Easyjet BHX-CDG - daily from late Oct
Easyjet BHX-LYS - 2pw from early November

easyJet
 

Great news for BHX! LYS is a very welcome return.

I am excited to see what further plans EZY have in store for BHX, with 3 based aircraft plus hopefully some away based flying, there's room for some more new EZY destinations......I'm going to stick my neck out for

Alicante
Berlin
Copenhagen - but could potentially could see SAS go.....
Madrid - the FR schedule is poor, definitely room for another 2. - 3 more flights a week
Malaga
Munich - I think room for LH and EZY
Tenerife

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easyjet
 

The good thing about Lyon is the start date and days of operation, not just ski related which I would also say Munich and Copenhagen could be on the radar as it is not just leisure traffic targeted. Rome also springs to mind as well with Jet2 having very high year-round load factors and they might see some mileage in competing.

CDG is good and it remains to be seen if it affects Vueling Orly which is improving steadily. Ironic easyjet could have taken 3 CDG slots pairs for free when Flybe 1 went under (EU directive) but I assume COVID got in the way but at least they did take two of the Amsterdam ones on offer.

Pete

OP - yes definitely agree with Rome, there's room for 2 operators on this route for sure given Jet2 loads.

It's just so nice to see so much positivity at BHX over the next 12 months. We have QR and SV starting in July (hopefully both will thrive), upgraded security area opening and the new EZY base in 2024.

Am delighted that EZY have finally see the huge potential that BHX offers them, I think the base will thrive and over time steadily increase in size. There are a number of routes that need extra capacity and of course EZY Holidays are fairly well established and will offer more package holiday choice in addition to TUI and Jet2.

The left turn
 

Apologies for my very basic aviation terminology but a few years ago there was talk about all flights turning left instead of right when they departed from runway 33 ( I know the Canaries flights normally do the left turn). My MP made a big fuss about the extra pollution this would cause for her constituents in the Edgbaston area.

Did this get binned or is there still a plan for this to happen?

EasyJet - Ryanair
 

Exceptional week really with the EasyJet routes (still no winter Milan), Sun Express starting Izmir yesterday, increasing Dalaman on Wednesday, Jet2 starting Catania Thursday, Nice yesterday and Olbia tomorrow, almost had the 3 TUI 787’s due until a Wamos was subbed in yesterday and the only dark cloud is Ryanair next week with the late delay of the 6th aircraft resulting in around 30 cancellations in the first 2 weeks of June.

Really surprised this hasn’t been posted before as a good part of the schedule for the first 15 days has been turned on its head. Must have caused some disruption to the pax involved (5000?). I trust down to late MAX deliveries as it was due to be a MAX

Pete

FR
 

Just been looking through FR app for winter flights, looks like a couple of (unsurprising,) routes ending, Billund and Bordeaux, along with always seasonal Zadar, Pisa and Perpignan, Corfu, Ibiza and Rhodes. Toulouse and surprisingly Santander continue through the winter

It's probably still a work in progress!

Does anyone know if FR stays as 6 based aircraft at BHX over the winter?

BLL & BOD both did poor last Winter so not a surprise

There is a standard departure route (BRUMI) from runway 33 which turns left over the motorway, left again roughly over M6 J6 then over ~Bournville. So it could be used. There's also an allowance to carry out Noise Preferential Routings by turning left or right 2 miles after takeoff from r33. The vast majority of departures turn right over the M6, though.

See eAIS Package United Kingdom (nats.co.uk), under Aerodromes - EGBB.

Incidentally, a lot of aircraft turn right on a r15 takeoff then pass directly over Solihull - which isn't in the standard departures or NPRs. Its often been when there was a storm floating around south of the airport, but doesnt seem to be that case exclusively (i've seen it when the skies are clear 15 minutes after a storm passed...). Not sure why that happens, but does cause a brief startle in town centre...

LH W23
 

Sadly big cuts for BHX planned Oct 23 - March 24, FRA down from 616 planned flights to 464, MUC cut by 50%.

MAN sees smaller cuts as does LGW. LPL and EDI see more flights to/from FRA albeit only very small increases

Indicative I suspect of a fall in (profitable) business traffic along with personnel issues for the airline, both in terms of numbers of staff, and industrial relations.

LH - The devil is in the detail
 

BHX Frankfurt next winter based on the Aeroroutes report in an increase of 20% compared to winter 22/23 and wipes out the loss on Munich which is 20% down on last winter

Source: CAA Punctuality stats for actual movements.

Don't get me wrong this isn not great as below pre-COVID levels but looking at Munich it is the night-stop that has gone and only once daily Tuesday - Thursday in January and the weekend. LH2508 is mainly shown as an A20N which capacity wise matches a double daily CR9 of a significant increase on the 195 and A319.

Frankfurt equates to 3 daily but Monday Wednesday Friday Sunday still showing 4 with Cityline operating one service a day at times but 2 daily in low season January to February half term which is very harsh.

All in all it does look like a direct match movements wise to last winter with possibly slightly more A320's on Munich.

Manchester Frankfurt shows 5 per day down to 4 per day and I am sure large parts of last winter Manchester was only seeing 4 per day so again probably not a loss year on year. Their Munich averages out at around 2.8 flights a day so again similar to last year.

Pete

Prague
 

The Eurowings service isn’t bookable beyond 27 October - is this being dropped or winter just not loaded yet? On the plus side though if Eurowings are dropping it perhaps it’s one for the new EasyJet base.

I've got a feeling that EW suspended PRG last winter but not from October - think it was just Jan - Mar? I had some hope for EW at BHX as they also operated ARN and were due to launch PMI but I just don't think they have enough brand awareness apart from on the long established DUS route

If Eurowings are abandoning PRG/BHX the route remains served by Jet2 so not a catastrophe.

Jet2 is obviously a much better known name than Eurowings so it wouldn't be surprising if they ran the German carrier of the route.

BHX is set for an exciting decade with all the HS2 investment. Its never peers are all full to capacity. It can only thrive.

I seriously doubt HS2 will reach Birmingham even by the end of the century

Says someone who clearly has not visited Birmingham in the last couple of years and not seen the work in progress at Curzon Street Station, nor the viaduct crossing the M42.

Make no mistake, for better or for worse its coming, probably late, as is par for the course for UK infrastructure projects. Whether it's arrival actually benefits BHX is very debatable and its probably far too soon to speculate.

Will HS2 reach Manchester this century? That I seriously have my doubts about.

Not so well known in Prague I think

Absolutely, but the target audience for PRG/BHX is the UK short break market to Czechia rather than vice versa. Sadly, Birmingham isn't a big city-break destination for a number of factors including poor promotion by those who promote England abroad who sit in London, live close to London and believe the only draw for inbound European tourists is, yes you've guessed it, London!

Manchester, thanks to having two really successful football teams that always play on the European stage, and places like Liverpool with a high profile footie team plus their musical heritage and a fantastic waterfront to boot are far bigger draws on inbound tourism, but again thanks to their own efforts rather than "Visit England" or whatever the quango is called this week. (Non) events like the Commonwealth Games have really done little to raise the city's profile across Europe. It always staggered me when I worked a lot in Germany that my colleagues would often express their desire to visit England, but then immediately said "London" as though anywhere North or indeed west didn't exist, or at least had little to attract them to visit. When they did venture north to the East Midlands they were amazed by what we had to offer in the "frozen north"!

There's a job to be done in raising Birmingham and environs as a leisure destination which is going to be important as business travel declines and inbound tourism will be required if the airport is to retain the number of non bucket-and-spade destinations that it enjoys currently, let alone build additional ones.