair who have upto 3 777's a day were scratching there heads.

I see on the airport fids screen swissport are expecting the pia again later today. Im assuming its the 777 again. The perfect opportunity for swissport to prove servisair wrong. My mate Bazza at servisair told me that the only reason they helped out on the last 777 was because swissport only had 1 highloader and servisair only provide highloaders with drivers. Nothing to do with swissport struggling and that came from the horses mouth. And bazza is quite high up the servisair ladder.

Legalize Ask Bazza if he remembers his employers accepting a DAS Air DC-10 to uplift some Range Rovers to the ME. Such a shame they did not have a main deck loader on station when the aircraft arrived:O

Hi PhilBHX
Security contract for the Airfield has gone to ICTS. Best of a bad bunch apparently. Everyone is dreading the takeover as ICTS don't have the best record with the people they have on station up to now. Hardly shining beacons in the security world. Their local managers are abismal.
As for the Fire Service, I don't think there are any problems there. In fact nothing has changed at the station. Pay talks are in progress and they are being offered more than the airport are offering it's employees.
Yes it does seem that the airport company are on that road to becoming landlords. Any loyalty to employees has long gone...

ICTS
 

Yep, it's ICTS. Staff morale all over BHX, but particularly in Security, is rock bottom. With one or two honourable exception, the management at BHX are a bunch of snakes. Having been complacent for years and failed to plan for the future, they have spent the past 5 years cutting and cutting and treating a pretty loyal workforce abysmally.

The current pay negotiations are ongoing, I'm surprised the company has even offered a 3 year deal. They've suddenly decided that the average of RPI over 12 months suits them rather than the December figure - perhaps they are too dense to realise that next year's 12 month average figure may well be higher than the December figure.

If ever an organisation represented Lions lead by Donkeys, it is BIA:ugh:

Flybe/bacon
 

Not much cheer on the pax or movements front either.

The combined BACON/Fybe schedule is nearly 40 movements less per day
(weekday) than summer 2006. The Baby and Monarch increases off-set
some of the losses but not all.

Some estimated individual route figures: -

Edinburgh - 500 seats per day less on offer than summer 2006
Glasgow - 250 -300 seats less
Paris - 400 seats less
Frankfurt - 100 seats less.

Then there is the loss of Madrid (nearly 6000 in summer), Lyon (2-4K),
Berlin (2-3K) and Geneva the same. That is just ex BACON, flybe of
course have chopped Malaga, Alicante, Murcia, Faro & Perpignan.

There was definitely over capacity on some routes but I can't see the
monthly passenger figures making healthy reading this summer but plenty of ready-made excuses for BHX management.

OP

I think in terms of pax numbers we can pretty much write this year off, and as you say BHX have ready made excuses now. The reduction has been pretty severe but guess if BACON had just pulled without FLYbe taking over it could have been worse (trying to remain optimistic:ouch: ).

Next year is the real worry. Maybe once the dust settles FLYbe will add more routes but can't see them matching what we had, would have thought we've seen as much expansion from Baby as we're going to and with BHX seemingly still reluctant to match Easy's expectations the short term future could be bleak, lets just hope if EI do open a U.K. base it's BHX they choose, could be just what's needed.

On a brighter note I've noticed the T1 passenger search area expansion is underway, and not before time too, hopefully it'll be an end to queue's down past Franki and Bennies. Also the departure lounge extension is starting to take shape, heard there's quite a list of retail outlets ready:rolleyes:

Hmmm Sounds like challenges ahead. I wonder why they mess with a team that worked and replace it with one with a dodgy track record. As for the Fire Service, depends who you talk to. Some lads who used to be on our section clearly have some issues with whats going on. Not everyone is happy at all.
The pay talks were looking like a better deal but all has gone very quiet and there a rumours that the figures being presented are being withdrawn now.

Considering bmibaby fly to all of our destinations from BHX excluding CDG and PGF, I wouldn't be surprised if another based aircraft included these two routes, maybe alongside MAD or LYS following flybe dropping these routes. I could see a twice daily Paris, alongside once daily Madrid - picking up the BACON late morning slot, and four times weekly LYS alongside three times weekly PGF.

GK430

You are the kind of guy who has the info that other people have forgot about. I think i'l keep you sweet mate!!!

By the way, how was the pia 777 turnaround today? Did it go on time and how were swissport?

On time. Amazing what difference a little bit of experience on the type makes:} Shame the 310's are coming back in from Saturday:(

Legalize
Good thinking - I have a memory like a bottomless pit, but I'm very restrained - normally!

I though the a310's were banned from the |EU?

Feb Pax
 

There was definitely over capacity on some routes but I can't see the
monthly passenger figures making healthy reading this summer but plenty of ready-made excuses for BHX management.

OP


And the excuse for the reduction in pax of over 2% for Feb is.......................closed a couple of hours beacuase of the snow.


Centre cities

BHX February pax & Norwegian
 

Pax figures back to normal, down 2.9% for Feb at 581248.

As Monarch virtually closed until the middle of the second week of Feb,
plus snow, plus Baby withdrawing a few flights on a short-term basis, this is not a bad figure - it could have been worse!

However with the flybe/bacon cuts this will be the story throughout 2007.

BHX have announced the Norwegian service to Warsaw from 17/4 three
times a week increasing to four from 4/5/07 and changing days.

OP

legalize

They are, I very much doubt the name on the side will be PIA unless it's had a quick paint job in IST :ok:

PhilBHX
Pay talks at the Fire service are being slowed down because BIA want to try and settle their pay talks first. HR didn't even know that the FS had been offered more than they were offering. Serco won't withdraw the offer but BIA are interfering. They know that if the FS settle then BIA staff won't settle for less...
Security have been treated abysmally, but if people are more interested in getting out than fighting, thats what you get.
The moral of the whole workforce is rock bottom because as you say the quality of the managers (All levels) is truly poor. They all quake at the mention of HR.
Oh well, Weekends here and most of the managers are in their bolt holes. Funny how the airport works better at a weekend...:)

Having looked at the system earlier, I notice BHX has gained a "new" operator today. CFE77WB is due in around 11am from Chambery (CFE = BA Cityflyer). Presumably, CFE will operate the charters that BACON previously operated.

Anybody know if CFE will also operate the summer charters also that would normally be operated by BA?

Fried Chicken

Fids still shows the usual BA charter flight numbers. Nothing has changed, the same charters to the same places flown by the same aircraft. Looks like just an update of atc call signs. Lets face it, it's been many years since the callsign Speedbird was heard in BHX for anything other than diversions or special charters.

Agree with you totally Call100. Managers seem to be told what to do by HR and they interfere in little issues, more than they should but when something big kicks off and you want them - they all head for the hills. They have no balls for a big problem. As for the pay talks, it didn't help the FS much that they had their pay talks fairly well dealt with then the AMICUS official goes into the BHX talks and still tries to use the FS to fight the fights for everyone else. Looks like he's shot his FS members in the foot