Pete
Interesting that EK seems to get away whilst the holiday airlines struggle, sometimes badly.
Also, many peeps are unlikely to book with Tui or JET2 with having to turn up at 4am to fly out and maybe arrive back after 2am
Scheduling Madness, I'd rather go to EMA for a late morning flight with a return mid evening

BHX Route Development Team in Vietnam at Routes Asia 2022, great to see them back on the road again and talking to airlines face to face

Yes its quite noticeable that all the Emirates flights do tend to get away on time, so must be some contract agreement that they get priority handling by swissport? Maybe they pay more for the service that the likes of TUI? Jet2 of course are self-handling.

I don't see the time of TUI/Jet2 flights are any different at EMA compared to any other airports? First wave of departures at all airports are always around 06:00-09:00, with second waves at around 13:00-15:00, and the third wave around 17:00-20:00. EMA of course has less aircraft based (only 3 TUI compared to 11/12 at BHX for example) but are still prone to handling issues/ATC delays/crewing issues like any other UK airport, and of course most of TUI long haul flights from BHX are late morning, where as EMA don't have any long haul.

Not enough baggage handlers

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/new...rport-24110183

What a coincidence - two companies; Swissport and TUI!

That said these rags, and sadly The Birmingham Mil is now essentially a rag, will pick up on any story and run with it, never mind what the back story might have been - things like equipment failure possibly, not to mention the virus who's name shall not be uttered but continues to cause problems.

Getting bags when they are eventually released could I suppose be a problem since, in the wonderful world of Brexit, HMRC are taking a much closer interest in the contents of holidaymaker's luggage if my recent experience of the operation at Eurotunnel Calais is a benchmark for how things are being handled at UK airports.

Been having a similar discussion over the skyscraper site about the reintroduction of tariffs and duties among other “B” related issues,

I’ll drop some salient points here

Someone raised the fact we are back to the point where you can’t bring in a estate load of cheap plonk ( local duty paid) undeclared

my reply:

Strictly speaking in the single market area, duties are paid locally so no double tax at retail ( That is the central principle a work)

Wholesale things are a little different and whilst the Euro is the central currency international transactions retain a charge of around 2%.

Also prior the reintroduction of the UKGT based table of duty free allowances and tariffs the UK customs rules retained a fair and personal use clause .
A transit van load of cigs and/or beer could and indeed many were regularly seized under these restrictions.

An official personal spend of just £347.80 product imported tax free ain’t a lot
Advance declaration on line nearly doubles that to £630 however how many of the general public will be aware - suggest single figures!

Similar doubling of allowances for alcohol and tobacco products can be achieved by logged online and in advance of UK entry.
Like everything else post Brexit things have been made so Bl**dy complex !

Your experience at Dover pretty much demonstrates this in action.

From the same source there is a fluff editorial link posted to something’s said by Nick Barton to the media

Plenty hot air and little substance imho

Still banging the we are the third London Airport in waiting and that the Commonwealth Games are a platform on which to build

A little sort of apology for the current mess also

As to market dominant Low cost carriers Easy/Ryan/ Wizz/ Jet2 even Eurowings and Vueling are all present

Does he mean Flybe 2.0 growth ?

Can you reconcile mimicking what he did at Luton with the aspirations of steeling traffic volumes from North London on a high speed train and what sort of services would those require?

No disrespect an airport CEO talking positively at the moment ( contents hot air or not) is refreshing !

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d...1b8432c8b1795a

Courtesy of cmpd1

easyJet
 

Really unsure why easyJet doesn't set up sort of operation up at Birmingham or even run some routes from some of their bases. Think there are quite a few markets they could serve from here that would be good routes for them, to run successfully alongside their Luton operation and without upsetting Ryanair. I've thought of the following, let me know what you think.

Paris CDG (competition for Air France, undercut them in price but still good enough fares. Vueling from Orly also operates, but at two times a week - not a good enough schedule to compete)
Berlin (unserved market)
Lisbon (unserved market)
Mykonos (summer seasonal, unserved market)
Reykjavik (served by Jet2 on low frequency in winter by the looks of it. Connected to many other UK airports and does well, easyJet from Luton route is year round and more frequency than you think)
Mlian MXP (unserved market, Ryanair serves BGY at low frequency)
Nice (unserved market)
Rome (served by Jet2, low frequency)
Naples (served by TUI 1 weekly and Jet2 two weekly)

Have you seen the news recently? EZY ae struggling to operate the routes they've already got!

Yeah well aware, like most large-scale airlines this summer out of the back of COVID, I'm sure next summer will be back to some normality.

They cannot currently cover their own schedules at the moment, let alone consider opening up a new base.
I admire your optimism.

Ryanair announced flying 2x weekly from BHX-LIS from 1st Nov, bookable now!

Jet2 increasing BHX-FCO from 2x weekly to 4x weekly next summer.

...but suspect both routes could accommodate additional capacity and competition

Great to see LIS back in Nov, FR suspended over summer due to a slot spat I think. Pity Jet2 haven't picked it up again as well, they were going to launch BHX-LIS pre-Covid but no sign of it in their city break 2023 press relesse

I've long been an advocate of more EZY flights from BHX. Just my thoughts but I think they'd do well on BHX to FCO, MXP, BER, LYS, MAD and VIE. Trouble is they can barely operate the network they've got let alone expand from BHX but let's hope these winter slot applications make the light of day

4 new routes just announced by Ryanair all start late Oct / Early Nov and all 2 pw

Billund
Stockholm-ARN
Toulouse
Santander

5 New Routes

• Billund
• Grenoble
• Santander
• Stockholm
• Toulouse

(Plus Bordeaux that has gone from summer seasonal to year round)

If you include Lisbon you’ve got 7 new winter routes - surely a record for Ryanair at BHX?

These new routes will increase the based fleet to 5, of which 2 are to be Max 8200s.

Very happy to see FR expanding again at BHX after a long period of relative stagnation. The relationship between BHX and FR must have warmed up a bit!

Am a bit surprised about Santander to be honest, it's not really a winter destination but let's see

Billund is nice to have back, I used it before and it's a cheap way to access and explore Denmark - however there's nothing of interest in Billund itself unless you like Lego. Sadly I think the vast majority of people only think of Copenhagen.....

With LIS and BOD as well this is a cracking winter schedule from FR, fingers crossed they might even base a 6th next summer....