BIRMINGHAM

[RealFish]

Forgive me if there is another Birmingham topic open somewhere, the only one I can find is on P8 and it is now closed.

Anyway...does anyone know the background to the threatened industrial action over Xmas. It seems that AMICUS want two 'unfairly' sacked security staff reinstated. BHX are sticking to their guns.

The TU will go to non binding arbitration, BHX will go to binding arbitration.

Apparently those sacked had an unblemished record and were being covertly filmed according to the Union (not a fair cop ?).

I remember some time ago there was a story about security staff being sacked for (alledgedly) sleeping on the job. Were these the guys ?

Surely in this day and age if someone has been unfaily sacked they can appeal against dismissal and if unsucessful go to a tribunal and ask for re-instatement through the legal process ?

Why the need for a strike ?

[runway14141414]

2 security guards filmed with a handcam from the car park allegedly sleeping whilst on duty.
This is not the 1st time strike action has been threatened at BHX and it's always at peak time i.e. xmas

[Call Established]

I understand if it goes ahead it will not be a mass walkout for 24hours but more shorter periods i.e a few hours at a time etc....

On the radio yesterday it said that all "options had be exhausted" with BIA and that this was the next course of action.

[we_never_change]

Carrying on with BHX developments...

I've heard that due to the political tensions between the UK & Iran, Mahan Air are currently looking at their schedules. Could be the next route BHX loses?

Haven't heard anything about Austrian Airlines for a while (was 'rumoured' to be looking at a VIE-BHX service using an Austrian Arrows Fokker 100) but both Finnair (Helsinki-Brum with EMB170) and LOT (Warsaw-Brum with Emb145/170?) could be starters next year?

WNC

[Fried_Chicken]

I wouldn't be supprised if Mahan Air doesn't cease serving the BHX-Tehran route.

Taking Blairs & Bush stance over Iran, it could become quite a hot potato

Fried Chicken

[Daza]

400m runway extension a third terminal and the proposed 2nd runway set out in Birminghams master paln launched today. See bhx.co.uk
Daza

[GK430]

The staff involved on this occasion were Ops staff.
Simple question: do you want the staff you employ and pay to inspect the operational areas and safeguard an aerodrome to be less than responsible.....

[jabird]

OK, so at last we have a few more figures.

£120m for a runway extension sounds worth talking about; if that opens up more long haul flights then bring it on.

The total development plan figure was quoted previously as £2.5bn, now down to £1.5bn. I can't imagine the terminal would be more than about £80m (still 10x Cov's), so that's still £1.3bn for the second runway & associated taxiing.

I am waiting for a coherent CoBa on this - any suggestions?

A couple of weeks ago, we saw how Brum couldn't shell out £30m to buy Cov - they should have done it when they had the chance in 1993, when they would have probably got it for £1!

Now they are asking neighbouring councils to help them fork out for the runway extension.

So could someone please tell me where the funding would come from for the second runway? It is starting to look almost as ridiculous as the Rugby proposals!

[Fried_Chicken]

Rumours around about Germanwings switching to an airport just up the M42

FC

[RealFish]

Here's a bit more form the Birmingham Post about that airport just up the M42" (A45 actually).

I have to say that I fully agree with the sentiment with the exception that I think that it sould happen as soon as possible. This uncontrolled development of CVT threatens a meaningful air transport strategy in the Midlands.



'Buy rival airport and flatten it' Nov 7 2005


By Campbell Docherty, Transport Correspondent

Birmingham International Airport should buy Coventry Airport, demolish it and build houses on the site instead, according to a leading Midlands business expert.

John Kirk, head of business development at the University of Central England, said the burgeoning passenger operation at Coventry was a " non-starter" but if BIA feels it is harming its own expansion plans it should simply take it over.

Mr Kirk is no stranger to airport competition - he was also the head of public relations at Manchester Airport during its own expansion in the early 1990s, when the larger airport's plans were compromised by those of the much smaller Liverpool Airport.

Last week, BIA published its draft master plan for growing to cope with threetimes the passenger demand over the next 25 years. The £ 1.5 billion plan includes an extension to the current runway, a third terminal and a second runway.

Managing director Richard Heard has repeated his concern that the existence of Coventry Airport just 11 miles away "compromised" those plans.

"I have seen this all before when I was at Manchester," said Mr Kirk. "We always had this with Liverpool who were threatening to expand all the time.

"But you need some corporate muscle to grow an airport, you need some market visibility because airlines are just going to ask Coventry why they should take a leap of faith by going there rather than Birmingham.

"It costs a lot of money to introduce a new plane to an airport - when I was at Manchester an airline introducing a new 767 cost a quarter of a million.

"But the fact of the matter is that Coventry is starting from scratch and it is going to take hundreds of millions of pounds to introduce the kind of infrastructure required to entice business from new airlines."

Last month, reports suggested Coventry owners TUI had offered the airport to BIA.

Overall, Mr Kirk believes the BIA plan is an "economic imperative" but warned the airport it would not be easy to realise.

"We went through all this at Manchester 15 years ago. It is all very familiar.

"We used to regard BIA as a bit of a minnow, with a short runway and a small terminal. We used to come down to nick their business.

"But an airport is just a piece of real estate and their real customers are the airlines. Building a runway alone costs something like £100 million. You have to raise that money from somewhere."

He added: "Expanding an airport is a bit of a catch-22 because you can only build the new runway when you have the business but you only get the business when you have the runway.

"BIA certainly has to crank up it's marketing to the world's airlines to persuade them to operate services from there rather than Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester. Amsterdam and the like."

The BIA plans were " realistic" he added because it was to attract medium haul flights.

BIA is consulting on its draft master plan and aims to present a finished document to Solihull Council next year.

[jmc757]

Here's a bit more form the Birmingham Post about that airport just up the M42" (A45 actually).

If you'd bothered to look at a road map, you may realise the "airport just up the M42" is Nottingham East Midlands.

As for that article, what a load of :mad: . BHX scared of a little competition?

[Ian Farquharson]

Summer Season Ends With Record Month At BIA


Birmingham International Airport (BIA) has experienced its busiest
October on record. The UK's 5th largest Airport handled 894,671
passengers during the month, a 7.7% increase on October last year.
Record passenger numbers have been prevalent throughout the summer
period, which proved to be the busiest season to date for the Airport.

BIA's Managing Director, Richard Heard, said, "Since the beginning of
May, 5.8 million people have passed through the airport and we have
experienced back-to-back record months throughout the summer season.
The passenger boom is a result of new routes, more direct
destinations, increased frequencies and easier worldwide connections,
which give Midlanders more choice and freedom than ever before.

"We are now ready for a busy winter season, which will see the
development and opening later in the year of better, more modern
passenger, retail and catering facilities to help handle these
growing activity levels in both our terminals. New and exciting long-
haul charter package holidays are now available to India, Egypt and
Mexico for winter 05/06, and we will continue to serve the 70 plus
regular direct scheduled services throughout Europe, the Indian sub-
continent and the Middle East."

Scheduled traffic grew by 22.3% overall with passenger numbers
increasing on non-EU flights which grew by 47.6%, on Transatlantic
services which were up 31.3%, as well as on flights to Asia which
rose by 27.4%. Additionally, the number of passengers using EU
services increased by 19.3% and domestic traffic grew by 18.9%.

The success of the Airport's investment in the Air-Rail Link to
Birmingham International Rail Station and new bus and coach facility
at the Airport has been seen this summer, with the proportion of
public transport now increased to 18.3%.

Growth was also achieved on a number of scheduled routes, including
Prague (+101.8%), Larnaca (+92.7%), Milan (+78.2%), Amsterdam
(+32.9%), Edinburgh (+25%), Zurich (+22%), Copenhagen (+16.5%),
Aberdeen (+12.4%) and Malta (+3.9%).

Whilst charter passenger numbers fell by 15.4% overall, several
destinations recorded an increase in passengers including Bulgaria
(+335%), Mexico (+38.6%), Croatia (+33.7%), Madeira (+24.9%), Turkey
(+23.2%), Cyprus (+14.3%), and Malta (+8.8%). This growth highlights
a general trend in the market towards alternative destinations and
away from the traditional package holiday hot-spots.

Scheduled traffic accounted for 69.6% of the total October figure
while charter passengers made up the remaining 30.4%.

BAA - October :-

Heathrow - 5,713,100 down 0.8%
Gatwick - 2,887,400 up 2.5%
Stansted - 1,917,400 up 0.6%
Glasgow - 868,400 up 1.2%
Edinburgh - 765,500 up 5.1%
Aberdeen - 262,900 up 7.1%
Southampton - 166,200 up 17.7%

Ian

[Centre cities]

Interesting to see the Milan and Prague figures. Pitty Milan is down from 5 to 2 services and Prague from 3 to 2 this winter. Just shows that full planes does not mean a profit.

Centre cities

[RealFish]

Sorry JMC, seem to have CVT on my mind. Don't know why.

[jabird]

Sorry JMC, seem to have CVT on my mind. Don't know why.

Looks like we have another paranoid Brum defender amongst us:\

[52 North]

"I have to say that I fully agree with the sentiment with the exception that I think that it sould happen as soon as possible. This uncontrolled development of CVT threatens a meaningful air transport strategy in the Midlands."

What do you mean "uncontrolled", the airport will have a pax limit of 2 MPPA. Which for 130 seat a/c equates to an average of 2 or 3 flights per hour - how can that threaten air transport strategy?:ugh:

Why doesn't CVT have the right to develop to these levels? BHX are just trying to use the airspace excuse as a way of restricting CVT on purely economic terms.

[Powerjet1]

BHX to LEI by MON starting 8 May 06.

[GBALU53]

Ops to Jersey

With in the last hour i have heard that Baby will be operating down to Jersey can any one confirm this??

This would be in direct competition with Fly may Be??.

It was the British Midland operated this route a decade or two, until they gave it up and Jersey European to it on, are they trying to claw back some of there old operations as British Airways has done in the past operating with a franchise operator.

If the information is correct does any one know the timetable??

[Daza]

From 6th Jan 06 LH will add a further rotation to Dusseldorf.
DUS-BHX LH 4936 ARR 1030 CR1 12345
BHX-DUS LH 4937 DEP 1100 CR1 12345

LH will operate 11 services from BHX-Germany on weekdays.

[Ian Farquharson]

Sky Europe will commence BHX - Krakow on 12th April 2006:-

NE230 Arr BHX at 07.40 and NE231 Dept BHX 08.10 - Wed / Sat Only

At last a Poland flight from BHX !

Ian

[mullers]

does anyone have any 'inside info' on these proposed strikes then? I believe the first one is due to go ahead on thursday after the last date was avoided.

having just spent £40 to change switch my flight to egypt to manchester, i hope it bloody well goes ahead now!!

[Bagso]

Can anybody confirm approximate load factors on the Air India flights and how well these are doing ?

[LBIA]

Has anyone got info on where the Airlines using BHX will divert to on thursday if the planned strike happens.

EG,
Bmi baby = Nottingham East Midlands
Britannia = Coventry.

And all the rest to name but a few??

[MarkBHX]

from bhx.co.uk

Strike Action Cancelled - All Flights to Operate As Normal


Birmingham International Airport is pleased to announce that the strike action planned by the trade union Amicus at the Airport has been cancelled.

The Airport Company and Amicus have agreed that the dispute will be referred to a process of independent binding arbitration.

good news,shame it had to come so close to this though!

[Ian Farquharson]

Birmingham International Airport (BIA) experienced a busy November
with 585,400 passengers travelling through. This is an increase of
10.2% on the same month last year.

Richard Heard, the Airport's Managing Director is pleased with these
results and commented: "These figures are an example of the large
array of routes that Birmingham currently has to offer. With the
introduction of our new Goa service, which is the first time that
this destination has been served from BIA, and the continuation of
Sharm el Sheikh into the winter season, plus additional capacity on
key European scheduled routes, BIA has a lot to offer to all
passengers."

Scheduled traffic grew by 13.1% overall with passenger numbers
increasing on non-EU flights which grew by 32.9%, as well as on EU
flights which rose by 8.6% and on flights to Asia which increased by
29.1%. Domestic travel increased by 14.5%, with flights to the
Irish Republic growing by 16.5%.


Growth was also achieved on a number of scheduled routes, including
Amsterdam (+34.5%), Copenhagen (+28.3%), Edinburgh (+27.3%),
Gothenburg (+16.9%), Hanover (+11.5%), Paphos (+10.2%), Frankfurt
(+7.6%) and Inverness (+7.5%).

Overall, charter passenger numbers fell by 1.6%, which reflects the
trend across the whole charter market in the UK. Despite this small
decrease, charter figures have increased on the following routes,
Mexico (79.9%), Barbados (54.8%), Turkey (40.8%) and Malta (9.4%).
BIA's charter market has seen two new arrivals for the winter season
with Goa and Sharm el Sheikh joining the Airport's growing portfolio
of destinations.

Scheduled traffic accounted for 82.4% of the total November figure
while charter passengers made up the remaining 17.6%.
The 2005 YTD (Jan-Nov) = 8,818,181 up 5.40%
The Rolling Year Ended 30.11.05 = 9,313,823

BAA Stats for November

Heathrow - 5,208,200 up 1.7%
Gatwick - 1,993,500 up 1.9%
Stansted - 1,608,000 up 2.1%
Edinburgh - 634,700 up 3.0%
Glasgow - 594,000 up 1.3%
Aberdeen - 237,400 up 9.1%
Southampton - 133,100 up 14.5%

[Flap15Geardown]

I think Richard Heard doesn't know what he is talking about, Britannia used to fly to Goa in the late 90's tech stopping in Abu Dabi with a 762, normally G-BYAA or B.

[GK430]

They certainly did! It was a split load with Manch. A few Brummies booked it out of Manch & wanted to get off on the way back at EGBB - what a nightmare they were!!

But the BAL service was excellent.

[we_never_change]

Aer Lingus have announced Cork - Birmingham but will reduce Dublin-Birmingham. There is speculation that Aer Arran may pull off Cork-Birmingham as the ATR could be used for further expansion from Ronaldsway or Luton.

Austrian are apparently looking (still) at Birmingham OR London City (so presumably they have a spare DHC8). This would presumably be a scheduled flight as Austrian have some charters operating through BHX after Xmas with DHC8s

LOT are apparently looking at what expansion Sky Europe (& Wizz) do before taking the plunge with additional UK routes. I believe Malev are also keen to add further UK routes but are waiting to see what Sky Europe & Wizz announce before adding any more routes.

No new rumours/news on Finnair adding additional routes

Final snippet from me concerns Air Europa. Due to Iberia potentially cutting their short haul network, Air Europa may be looking at adding additional scheduled flights to European destinations (I believe the only scheduled UK destination AEA serve is London Gatwick)

WNC

[luoto]

Seems that SAS might be killing the direct BHX / ARN flights. Flight availability in May 06 has disappeared from SAS internal booking systems even though it appears in published timetables/online in places like Expedia.

Found this when trying to book some return flights to BHX.

[Fried_Chicken]

Possibilty that SAS are having a shake up with the BHX-ARN possibly coming back as daily with a Boeing rather than the current DHC8 from the Summer

FC

[MarkBHX]

Anyone know what happened to the BA Avro that apparently went off the taxiway yesturday?

Cheers, Mark

Edit: sorry didn't see the thread in rumours and news

[future_pilot17]

Another article todat stating Jet Airways intention to launch flights to Birmingham.....

Airline plans new link to India
Jan 11 2006

PASSENGERS looking to fly from Birmingham to the sub continent have been handed a boost with news that an airline is planning a frequent new service.

Jet Airways is hoping to operate an Amritsar to Birmingham International Airport direct service four times a week.

Peter Luethi, chief operating officer, said the airline has already applied for the rights to operate the service from the Indian government.

Mr Luethi said: "We will start operations as soon as we obtain the permission from government. We are also looking at starting operations to European and North American destinations after fleet enhancement."

At present, Jet Airways operates services to London.

Jet Airlines says that according to aviation industry analysts, there has been a sharp rise in the number of passengers travelling from Punjab to Birmingham.

Currently there is a route operated from Amritsar to Birmingham by Air India.

http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/mail/news/tm_objectid=16571586%26method=full%26siteid=50002-name_page.html

Does this mean they are still planning on operating A343s on the route?

[runway14141414]

Word is that Jet Airways have bought Air Sahara so that would leave them with a 767 or A340's. The general opinion is that the 343 would have real problems off BHX's runway and Jet are soon to aquire some 330's so maybe we'll see them. I do hope it starts and AI go ahead with their planned 6x per week.

[future_pilot17]

True but if you read below.....

Peter Luethi, chief operating officer, said the airline has already applied for the rights to operate the service from the Indian government.

Mr Luethi said: "We will start operations as soon as we obtain the permission from government"

The fact that the the Chief Operating Officer states that they will start as soon as they obtain the permission suggests they may not have the said 767s or 330s in time to start the service, or maybe they will. It's all a matter of wait and see.

[runway14141414]

But as soon as they obtain permission they wont send a plane the next day, they'll have to put the flights on sale to get bookings, employ handling agents etc at BHX, obtain slots etc. Not sure how long it would take to set up. Wonder if anybody on here knows when the 330's are due? Whatever the aircraft it'd be great to see em at BHX although I'd love to see a 343 there.

[future_pilot17]

But as soon as they obtain permission they wont send a plane the next day, they'll have to put the flights on sale to get bookings, employ handling agents etc at BHX, obtain slots etc. Not sure how long it would take to set up. Wonder if anybody on here knows when the 330's are due?

I was under the impression the slots were obtained, the flight numbers appeared on the BHX Arrival/Departure boards on the 3/1/06 as that is when the service was supposed to start. AFAIK they have cancelled the January slots but have retained the February slots and onwards for now.

[runway14141414]

Lets hope so it'd be great to see them and we need some good news for BHX at the moment. Have you heard anymore about AI 6 x per week the last I heard it was planned for March.

[future_pilot17]

Air India are apparently considering increasing the service to 6 per week starting in March as you said, as for anymore on that I don't know. Except that Air India have aquired another B772 (VT-AIR) which is not an 'ER' version which has already passed through BHX on the AI 187/188 service but it did encounter a few problems.

One would assume though that another B777 would allow the BHX service to be increased as the new aircraft could be used elsewhere.

[Bombay Bad Boy]

Are you a pilot flying in and out of BHX ? If you want to find out some of the current issues affecting your airport regarding ATC then visit :

www.egbb.co.uk

the ATC website for BHX
BBB

[Fried_Chicken]

I've heard that SAS have indeed dropped the Brum-Stockholm flight & that Germanwings are to cease Cologne-Brum

Fried Chicken

[future_pilot17]

I've heard that SAS have indeed dropped the Brum-Stockholm flight & that Germanwings are to cease Cologne-Brum
Fried Chicken

AFAIK both the above are true, Germanwings will cease the CGN service in March.

[runway14141414]

Germanwings are ceasing the CGN flight but LH has added another daily DUS, obviously they were losing full fare pax to the cheaper airline.

[Avman]

Moving the flight to an early morning departure from CGN, with no evening return, it seems that GERMANWINGS were looking for an excuse to discontinue this service. The original mid afternoon schedule was ideal for me, but it never achieved more than a 70% load factor at the best of times; not good enough for an LCC I guess. I consider CGN-BHX a good mixed business and leisure route and it can work. However, to attract the business side it has to be twice daily. Probably be ideal for a 100 seater.

[bruppy]

Anyone know what happened to the BA Avro that apparently went off the taxiway yesturday?

Cheers, Mark

Edit: sorry didn't see the thread in rumours and news

Sorry for late reply but story as I heard it was :- Engineers out on Echo doing engine runs, ground staff had chocked a/c but enginners let brakes off too early (whilst still on 1/2 power ) & a/c ran over chocks onto the grass (was frosty but as that thawed & rain came a/c sunk) I think someone will get thier arse kicked for that :{

[Ian Farquharson]

2005 Passenger Results


Birmingham International Airport (BIA) recorded its busiest year ever in 2005, with a record 9,388,754 passengers using the Airport over the twelve month period. This was 5.8% more than in the previous year and has been achieved following the launch of several new scheduled airlines in 2005, the introduction of new destinations and increased frequencies on key services.

The largest growth in passenger numbers in 2005 was seen on scheduled flights, which experienced an overall increase of 13.7%. This was a result of new airlines starting from Birmingham including bmibaby, Air India, Monarch Scheduled, Sun-Air (BA franchise), Germanwings, and AeroSvit-Ukrainian Airlines, bringing a greater range of destinations to Birmingham. Additionally, growth was achieved by existing airlines such as Flybe with further expansion of its network and through increased frequencies on existing routes such as New York, Dubai and Frankfurt.

Richard Heard, BIA’s Managing Director, said, “2005 was a very exciting year. New airlines and destinations have provided passengers with more choice than ever and the need for increased capacity on routes like Dubai, India and Pakistan demonstrates that demand for long-haul services from Birmingham is growing and reinforces our plans to develop facilities to cater for these changing markets.”


“The launch of our draft Master Plan for public consultation at the end of October was an important day for the Airport. We wanted to share our long-term vision for the future with the Region and all our neighbours as soon as possible. The formal consultation exercise ends on March 31st. We will then look carefully at all the responses before considering adopting a formal, new Master Plan later in the year.”

Particular growth in 2005 was seen on Transatlantic services, which increased by 26.4% overall and on flights to Asia, which grew by 22.6%. Other sectors seeing growth were non-EU countries, which rose by 16.7%, EU destinations, which increased by 13.4% and domestic routes, which grew by 13.1%.

Specific scheduled routes experiencing growth in 2005 were Nice (+1161%), Prague (+112.5%), Tehran (+104.7%), Larnaca (+92%), Faro (+49%), Milan (44.4%), Amsterdam (+27%), and Edinburgh (+21.6%).



Meanwhile, passenger numbers on charter services reduced overall by 9.8% reflecting the trend across the whole charter market in the UK as people move towards tailoring their own holidays. However, there were a number of charter destinations which experienced growth including, Egypt (+1559.7%), Bulgaria (+105.2%), Barbados (+104.9%), Mexico (+69.9%), Turkey (+19.8%), Croatia (+15.2%), France (+12.1%), Austria (+10.3%), Cyprus (+9.6%) and Malta (+7.8%).

Scheduled traffic accounted for 71.5% of the total passenger traffic in 2005, with charter making up the remaining 28.5%.

For three consecutive months during the summer, the Airport handled more than one million passengers (July, August, and September). The year ended with a record December, as 564,603 people used the Airport, an increase of 13.7% on the same period in 2004. Seven additional record months were recorded during 2005.

Other 2005 data:

• The top ten scheduled destinations in 2005 were (in order): Dublin, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Belfast, Paris, Glasgow, Malaga, Frankfurt, Alicante, Dubai.

• The top ten charter destinations in 2005 were (in order): Tenerife, Palma, Arrecife, Las Palmas, Dalaman, Paphos, Alicante, Fuerteventura, Faro, Mahon.

[Cyrano]

From ABTN today (http://www.abtn.co.uk):

BIRMINGHAM is to be linked non-stop to Doha from 26 March with Qatar Airways offering a four times per week service. Doha, capital of the Gulf area state of Qatar, is a major hub for much of the Middle East and for many destinations on the Indian subcontinent. Announcing the new route the airline’s chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker said, “All our operations covering Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester are performing extremely well. Birmingham is a natural progression for us, the UK a major market.” He also confirmed that the Manchester flights would go from four to five from 11 February and daily at the beginning of the summer season 26 March. Airbus A330 aircraft, in a two-class configuration as used for Manchester, will also service Birmingham.

[bmibaby.com]

How many aircraft does Monarch Airlines base at Birmingham, and within that amount how many are used for Monarch Scheduled services? I ask, as the company appears to be expanding with the addition of twice weekly flights to both LEI & MJV as well as the addition in frequencies to FAO, ALC & AGP for this summer. Rumour has it that LIS might be on the cards.

[Lite]

Excellent news for BHX to get another middle-eastern carrier to supplement the fantastic service that Emirates already provides us. I hear that DOH & Qatar Airways are another one of the big up-and-coming airlines, although I have not personally sampled their service. It's good to see, especially as Gulf Air (or their all-economy Gulf Traveller division) were not able to launch their own Abu Dhabi service due to their financial issues, that there is market for a second Arab airline to BHX. Now all we need is a second American airline ... :)

It's my understanding that Monarch base two A321s for both scheduled & charter flights at the airport, and also use an A330 to operate some longhaul charters. Monarch are handled at BHX by Swissport, who I hear are doing very well with the BHX operation. Comments on ZB & Swissport would be appreciated ....

[Fried_Chicken]

There is no mention of Doha- Birmingham on either the BHX website or the Qatar Airways website, presumably if they are to begin in March, the flights should be on sale by now?

Another dud like Gulf Traveller I suspect!

Fried Chicken

[ManchesterMan]

Ever tried positive thinking courses?

Or are you too far down in the hole!

MM

[Centre cities]

Monarch have 2 x A321 for the winter increasing to 3 x A321 for the summer. 2 scheduled and 1 charter.

Centre cties

[OltonPete]

Excellent news for BHX to get another middle-eastern carrier to supplement the fantastic service that Emirates already provides us. I hear that DOH & Qatar Airways are another one of the big up-and-coming airlines, although I have not personally sampled their service. It's good to see, especially as Gulf Air (or their all-economy Gulf Traveller division) were not able to launch their own Abu Dhabi service due to their financial issues, that there is market for a second Arab airline to BHX. Now all we need is a second American airline ... :)

It's my understanding that Monarch base two A321s for both scheduled & charter flights at the airport, and also use an A330 to operate some longhaul charters. Monarch are handled at BHX by Swissport, who I hear are doing very well with the BHX operation. Comments on ZB & Swissport would be appreciated ....

Still some confusion over Qatar as it has been reported that it is not on the airports or the airline website. I have e-mailed the airline press office direct and I await their reply.

Monarch will have three A321's based from the first week in May. Two on scheduled and one for Cosmos etc.

I have a friend who works as a Duty Officer for Swissport at BHX and the
last time I spoke to him he was in shock - he had just been told that they
have the Flybe contract from the 1st April. After a fairly quiet winter I think he realises that he is going to be a whole lot busier!

Swissport on the whole having been picking up contracts slowly but
flybe is the big one after the demise of Mytravellite. My opinion only but they seem a reasonable outfit. All I have to go on is the speed they get the airbridge or steps on the aircraft and how quick they are at check-in.
The times I have used them they have been very good.

OltonPete

[runway14141414]

Also from ABTN:

FLYBE, lead carrier for the Embraer-195, has confirmed an October
introduction for the aircraft. The first two ‘planes will be based at
Birmingham, followed a month later by one for Exeter and by year end
an aircraft based at Southampton. The Embraer-195 has 118 seats as
opposed to 112 on the BAe 146-300 that it replaces. The modern twin
should prove to be far more economical to operate than the no longer
produced former Hatfield product. However JetBlue is reporting
problems with the introduction of the similar EMB 190 although these
should be resolved by the time that the aircraft is introduced at the
start of the winter season. FlyBe should have 14 of the Brazilian
aircraft in service by the end of 2007.

[spanishflea]

[QUOTE=runway14141414]Also from ABTN:
FLYBE, lead carrier for the Embraer-195, has confirmed an October
introduction for the aircraft. The first two ‘planes will be based at
Birmingham, followed a month later by one for Exeter and by year end
an aircraft based at Southampton. The Embraer-195 has 118 seats as
opposed to 112 on the BAe 146-300 that it replaces. The modern twin
should prove to be far more economical to operate than the no longer
produced former Hatfield product. However JetBlue is reporting
problems with the introduction of the similar EMB 190 although these
should be resolved by the time that the aircraft is introduced at the
start of the winter season. FlyBe should have 14 of the Brazilian
aircraft in service by the end of 2007.
Hopefully they will turn up pretty regularly on the BHX-BHD-LGW run!

[Fried_Chicken]

Anybody know how Aerosvit are doing? Heard they haven't had good loads so far. I wonder if a USA-B'ham-Kiev-Asia flight with one of their B763s would do any good? I know they already fly across the Pond with the 767.

Also, reported elsewhere that Cityjet are to dispose of their knackered 146s (presumably see the end of the leased Flightline knackers too) & replace them with ex Northwest Jetlink/Mesaba RJ85s.

Fried Chicken

[OltonPete]

Anybody know how Aerosvit are doing? Heard they haven't had good loads so far. I wonder if a USA-B'ham-Kiev-Asia flight with one of their B763s would do any good? I know they already fly across the Pond with the 767.

Also, reported elsewhere that Cityjet are to dispose of their knackered 146s (presumably see the end of the leased Flightline knackers too) & replace them with ex Northwest Jetlink/Mesaba RJ85s.

Fried Chicken

Todays Aerosvit 737-400 had 7 inbound apparently and the usual is 10-15. The
CAA provisional stats for December are grim reading for this service

BHX seems to get a lot of Blueline FK100's on the Air France flights, which is not surprising having suffered two grim flights in summer 2004 on the
Flightline machines (BA Nice service) - Tech delays, tatty interiors
but nice crew.


Peter

[Flap15Geardown]

Todays Aerosvit 737-400 had 7 inbound apparently and the usual is 10-15. The
CAA provisional stats for December are grim reading for this service

BHX seems to get a lot of Blueline FK100's on the Air France flights, which is not surprising having suffered two grim flights in summer 2004 on the
Flightline machines (BA Nice service) - Tech delays, tatty interiors
but nice crew.


Peter

That 734 was a 733:ooh:

[Flap15Geardown]

I have a friend who works as a Duty Officer for Swissport at BHX and the
last time I spoke to him he was in shock - he had just been told that they
have the Flybe contract from the 1st April. After a fairly quiet winter I think he realises that he is going to be a whole lot busier!

OltonPete

Why is he in shock?? Doesn't he know what is going on in his own patch? Everyone I know at Swissport have know for the last two months that they were coming - baring any major management cock ups. Maybe he should get out a bit more often:ok:

[OltonPete]

Why is he in shock?? Doesn't he know what is going on in his own patch? Everyone I know at Swissport have know for the last two months that they were coming - baring any major management cock ups. Maybe he should get out a bit more often:ok:

Sorry - the shock was the fact that he would have to do some work ;)

Correct re Aerosvit 733 not 734, slightly better load factor!:ooh:

OltonPete

[tiggerific_69]

i have heard in the BA Connect crew room that in the summer schedule we will be doing a Belfast service from BHX

[ALLMCC]

Yes it's true - starts 12 April from BHD - 4x mon - fri, 3X sat & 2x sun with RJ's and 145s

[eastern wiseguy]

What will be the Flybe response I wonder?

[OltonPete]

Other than the HLX thread, the BA Timetable is now showing: -

BHX-TXL Daily - Late March or Early April BA4193/4 12.10 out 16.35 back

BHX-GVA Daily from 25th March (currently a weekend service). BA4153/4
11.00 departure in the week

Both showing as 145's

Not sure if it has been posted on here but CSA Prague is rumoured
to cease 25/3/06.:{

There are also the rumoured Aer Arran changes some of which have
been mentioned.

OltonPete

[Fried_Chicken]

Hopefully baby can absorb any pax that would have flown with CSA, thankfully Brum still retains the route, just loses a carrier.

Fried Chicken

[airhumberside]

Aer Arran are expected to fly twice daily to Liege

[30W]

Anyone know which handling agent represents the Air Atlanta (Air Malta 320) that operates from BHX??

[future_pilot17]

Anyone know which handling agent represents the Air Atlanta (Air Malta 320) that operates from BHX??

I would of guessed it was Servisair because they are the handlling agent for the reguler Air Malta flights, no logic behind that answer as it's a shot in the dark!

[30W]

I've a feeling it's Aviance - but hoping someone knew for sure. Although it's an Air Malta aircraft, it's not operated as such as operates on lease with Atlanta on EUK callsigns.

[Flap15Geardown]

It's definately the Circus at the moment:ok: And it does fly KM charters as well as the EUK ones

[30W]

Cheers!

30W

[oli_25_uk]

FYI

My bf has just had an email from HLX saying they will be starting Brum - Cologne from May... Just thought you'd like to know!

OLIx

ps. been a lurker on here for ages, thought it was time to say hi!

[Ian Farquharson]

Birmingham International Airport's year got off to a flying start
with 564,702 people using the UK's fifth largest airport in January.
This was 5.9% up on the same month last year and the busiest January
on record for BIA.

Scheduled traffic overall was up by 8.5% during the month as more
people took advantage of the growing range of short and long haul
scheduled destinations available from Birmingham. Passenger growth
was seen in particular on flights to non-EU destinations where
passenger numbers were up 37.8%, on services to Asia which grew by
26.9%, on flights to the Irish Republic which increased by 20.2%, and
on Domestic operations which rose by 4.8% during the month.

Meanwhile, a number of specific scheduled destinations experienced
growth, including Geneva (+120%), Toulouse (+64.4%), Larnaca
(+34.9%), Gothenburg (+24.9%), Zurich (+23.8%), Amsterdam (+22.1%),
Copenhagen (+19.8%), Munich (+11.5%), Edinburgh (+10.2%), Düsseldorf
(+10.1%), Aberdeen (+9.7%), Lyon (+9.3%) and Brussels (+7.4%).

Although there was a fall of 3.4% in charter passenger numbers during
the month, growth was seen on flights to Egypt (+467.8%), Barbados
(+22.7%), Bulgaria (+18.6%), Malta (+16.9%), Cyprus (+13.6%), Tunisia
(+8.7%), and Spain (+5.8%).

Scheduled traffic accounted for 80.1% of the total traffic in January
whilst charter passengers made up the remaining 19.9%.

[Avman]

So what makes HLX think they can do better than GWI? Sadly, I can't see this HLX route lasting more than the Summer season. I put GWI's failure squarely on the fact that they got their frequency & timings wrong. HLX are doing the same. Despite the fact that they can be cheaper, the reliability of these LCCs in ever sticking to these routes long term is what has prompted me to go back to using BA out of DUS. Better frequencies and now also with very competitive fares.

[Ops Bangle]

You cannot book Aer Arran ORK-BHX from end March?

Seems a bit of a drastic reaction to Aer Lingus going on the route 3 times a week and WW now doing a once a day service from 14/02? Neither of these are much use to business passengers.

Why are they dropping this which would seem to be a sensible route but starting to fly double daily from LGG??

[Centre cities]

Perhaps because most of the passengers are leisure.

[OltonPete]

A case of don't shoot the messenger!

BHX have gone public if anybody is still interested, it is three flights a week with a Tristar starting on 8th July - see BHX press releases for the
finer details ;) .

Does anybody know where this Tristar is coming from?

OltonPete

[toledoashley]

Well I can think of either Euro Atlantic or Jordan Aviation - or maybe a ATA one out of the desert?

[OltonPete]

Air India timetable now shows ATQ daily ex wed for departures 10.30 and
daily except tue for arrivals 14.45 wef 1/5/06.

This should mean that YYZ goes 6 a week as well.

I think it has been mentioned elsewhere that Monarch winter 06/07
is partly released.

BHX retains Almeria (I think 2 a week), Murcia and Faro.

OltonPete

[gary4444]

An investigation has begun after an aeroplane landing at Birmingham International Airport descended too low on its approach.

The passenger airliner is reported to have descended to 600ft (182m) - when it was six miles away from the airport.

National Air Traffic Services has confirmed the incident near Kenilworth, Warwickshire, happened on Thursday.

An airport spokeswoman said the aircraft and its flight data recorder were being held for investigation.

The Airbus A310 operated by Tehran-based airline Mahan, reportedly flew low over Honiley, near Kenilworth, as it begun its descent around midday.

A farmer in nearby Mere End rang the airport to say a plane had flown too low over his farm.

Aviation sources said at six miles away the plane should have been at 1,800ft (550m).

Reports say the pilot was alerted and told to climb, which he did so before making a second attempt at landing.

Report: BBC News

-----------------------------------------------

Very dodgy!

[spanishflea]

Sounds like following the Honiley DME instead of the DME on the airfield. Would be surprised if something like this hasnt happened once or twice before.

[runway14141414]

Happened today, A/C still on the ground with dep times being put back.

[Flap15Geardown]

Having read the article in yesterdays Birmingham Mail my opinion of the nimby's at SOAR doesn't improve. One of them was quoted as saying that if the Mahan had flown over Catherine de Barnes at that height it would have blown the village away:eek: Now I may be wrong here but isn't the village 2 miles away from the end of 33 so any aircraft approaching from the south would be passing at approx 600ft and last time I checked all the houses were still there:ok:

[jabird]

Flap15,

I just like the fact that both the Brum and the Cov nimbies have tried to join together on this one, yet both are using this as an example of the risks of having more no frills flights from the Midlands.

At this end, we got the classic "bye bye Stoneleigh, hello Lockerbie" from one of them.

Whatever the issues surrounding the Mahan incident, they are nothing whatsoever to do with either the growth in no frills airlines, or the air space issues between BHX & CVT. The CVT nimbies have been quite happy to voice their support from Brum's second runway, which would be preceeded by the extension, which would encourage more long haul carriers, some with questionable safety standards. Yet they all have the one-track "planes bad, growth all due to evil cheap airlines" mindset. How long before SOAR start using the "CVT is just down the road" argument we've heard so often when used the other way round?

[Fried_Chicken]

I noted Brums runway was closed for about 30mins tonight due to it being contaminated which meant a couple of flights diverted to East Mids.

They say things happen in three's, first the Mahan Air, now this, whatever next? :eek:

Fried Chicken

[future_pilot17]

Monarch Scheduled (ZB) introduce new service to ACE and increase the freuency of the Menorca service, they are certainly making themselves known at BHX.

[Ian Farquharson]

Currently sitting at Birmingham is Air India Express B737-800 (VT-AXD) on delivery from Boeing to India.

Previous deliveries have been via Heathrow, hopefully future flights will also come via BHX.


Ian

[OltonPete]

A bit late but worth mentioning: -

"Passenger Figures on the up at BIA

February was another successful month at Birmingham International Airport (BIA) with 598,583 passengers travelling through the two terminals - an increase of 5.0% on the same month last year"


Still slightly down on 2004 but there was extra day to take into account.

March should be up as well but things will start to get tough and of course
Luton's pax will pass BHX's :{ as well at some point unless something
dramatic is announced and soon.

OltonPete

[upperecam]

I was associated with BIA for nearly 40 years, since the early seventies. I watched time and time again the Management squander opportunities through the decision by (council) committee process. This Airport always was and still is stuck in a time warp, in thrall to the unions and political correctness. Always following never leading. Manchester was always miles ahead and now ranks as one of the most successful of airports worldwide. My last experience at Birmingham, like so many, was appalling. Yet more shopping mall development leaving arriving passengers to endure a long wait for immigration clearance in the middle of a filthy slum of a building site. After that humiliating introduction to UK plc follows the interminable wait for baggage claim. Awful, awful dump. Close it and build houses and supermarkets.

:yuk: :* :{ :uhoh: :eek: :confused:

[Centre cities]

upperecam

Thats a nice constructive message. Have you ever tried the other regional airports at busy times, Notts East Midlands for instance.

Perhaps we should knock them all down.

Centre Cities

[OltonPete]

Upperecam

I agree at times that the way BHX has carried out "expansion work" is bewildering but not working in this industry I just trust that they are
trying to do their best with what appears to be limited resources.

I use BHX for virtually all my travel now and I get frustrated at the
arrivals procedure but you only have to read comments re other
airports to see that it is much the same elsewhere. I am not saying that this is an acceptable excuse, just run of the mill at most airports.

However on arriving at BHX's Terminal 2 from touchdown to home, I have
often done this within 30 minutes including waiting for bags and although
I only live about four miles west, it is not bad :)

Having suffered at the hands of the likes of Nice, Palma in recent years I feel BHX is not that bad.

OltonPete

[upperecam]

CenterCities, yup, over 10000 hours of flying,buddy. Brum really is the worst I ever experienced. Worse even than the Greek Islands etc. Corfu still beats Brum and that was pretty dour! Of many criticisms I had/have one beauty was frequently waiting 10 minutes or more for the doors to open! All airports have problems at times, Brum every minute of the day and NIGHT.

:hmm: :ugh: :{ :zzz: :* :oh: :8 :}

[Centre cities]

Upperecam


As most airports have the same handling companies I find that rather strange.

As a customer I have noticed little difference between most airports including BHX.

However you are entitled to your opinion.

Centre cities

[RealFish]

I find BHX pretty good, although I do use T2 mostly. Last year from TO @ CDG, to T2, to Baggage reclaim, to home 25 miles away (admittedly via the toll road) took 1hr 30. I was mightily impressed.

In fact so was a colleague, lived nr. Oxford who always used BHX rather than LHR for flights to / from Scotland. Flights not as frequent but reckoned she always got home quicker.

[Buster the Bear]

I don't have the time to trawl through the many previous posts, but it was reported today that CSA are likely to terminate their Prague-Birmingham service soon?

[Ian Farquharson]

CSA are finishing this weekend, as are Germanwings and AerArran !

Ian

[Centre cities]

On the other side of the coin, Baby have seen off CSA and the route is still served, Aer Lingus replace Arran and Hapag replace Germanwings.

You win some and you loose some.

Centre cities

[future_pilot17]

Aer Arran are here to stay with the Liege service, so more like you gain more!

[Fried_Chicken]

Isn't the Leige route only 3 times a week though? Not much of a gain although the saying about Mighty Oaks from little acorns could be true I suppose

FC

[future_pilot17]

Isn't the Leige route only 3 times a week though? Not much of a gain although the saying about Mighty Oaks from little acorns could be true I suppose
FC

Indeed it is, I was associating the gain with a new destination really.

[OltonPete]

www.thebhx.co.uk (http://www.thebhx.co.uk) is reporting that Air Berlin are taking over the forces
flights to Munster & Paderborn from 7/4/06 with 737-800 (not confirmed).

Nice change just a shame it is not schedule flights!

OltonPete

[splash&dash]

Air India increasing services from BHX from 01st May :) .

Taken from BHX website-


http://www.bhx.co.uk/page.aspx?type=bEyZftSD20U=&id=VmrgiAt2X44=&article=hv24bCnCD/E=

[OltonPete]

Curious why it took them so long to announce it, as it was bookable on
22/2/06 but good news anyway.
It seems that PK is to stay as A310 for the time being rather than the
rumoured 777.
OltonPete

[Fried_Chicken]

I believe a Moscow to Brum route should be announced in the next 12 months, no idea of operator but either Pulkovo or Transareo (both with B737 & both already serve the UK) have been mentioned.

Outsiders are Polet (recently announced Moscow-Dublin with Yak42) & Sibair, from Moscow DME with B737

Could be interesting aslong as they advertise it! The Kiev route by Aerosvit could probably do better if they advertised the route

Fried Chicken

[airhumberside]

If its Transaero just hope they dont make the same mess they did with EDI-DME

[GOLF-INDIA BRAVO]

And Manchester announce a service only to find that Aeroflot have the licence

G-I-B

[MarkBHX]

Anyone know how BA's new route to Berlin and the increase on the Geneva are going? How are the bookings looking for the new Belfast service aswell?

[FougaMagister]

I would be surprised if the new route to Belfast did very well bearing in mind that bmi baby operate up to 3 flights a day to BFS and Flybe up to 4 BHD rotations.

Also, the Berlin route is NOT new; MAERSK AIR LTD :sad: used to fly it under BA franchise for years from Terminal 2; as such, it was included in BA's schedules.

Cheers :cool:

[Tisme]

I would be surprised if the new route to Belfast did very well bearing in mind that bmi baby operate up to 3 flights a day to BFS and Flybe up to 4 BHD rotations.



And bmi fly into BHD about 5 times daily too.

[BombardierCR7]

QUOTE "And bmi fly into BHD about 5 times daily too"

Really? from BHX? since when?

[Call Established]

TACV-CAbo Verde Airlines have said they intend to start flights to Birmingham this year using is a B757-200 arr-dep BHX on a Friday no start date confirmed but rumours of a June or November start. Think this may be the first direct flight from the UK to SAL, although I understand AEU may also commence ex LGW in November.

[Tom the Tenor]

There have been two motor industry related charters from Cork to Sal this year to date, one flight operated by EIR stopping at TFS for fuel and the second a direct flight by a FJE 757 on the way south and the the return was by a TCX aircraft.

One of Ireland's top popular economics and consumer affairs commentators, Eddie Hobbs, has given the nod to the Cape Verde Islands to be the next hot thing in foreign property buying and selling so bang goes the chances of bargain?

Is the intended TACV flight to Birmingham due to be scheduled or charter? Either way, bound to be a banker. Fairly popular with Italian holidaymakers by all accounts.

[Call Established]

I was also told its being groomed as the new "property hot spot" I think this flight may be on back of a few property developers. It seems to be announced on a lot of property websites, some of which date back to June 2005, saying 2006 will see a direct flight. Looks a nice place as well!

[Bagso]

Cape Verde might not be quite cut and dried...
The choice of departure airport is to designated by the tour operator....so I guess charter only..?
BUT if they get more people interested from London it will go from LGW, if the interest is from the North it will go from Manchester.

[OltonPete]

A short extract from bhx: -


"March 2006 Passenger Figures At BIA Continue To Rise
March was another busy month at Birmingham International Airport with 674,353 passengers travelling through the Airport, this is an increase of 2.4% on the same month last year".


I think that considering Easter was in March in 2005 these figures are not that bad.

April could be up about 5% but thereafter it looks like stagnation or
more likely the figures for July - September could be down based on
the known IT flights.

On a happier note the first scheduled Polish (Krakow)flight left this morning on a Hungarian registered ex Easyjet machine apparently!

The expected pax load was 101, which based on a what should have been a 735 is not bad. The 73G is showing for May but there again it was a 733 today.

OltonPete

[window-seat]

Is it still LLZ approaches on 33? Any word on when the ILS will be up and running again?? :hmm:

cheers
W-S

[FlyboyUK]

33 ILS has been back on for a few weeks now:ok:

[RealFish]

'Emirates is planning a third sevice from city'
The following, from todays 'Birmingham Post', repeats a story that emerged some months ago suggesting that a further expansion of the Emirates services from Brum.
Actually it seems that expansion is under consideration, rather than planned. The story does go on to give an interesting glimpse into Emirates business plans and offers some praise for BHX (as opposed to the call to get its finger out, made a few months back). Also interesting to note that the Emirates president lives nearby (in leafy Warwickshire, if I remember correctly).
http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/birminghampost/business/tm_objectid=16945505%26method=full%26siteid=50002-name_page.html

[OltonPete]

CAA stats for Feb (provisional) show BHX-DXB at 24660 up from 16979.

I make this an average of 220 pax per flight or a 70% load factor which is
pretty good. However the evening service was up and down like a yo yo
in January & February.

Interesting comments from Mr Clark, good local PR, keeping BHX on their
toes and no doubt a bit of a shot across the bows for Qatar (if it is to be
believed that they are soon to announce another UK destination).

I am sure a third EK would scare away any other potential airline thinking
of going East.

OltonPete

[jabird]

The list of new routes for '06 "accidentally" had an extension of the BHX-ATQ also continuing to BOM - so will Air India announce this soon?

[Lite]

To stray slightly from the topic, could anybody give me a round up of what's happening from the handling agent side of things at BHX?

[Call Established]

Some movers and chnages:

Swissport - Now have Flybe (01st April) and Air Malta (01st May)
Aviance - Have City Airline and Helios from Servisair
Servisair - No new work, but lost Germanwings, reduced Aer Arran, lost City Airline, and Air Malta + CSA pulled out.
Aviation Support UK - Have Sky Europe and Hapag Lloyd Express + United European Airways some A300 outfit from Romania starting in June.

[GW76]

If its Transaero just hope they dont make the same mess they did with EDI-DME
What "mess" was that ?:confused: :confused:

[airhumberside]

They operated the route only once a fortnight, which meant they were unable to increase loads to make the route a success

[Lite]

I ask as I might be moving from the East Midlands to the West Midlands (a huge jump I know :\) sometime over the next twelve months, and whilst a lot can happen in 12 months, I do like to be kept up-to-date with all that's going on in the handling agent world. Which company do you all think is best at BHX workwise? Strengths? Weaknesses? Any info is appreciated, as I know little about the BHX scene.

[GK430]

Signature;)

[Daza]

BA Connect will be adding 2 new routes at BHX this winter. GVA and TXL are doing very well BHD is below expectations particularly the am ARJ but the other 3 services are faring well
Daza

[OltonPete]

I ask as I might be moving from the East Midlands to the West Midlands (a huge jump I know :\) sometime over the next twelve months, and whilst a lot can happen in 12 months, I do like to be kept up-to-date with all that's going on in the handling agent world. Which company do you all think is best at BHX workwise? Strengths? Weaknesses? Any info is appreciated, as I know little about the BHX scene.

As a passenger my opinion is that there is not much to choose between BA, Aviance and Swissport. One of my friends is Duty Officer at Swissport and seems reasonably happy. He moved from Servisair and I think the
best way of describing it would be to say it was a good move.

Servisair in the past seemed to struggle with staff numbers, I do not
know if it has got any better since they lost Pakistan, Air Malta, City
Airline, Swiss, Transat & CSA/Germanwings ceased.

Saying all that they still have CO, EK EI & AI, which is not a bad set
of airlines to handle.

The last flight I went on was EI and Servisair had two check-in agents for 160 pax but they did come and pick out the "hand luggage only" brigade and checked them in at the ticket desk (me included), which was good.
Why there were only two I do not know. I would have thought that EI would require more but in these cost-conscious times you never know.


OltonPete

[bmibaby.com]

We're handled at BHX by aviance who've been doing an excellent job by all accounts.

[rubber jonny]

I would say that aviance are ripping you off terribly with the de icing. Iv'e seen them de-ice the whole 737(wings,stab,tail and fuselage) when theres been just frost,also de-icing when not necessary with no other airlines de-icing.It must be costing baby a fortune with the 5 A/C at bhx. :ouch:

[flyBHXuk]

Swissport have now lost the contract for BritishJET, who will now be handled by Aviance. Rumour has it that Thomas Cook's contract is up for nenewal too. Adria Airways and BHAir have only signed 1 year contracts with Servisair and plan to go to Aviation Support for next summer. It's all swap and change at the handling agents!

[Fried_Chicken]

The planned Aer Arann Leige- Birmingham has been pulled apparently. 3 flights a week was a bit of a silly schedule anyhow

FC

[jethro15]

I would say that aviance are ripping you off terribly with the de icing. Iv'e seen them de-ice the whole 737(wings,stab,tail and fuselage) when theres been just frost,also de-icing when not necessary with no other airlines de-icing.It must be costing baby a fortune with the 5 A/C at bhx. :ouch:
I wouldn't have thought that Aviance had the authority to decide whether or not to de-ice without consultation. That decision would be made by either the Capt or ground engineer.

[FougaMagister]

That's true - but airlines within the bmi group have the first round of de-icing decided by bmi OPS on receipt of the Met Office weather/icing forecast the night before; therefore, on slot 1 flights, the Captain can only decide to request another de-icing procedure, in case of heavy snowfall/freezing precipitation, ATC slot or tech delay.

The handling agent does NOT decide whether or not to de-ice; it's actually one of the first questions the dispatchers ASK the flight crew during a turnaround.

Incidentally, de-icing is NEVER a rip-off; would you prefer to take-off in icing conditions without de-icing? Remember that different aircraft might have different de-icing/anti-icing systems, the operating airlines might use a different set of weather parameters to define icing conditions, etc.

The CAA has a very good mantra on the subject: "if in doubt, don't think twice, de-ice". :ok:

Cheers :cool:

[rubber jonny]

Someone is therefore costing baby a fortune with de-icing,when they get de-iced early morning you very rarely see crew/eng on the A/C because its not yet powered up.They get de-iced anyway even if the weather changes overnight so that de-icing is not even needed.Iv'e cancelled de-icing in the past on our A/c and still see babys boeings getting a complete de-ice (wings,tail,fuselage).Now you tell me thats not wasting a lot of money.
Why de-ice the fuselage when there is light frost? Wings,tail yes but fuselage??

[Flap15Geardown]

Its not just Aviance that are doing it Airline Services are at it too. Their idea of a quick spray on the wings is to make sure anyone walking around the aircraft needs diving gear:uhoh: They also spray the fuselage when there is no reason and I've lost count of the number of times you can't even look through the windscreens because there is so much fluid on them:*

[Flap15Geardown]

Swissport have now lost the contract for BritishJET, who will now be handled by Aviance.

Hardly a fair exchange, one MD90 a week for hundreds of flybe's:ok:

[Lite]

Did flybe move handling agents for a specific problem they had with aviance or was this simply a pricing issue with Swissport being cheaper?

[flyBHXuk]

I think maybe they just wanted the same handling agent in most of their UK stations. They're handled by Swissport at NCL, MAN and soon to be LGW I believe.

[JobsaGoodun]

Not sure if this is the case. Aviance lost the contract at BHX but are still used at SOU and BHD (yes i know they are the only ones at these bases). Servisair are used at LGW, GLA, EDI, BRS, LBA and JER though. I imagine that it comes down with who puts the best offer on the table at the time. Remember that Flybe are moving to on-line check-in and i'm sure this would have had a direct impact on negotiations. Give it a couple years and there will be no check-in required.

[Call Established]

Hearing possible rumours that Aviance are going to be brought by Menzies ????? Anyone have anynews on this, I Menzies are in NEMA and have cargo shed at BHX. They have always wanted to get into BHX.

[Daza]

New open skies deal may mean new services to Canada from BHX there is a market heres hoping?
Daza

[Fried_Chicken]

It would appear that the planned Air Scotland flight will now be operated with an A320 (& possibly under a new Airline name)

Fried Chicken

[bruppy]

Did flybe move handling agents for a specific problem they had with aviance or was this simply a pricing issue with Swissport being cheaper?

Swissport came in approx 10% cheaper than aviance & also agreed to waiver the handling charge for a flight if they delayed it, It was never really a fair comparison from what I heard as aviance were asked to quote based on what service they were already doing for Flybe (dedicated dispatcher, bus & arrival escorts) , however Swissport were asked to quote for thier "low cost" product which has the ramp Leading hands picking up the loadsheet off a printer (sent by Op's) filling in thier section & handing it to the Captain who never see's a dispatcher?, bussing escorts were never mentioned (however that came as a shock to S/port in thier 1st week) & the Ramp Leading Hand also arrives the passengers into the terminal (caused quite a few issues so far). How can a handling company give a fair quote when the goalposts are 2 miles wide at 1 end?
Don't get me wrong I am quite glad that we no longer handle Flybe as they were turning into a Royal pain in the :mad: , but the way it was handled was iffy.
The rumour about menzies has been floating around for a few moths now, have heard within the company that 2 bids have been rejected by go-ahead, however you know what they say third time lucky!!!;) ;)

[Off Stand]

What is the latest with this start up? Still going to be using J31's? Any word on flight and cabin crew recruitment?

Thaks in advance.

[Yak97]

Still slogging away on the finance front, I'm afraid.

Potential investor earlier in the year fizzelled out (that's where the SF340 idea came from) so back to the drawing board with the J31's.

Lot's of interest still from potential investors but turning that into somebody putting their hand in their pocket..................we live in hope!!

[OltonPete]

Yet another article this time mainly about Jet's proposed cargo operation but the last paragraph mentions BHX - ATQ and LHR - ATQ hopefully by
July 2006. Source www.business-standard.com (http://www.business-standard.com).

With Air India going 6 a week to Amritsar from today it had been rumoured
that Jet were considering BHX - Ahmadabad to tap in to the East Midlands
market.

It seems that there is an article every other week re Jet and they all say
different things. One of the claims is that the BHX service is awaiting
Indian Government approval.


OltonPete

[Lite]

It seems that Swissport are a force to be reckoned with at BHX, keeping into consideration the points mentioned by bruppy, do people think it has been a smooth transition from aviance to swissport? How are flybe doing? I've noticed they have decreased the frequencies of their Spanish flights, perhaps due to the increased presence of ZB.

How also is BA Connect doing? They seem to have come along pitching just the right product with their existing & new routes.

[OltonPete]

Lite

It is believed that Flybe's decision was nothing to do with Monarch
increasing. On another forum it was said they got a decent handling
rate for the 733 at Norwich and I was shouted down when I suggested
that they might have received or been eligible for subsidies.

Load factors on most of their "holiday" routes last summer were 80%+
so it has to be assumed that yields were not up to scratch. They were
competing with Baby, Monarch & MyTravellite on some routes last
summer and when the latter closed I thought an increase was more
likely than a decrease. Monarch have since taken up some of the loss
with a late PM Malaga on some nights, Almeria, Faro Murcia & Alicante.

Generally Flybe loads are okay with one or two EDI, GLA & BHD's
performing poorly at certain times of the day but without access
to yields it is all pretty worthless stats.

I have a friend who is a Duty Officer at Swissport but I have not
asked him if I can repeat some his comments so all I will say is that
it has been an interesting time ;) and his feet have hardly touched
the ground :)

I dropped a work colleague at T2 this afternoon for a Connect flight
to SYY via GLA. All very quiet, the self-service machine ate her
credit card :* and the baggage belt did not work but she got away
on time (with her credit card). As for Connect loads, I have no
idea of yields but more pax seem to be travelling. I think has been
said on other threads that Berlin & Geneva are doing okay but the
Belfast City especially the morning RJ100 is a bit light on pax.

The busiest area today was actually Monarch check-in for MJV & TFS
(I believe they posted increased figures for April 06 but it did
contain Easter whereas it was in March last year)

OltonPete

[Call Established]

A fare few subbed flights at BHX yesterday/today/tomorrow:

Wed
AF5137 CDG Op by ??? MD82
BE1637 ALC Op by FlyGlobespan B733 G-OTDA
BE1781 FAO Op by UKJet MD83 SX-BSW

Thu
BE1637 ALC Op by UKJet MD83 SX-BSW
BE1965 AGP Op by Astraeus B752 G-OJIB
AF5133 CDG Op by JetX MD83 TF-JXB
AF5137 CDG Op by JetX MD83 TF-JXB
AF5141 CDG Op by JetX MD83 TF-JXB
MON034P LTN Op by First Choice Airways B752 G-OOBC

Fri
WW1011 AMS Op by JetX MD83 TF-JXB
Also BA Connect flights BA1820 EDI, BA7621 BHD, BA1778 DUS, BA1824 EDI,
BA1828 EDI, BA1830 EDI are showing as op by B73K!

[Lite]

Thanks for everyone's comments regarding the handling agent scene at BHX. It's all very much appreciated, and am looking forward to hearing more as things progress, particularly the growth of Swissport, but also this new company "Aviation Support" who I can't seem to find any information on.

As a bizarre aside, how are announcements made at BHX? On my last trip from T1 I seem to remember a very robotic voice making what seemed like pre-recorded announcements as opposed to the PSAs doing them themselves. Having just lost our PA system (albeit apparently temporarily) at EMA, I'm interested to know what goes on & why.

[jmc757]

Lite

Nearly all announcements are made by an automated system. All flights/airlines/destinations are pre-programmed into it, and its all fairly automated. However, I wouldn't say it sounds robotic, its a females voice and is one of the best I've heard for an automated system.

There is also the facility for "manual" announcements by humans, for example "Could passenger XYZ who has failed to join flight....".

[Phileas Fogg]

I have to say that flying out of BHX as a passenger, and yes I am aviation personel, is an absolute pleasure in comparison to somewhere like Heathrow, and I'm slightly nearer to BHX than LHR.

I can prebook Multi Storey 3 via ncp.co.uk at a knock down price and casually stroll across the road without fear of getting knocked down, indeed when I came back from CDG in February from the time I left the aircraft to the time I got in my car must have been all of 5 minutes.

Just one complaint though, the grill in the Eurohub. Either they change their supplier or cooking method of their breakfast sausages or they supply metal cutlery, indeed a chainsaw, rather than plastic cutlery.

I would, lightheartedly, consider it a health & safety hazard to attempt to cut in to one of their sausages with a plastic knife, trust me, the sausage wins, sort it please :)

[flyBHXuk]

Aviation Support were the handling agent that used to handle Skyways until they pulled out of BHX, they also handled Air Slovakia. Both just check in. They now offer full ground handling for SkyEurope, HLX and United European Airways. Handling agent for AirClass Airways is still currently TBA as they haven't as yet got their own a/c.

[thomsonfly.com]

BHX has an automated announcement system which is very similar to what you might find in Spanish airports, whereby all of the flight details are pre-programmed into a computer and are then clearly announced. In Spain these are announced in Spanish/English/Language of Destination although at BHX they are only done in English. On top of that, each gate has there own tannoy system for additional announcements. Presumably this makes the lives of the gate agents much easier.

[Flap15Geardown]

Aviation Support were the handling agent that used to handle Skyways until they pulled out of BHX, they also handled Air Slovakia. Both just check in. They now offer full ground handling for SkyEurope, HLX and United European Airways. Handling agent for AirClass Airways is still currently TBA as they haven't as yet got their own a/c.

Didn't they also only pay their staff when they asked where their wages were?? Hope things have improved since then:eek:

[Snigs]

An observation from someone who is at the business end wrt Swissport at BHX. Yes there are issues that need to be ironed out (will someone answer the bloody radio for example!) but to be honest they try 100%, but their understanding of the job is less than minimal, which suggests that their training is non existent.... teach them what is required and they'll do it just as well as anyone else.... but PLEASE train them.

[OltonPete]

Snigs

Ah yes answering the radio!

An often explanation or rumour depending on your who you believe is
that it is often due to a certain airline regularly changing aircraft due to tech, maintenance weather delays (Channel Isles) etc, which requires a certain amount of time to re-config the seating plans etc.

A problem noticed since 1st April in particular - only repeating what
I have heard and is only a rumour;) .

OltonPete

[OltonPete]

Just part of the press release from bhx - a tad
disappointing but up at least.

Passenger Figures Continue To Rise At BIA

April proved to be another busy month at Birmingham International Airport (BIA) with 696,952 passengers travelling through, an increase of 4% on the same month last year and the busiest April on record. The late Easter this year and some major events at the adjacent NEC helped make it the busiest April on record at BIA.
Scheduled traffic grew by 3.4% overall. Growth was experienced on services to the Indian sub-continent which rose by 63.1%, on non-EU services which grew by 60% and on domestic routes which also increased by 3.9%.
Scheduled routes that experienced growth include, Geneva (+232.6%), Gothenburg (+88.9%), Zurich (+68.0%), , Paphos (+30.5%), Copenhagen (+22.3%), Amsterdam (+21.0%), Madrid (+20.8%), Frankfurt (+19.8%), Toulouse (+16.4%), Inverness (+12.5%), Dusseldorf (+11.1%), Paris (+10.8%), Munich (+9.5%), Perpignan (+9.3%), Malta (+9.3%), Brest (+8.9%), Edinburgh (+7.5%) and Aberdeen (+5.9%).


OltonPete

[MarkBHX]

Quite a few interesting movements coming up over the rest of the month, anyone know what any of them are for?

Fri 19th Channel Express / Jet2 733 LS21P/6024 Arr 07:50 - Dep 09:20 from Newcastle/ to Malaga
Fri 19th Channel Express / Jet2 733 LS24P/6021 Arr 08:15 - Dep 09:45 from Leeds-Bradford/ to Malaga
Fri 19th Luxair 735 LG7587/7587 Arr 08:25 - Dep 09:10 from/to Luxembourg
Fri 19th Excel Airways 762 XLA158P/7159 Arr 09:00 - Dep 10:30 from Gatwick/ to Malaga
Sat 20th Corsair 743 CRL809/810 Arr 10:15 - Dep 21:15 from/to Shannon
Sat 20th Corsair 743 CRL841/842 Arr 10:35 - Dep 22:30 from/to Cork
Sun 21st Monarch AB6 MON8027/27P Arr 15:25 - Dep 17:00 from Malaga/ to Gatwick
Sun 21st Air Europa 738 AEA201/202 Arr 15:55 - Dep 16:55 from Malaga/ to Madrid
Wed 24th Croatia Airlines 320 OU1508/1509 Arr 15:30 - Dep 16:20 from/to Split
Sat 27th Jetair 734 TUB9783F/9784 Arr 09:00 - Dep 10:00 from Brussels/ to Tarbes-Osson
Sat 27th Jetair 734 TUB9721F/9722 Arr 13:25 - Dep 14:20 from Ostend/ to Tarbes-Osson
Sat 27th Aigle Azur 320 ZI945F/946 Arr 14:20 - Dep 15:20 from Paris CDG/ to Tarbes-Osson
Sun 28th Pulkovo TU5 FV6701/6702 Arr 09:40 - Dep 10:45 from/to St.Petersburg **
Sun 28th Futura 734 FUA771P/1772 Arr 11:20 - Dep 12:10 from Las Palmas/ to Arrecife
Mon 29th Futura 734 FUA1735/1736 Arr 01:15 - Dep 02:15 from/to Ibiza

Cheers Mark

[OltonPete]

Malaga flights (LS/XLA/AEA/MON) - don't know

Luxair - don't know
Corsair Cork - Rugby final in Cardiff but arriving in BHX rather than CWL

Tarbes - Yearly pilgrimage flights to Lourdes

Croatia - short-term IT flights, usually a couple in May and a couple in
September or October

Pulkovo - Was told it was for an end of tour flight for the Bolshoi or
something similar but not so sure if the dates tie up - the
Birmingham Bolshoi performances were late March, early April

Futura - Las Palmas.This might be an extra IT due to the May Bank
Holiday but could be wrong on this one.

Futura - Ibiza. This is the first flight for Mytravel should run to at least
September.

With the Malaga flights it is tempting to guess that it might be to do with
the automotive industry but as we barely have one anymore in the West Midlands :{ I suspect that I am probably wrong.

OltonPete

[Banzai Eagle]

MarkBHX where did you get all that info from????, you an insider or??

[OltonPete]

I had local radio on in the car on the way from work and one headline was
"generous Black Country boss pays for weekend break in Spain for
500 of his workers" - or something similar

I trust that this could be the explanation for the 2 x LS 733 and XLA 763?

Sorry can't remember the name of "The Boss" or company, as I was back
on the drive before the full article was on and I then totally forgot about it :ugh: once I was back in the madhouse.

Better than a pat on the back and you keep your job for another year :)

OltonPete

[Malcolm G O Payne]

A staff member of Air Sahara, recently taken over by Jet Airways, told me today that the new combined airline is shortly to operate Delhi to BHX. Will this be in place of Air India?

[OltonPete]

Malcolm G O Payne

There has been plenty of rumours and quotes in various articles but the
latest one was once the first A330 is delivered (pictures today on various
forums) then it might allocated to the Air Sahara LHR route (depending on the speed of the merger) thus freeing the 767 for BHX subject to Indian government approval.

There is as far as I know, no connection with the Air India route. I can fully understand if Jet do get cold feet with AI increasing to six a week
but rumour has it they are still committed.

The other talk was that Jet might try Ahmadabad due to the connection
with the Midlands, well East Midlands to be accurate but beggars can't be choosers.

OltonPete

[Malcolm G O Payne]

Thankyou Pete. I didn't catch on to the significance, as I was more concerned with BHX, but the Ops officer I was talking to also raised EMA with reference to the Asian population in Derby.

[Tom the Tenor]

Allowing for breaks and calls of nature how long might a coach journey take from BHX to Cardiff on a Saturday morning?

Thanks from Cork! :)

[OltonPete]

Tom the Tenor

Not done it for years but 3 hours if you are lucky or 2 hours if it is
National Express :) . I was doing 60 in a 60 limit yesterday between
Brum & Cov and those Nat Express boys left me for dead - thought
they were restricted to 60mph?

Anyway so once you land, wait for the buses (if you are on remote)
clear arrivals, M5, M4 (I assume) then no problem you will be there
by 5 ;) - what time does the game start?

All the best:ok:

OltonPete

[Centre cities]

Tom the Tenor

BHX to Cardiff about 2.30 to 2.45 ish

Take it you are on the Corsair not able to get into Cardiff.

Centre cities

[RealFish]

[QUOTE=MarkBHX]Quite a few interesting movements coming up over the rest of the month, anyone know what any of them are for?
Fri 19th Channel Express / Jet2 733 LS21P/6024 Arr 07:50 - Dep 09:20 from Newcastle/ to Malaga
Fri 19th Channel Express / Jet2 733 LS24P/6021 Arr 08:15 - Dep 09:45 from Leeds-Bradford/ to Malaga
Fri 19th Luxair 735 LG7587/7587 Arr 08:25 - Dep 09:10 from/to Luxembourg
Fri 19th Excel Airways 762 XLA158P/7159 Arr 09:00 - Dep 10:30 from Gatwick/ to Malaga
Sat 20th Corsair 743 CRL809/810 Arr 10:15 - Dep 21:15 from/to Shannon
Sat 20th Corsair 743 CRL841/842 Arr 10:35 - Dep 22:30 from/to Cork
Sun 21st Monarch AB6 MON8027/27P Arr 15:25 - Dep 17:00 from Malaga/ to Gatwick
Sun 21st Air Europa 738 AEA201/202 Arr 15:55 - Dep 16:55 from Malaga/ to Madrid
Wed 24th Croatia Airlines 320 OU1508/1509 Arr 15:30 - Dep 16:20 from/to Split
Sat 27th Jetair 734 TUB9783F/9784 Arr 09:00 - Dep 10:00 from Brussels/ to Tarbes-Osson
Sat 27th Jetair 734 TUB9721F/9722 Arr 13:25 - Dep 14:20 from Ostend/ to Tarbes-Osson
Sat 27th Aigle Azur 320 ZI945F/946 Arr 14:20 - Dep 15:20 from Paris CDG/ to Tarbes-Osson
Sun 28th Pulkovo TU5 FV6701/6702 Arr 09:40 - Dep 10:45 from/to St.Petersburg **
Sun 28th Futura 734 FUA771P/1772 Arr 11:20 - Dep 12:10 from Las Palmas/ to Arrecife
Mon 29th Futura 734 FUA1735/1736 Arr 01:15 - Dep 02:15 from/to Ibiza
Cheers Mark[/QUOTE

It seems that one of this morning's 743's has been replaced by a 744 arrival at 08.20.

Could it be one of these, landing at the famous Sint Maartin PJIA (TNCM)Airport (or beach) ? See the Cpt Kangaroo link below!

http://www.sunsetbeachbar.com/Members/Norbert/phot_1145225933/view

NB: You may need membership to get a sight of the photo, if so I strongly recommend that you do not stray too far into the site, particularly to the barflies and photo albums where there is evidence of wicked goings-on that will be of no interest to anyone in the aviationindustrrrrry....aargh ! :}

[OltonPete]

Thankyou Pete. I didn't catch on to the significance, as I was more concerned with BHX, but the Ops officer I was talking to also raised EMA with reference to the Asian population in Derby.

Not sure of the specifics but certainly compared to the West Mids the East Mids has a fairly large population connected to the Gujarat area of India. Whether this would be enough to support a NEMA service (it has been mentioned in their local press) I do not know.

I am not sure exactly how many services that BHX can support to ATQ
but it will take a few months to see how the Air India increase has
affected Turkmenistan and Uzbek. During the last 12 months the CAA
stats show that these two have not done too bad but the GM flights
via Bratislava seemed to have reduced.

OltonPete

[OltonPete]

Just pinching threads from airliners.net and it is all rumour
but interesting considering CO have the lead regionally in the UK,
Delta are following Europe wide (not the 757 though) and now: -

Northwest to convert 10 757's for DTW - Europe services

Rumoured are DTW-BHX, DTW-MAN, DTW-DUB & possibly GLA

US Air are to convert 3 more 757's to ETOPS and PHL-BHX is
rumoured again for 2007 (third year running).

Any 757 drivers out there got any comments on BHX-DTW
with strong headwinds etc. Would there be any weight
restrictions or is it no worse the TXL-EWR (mind you that
has been known to tech stop).

OltonPete

[Evileyes]

Flying Fairy, I have taken the liberty of moving your post (and the response) to the Cabin Crew forum where you are likely to get more resonses.

[firstforfirstchoice]

I think that from early June Air India are reducing the frequency of their flights into BHX from six weekly to five weekly.

Not sure if this is correct, can anyone confirm please??

Thanks in advance.

Cheers. :ok: :ok:

[OltonPete]

firstforfirstchoice

Reported this morning on a BHX forum. I have checked the AI website
and the Thursday (wef 8/6/06) inbound Amritsar has gone, which also means the Thursday outbound Toronto, Friday inbound Toronto and Friday
outbound Amritsar have all bitten the dust. In November it is still shown as five a week :{

Not too surprising at present as it is "low season" but this appears
permanent.

OltonPete

[Scottie Dog]

OltonPete

As a general rule it is still very early for an airline to have put it's 'final' winter timetable on sale. The current timetable showing on websites/GDS systems, is highly likely to change - it is often still showing the previous winter's schedule. Hopefully you will retain your Amritsar service, but if it has gone for the summer it may also go for the winter.

[bmibaby.com]

Not wanting to slander, but I hear that flybe are not best impressed with the service that Swissport are offering out of BHX, despite being only two months into the contract. Does anybody have any news on how this is doing? I know Swissport have grown very quickly, and don't personally think they can offer the standard of service we get from aviance. Perhaps a bit bias, as aviance did used to be part of British Midland, but I still think they're by far the superior handling agent.

[OltonPete]

bmibaby

Not spoken to my friend at Swissport recently but there were problems
on both sides. His gripe was the amount of late aircraft changes due
to tech or other reasons, which caused knock on problems.

I also believe that the "turnaround" becomes free if any delay is proven to be caused by Swissport and this aspect is contentious.

As an outsider looking in I certainly cannot think of any other airline
that has in the past changed aircraft so often for one reason or the
other. Whether this has been due to tech aircraft or routine maintenance I do not know.

Of course some would see this as a plus point as Flybe do seem
to have a spare aircraft available in BHX a lot of the time, thus keeping the pax reasonably happy, as there are few canx flights.

On the other hand I suppose handlers do not rota staff on the basis
that airlines are going to chop and change their aircraft so often.

I have to say I have always been impressed with Aviance at BHX
and was surprised when Flybe moved. I assume that the price was
right and some would say you get what you pay for!

I feel this one is going to run and run.

OltonPete

[FougaMagister]

The word on the street (or should I say the ramp?) is that Flybe has served a months' warning to Swissport to improve things or else. One result is that Flight Dispatchers are going to reappear on some Flybe flights (JER/GCI). Surprise, surprise! Whoever thought that a 25-minute turnaround could be done without a Dispatcher being actually in charge of proceedings needs his/her head examined!

That said, when Flybe left Aviance, most Dispatchers there were quite happy and thought "good ridance" - the main problem was (is?) with BE's ops department and their habit of sending never-ending ops flashes to re-jig the day's flying programme at the last minute. It might be a paper change for them down in Exeter, but on the frontline, it gets a little bit more complicated (with stand changes, buses/ambulift to book at short notice, different lounges to use/man, fuellers/apron/ramp department to inform of the changes, sometimes aircraft config changes/seating changes, etc). And don't expect any thanks from them when things do work out!

In comparison, bmi OPS usually shine by their professionalism, even when there is disruption.

Cheers :cool:

[PARIS2BERLIN]

HI!:)
This is my 1st post, but noticed that the Swissport/Fly(may)be topic is quite hot at the mo.
BMI BABY.COM from what I've heard Aviance were the laughing stock of the ramp when they handled Flybe, seems the curse has followed them to Swissport, and Aviance had dispatchers.Looks like there's a common denominator here...... ;) If you look at the preformance stats from last year, Swissport were far superior.:ok:

[bazzab68]

This is my 1st post, but noticed that the Swissport/Fly(may)be topic is quite hot at the mo.
BMI BABY.COM from what I've heard Aviance were the laughing stock of the ramp when they handled Flybe, seems the curse has followed them to Swissport, and Aviance had dispatchers.Looks like there's a common denominator here...... ;) If you look at the preformance stats from last year, Swissport were far superior.:ok:[/quote]

I must disagree here. maybe they were the best agents for screw ups around the airport. Only last week they impaled a set of steps into airbrigde 41 not just once but both sides.
This company call pax to the lounge even before aircrafts leave the out station, meaning pax are stuck in the lounge for hours.
ALSO they send buses to aircraft before crew even arrive at the airport. Fantastic handling.
Calls to PA are also hillarious as HK1 is generally are always being put out as missing on flights and as people in the business know this is an abbreviation for an infant.:\ :\ :confused:

[Fried_Chicken]

I understand that the HLX flight is showing as upgraded to a B737 on some flights from the Autumn or will they go Double daily with the F100?

FC

[OltonPete]

Fried_Chicken

One reservation system shows the winter as 5 per week as now, same
days but all 73G's. The Thursday flight comes in line timings wise with
Fri, Sun, Mon & Wed at about 19.45 ish (sorry forgot to write it down).

Not heard anything about double daily. Daily NE Krakow is rumoured
from summer 2007 - the two a week is simply not enough to attract
"all types of pax".

OltonPete

[PARIS2BERLIN]

I must disagree here. maybe they were the best agents for screw ups around the airport. Only last week they impaled a set of steps into airbrigde 41 not just once but both sides.
This company call pax to the lounge even before aircrafts leave the out station, meaning pax are stuck in the lounge for hours.
ALSO they send buses to aircraft before crew even arrive at the airport. Fantastic handling.
Calls to PA are also hillarious as HK1 is generally are always being put out as missing on flights and as people in the business know this is an abbreviation for an infant.:\ :\ :confused:[/quote]


I think you are missing the point here. Like I said, it seems that flybe are the curse, not the agent. I'm sure Aviance made very similar mess ups when they were handliing the 'premier' carrier :ok: who have the habit of changing a/c after the pax have been called to the lounge, no fault of any agent. If HK1 has been called over PA, then that is pretty funny! What a wicked name to have!! I guess that can only be put down to inexperienced check in staff, which are always going to be a problem when taking on such a large contract.:ugh:

[Flap15Geardown]

Wouldn't be so quick to critisise Swissport damaging the airport infrastruture if I were you. I seem to remember a couple of years ago Aviance ramp staff were hitting Lufthansa aircraft at an average of two a week:eek: A couple of sets of steps into an airbridge or vehicles striking a/c on a very regular basis, I know which I would prefer.

[scruggs]

A few minutes ago, a C-17 flew over my house on approach to runway 15. Anyone know why its operating to EGBB today?

Cheers,
eP.

[Ian Farquharson]

RAF C17's are regular vistors to BHX as are VC10's and C130, they bring casualties from the Gulf etc to the QE Hospital in Birmingham

Ian

[Dred18]

It's not been the ideal start to the contract with Swissport for us.

There have been many problems as there normally is when a handling agent starts a new (big) contract, however i would expect these to have been ironed out by now, yet the service isn't really improving.

The main problems for us is the difference in quality of the Ops departments, we will admit we do change a/c frequently, however we have a high amount of a/c based at BHX and predominantly we operate very short routes, so there is the flexibility to do changes, sometimes unfortunately they are at short notice.

Aviance used to cope extremely well with changes, diverts, etc. They seemed to have the experience to deal with it. Seat plans were always correct, the loaders are excellent at loading our DH4's and the dispatcher's were very clued up. I appreciate with Swissport there are no dispatcher's, but there should have been more extensive training put in place. At the moment my main issue for concern is the Triple A procedures - the Team Leaders complete this (or are supposed to) but they knowledge is very limited, i suspect there are many DFT failures, also we were told the Team Leaders would be made competent and given an 'understanding' of how loadsheets work ( which loaders should have anyway), but as to LMC's, Stab trim settings etc they have no knowledge whatsoever.

Swissport I'm told are certainly not as good as Aviance when it comes to sending Ed's, Mvt's, Ldm's ontime with correct info, i think this is possibly to do with a far more advanced FIND system in use by Aviance and perhaps more experienced staff.

On the whole i think you pay for what you get, I would agree with posts on here that Aviance seem to be the more superior agent's.

On the plus side Swissport do seem to have more staff (perhaps too many) as when i go through the gate onboard, there is normally a good handful there, but if ask them questions none of them seem to know much.

Just to list a few other issues - if your connected to a jetway we have to wait for the 'Apron Supervisor' to tear up in a vehicle to take the bridge off, as the team leaders aren't trained.

If money wasn't always an issue in the aviation industry, I'd go back to Aviance tomorrow.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

[OPS1978]

All i have to say on the matter is just ask mytravel how good swissport are turned them round from bad performing airline with aviance to one of the best on time performance with swissport.And as for the person working for flybe saying he would go back to aviance i think most of the swissport staff would hope flybe would go back to aviance.

[Dred18]

Don't even get me started on crew transport! They never bother to bring us back to the terminal when we're on a remote stand! Also on outbound flights i'm often delayed getting to my a/c as they don't have anyone available to take us - thus delaying the flight.

As to the Mytravel issue don't know much about that except when they were with Aviance I believe there were 7 A/C based at BHX which means handling was a lot more demanding, now they only have one a/c based at BHX i think. Hardly a turnaround i would say!!

[bazzab68]

I would like to add a reply to ops1978 who is obviously diluded when talking about mytravel. Congratulations on mytravel, well it is not hard when they only have one a/c based and a 1 hour turn-around time on a pesky charter. When aviance were handling them we had 6-7 a/c on the ground and were on maximum turn around time of 35 minutes, both full in and out so on time performance may have slipped occassionly but thats life

[bazzab68]

CONGRATUALTION IS IN ORDER TODAY FOR YOUR STATIONS MANAGER BEING SACKED DUE POOR PERFORMANCE AT THE BHX BASE
:{ :{



:ugh: :ugh: :ok: :ok:

[Dred18]

oh dear, that's bad news for us bazzab68 looks like their handling is only going to get worse now. Do you know what specifically he got sacked for?

[OltonPete]

Not too much to add to this debate but MYT have two based 320's both doing 2 flights (4 movements) a day Sunday through Thursday, Friday one aircraft does one flight in the morning before positioning out and Saturday they do 3 flights each.

However as it has been stated not a great deal compared to the one
summer (2003 or 2004) when eight were based at times - 767 five days,
one 321 (or 757) and two 320's on IT plus four 320's for mylite.

Okay it was only a few months but sad to see just two 320's.

As for handling agents, the most annoying aspect as a pax at BHX is the time it takes to get off the aircraft at terminal one and I realise that this
is not always the handling agents fault. The times the flight deck have announced sorry for the delay the guidance is not working or the bridge has just broke or the buses have not turned up!

I have found both Aviance & Swissport fine at check-in and at the
gate, even waiting for baggage it has been reasonable most times. Servisair is definitely lagging a little bit compared to the other two
but that is just my personal opinion from a couple of irritating problems
with check-in queues and getting off aircraft.

OltonPete

[OPS1978]

Perhaps the answer to all the problems will be to allow despatchers return to all flybe flights.

Then see about us having problems people are seeming to compare us to aviance but we are providing a different type of service ie team leaders not despatchers doing turnrounds. Lowcost operation way of turnround like ryanair if despatchers returned to the flybe flights would see massive improvement. ie crew would be picked up from remote stands on time.

Someone said earlier we have no experience in ops yes we have , we have never had any complaints from any other airline regarding quality of staff in our department.

[Flap15Geardown]

I think you need to check your figures a little more carefully for Mytravel. I think you will find that Mytravel Lite went from bottom of the table when handled by Aviance to the top when taken over by Swissport. Unfortunately for the latter company the decision seems to have already been taken to axe Lite before the change of agents.

All the handling agents seem to have the same problems at the moment and that is their ramp departments. You can take your pick of lack of staff, lack of training or lack of motivation. All three seem to suffer from one or more of these but some seem to have more bad days than others. I believe there was an agreement not to undercut each other to get business but this seems to have gone out of the window this summer. The result is that the wages of all the staff are squeezed and we all know what you get when you pay peanuts:uhoh: I doubt that anything will change until all the handling agents agree to start charging realistic handling fees so that there is enough money available to pay descent wages and give thorough training. Then they might find that they can attract the quality of staff required and keep them rather than have them go where the money is, like stacking shelves at Tesco.

Rant over, getting coat and heading for the door:ugh:

[30W]

My flights have been handled by Swissport now for several years. The once top notch service we used to receive in the companies early days is now very average.

As already stated, this is mainly due to the quality, and numbers of staff employed to manage an ever increasing operation. Combined with 'peanuts' being payed by us, the airlines, the result is what we have now.

As for this summer in particular, I personally am finding the ramp operation BETTER than last year. However, the normal early season issues with new check-in staff have carried on FAR longer than they should! These have at times impacted heavily on on-time performance.

If FlyBe can't recognise, and pay, for a despatcher to cover their flights, then they are asking for some of the problems they get. The loaders will never be equal to a good despatcher!

Swissport, along with all agents I come across has a mix of good and bad despatchers. The good ones stand out as being on top of all aspects of the turnround - and are very proactive on your behalf. The bad ones, have no clue of what state different parts of the turnround process are at. They constantly have to be 'chased' to gather and co-ordinate activities that they should be doing automatically.

Who was the station manager these days anyway?

30W

[super furry monkey]

You would be a fool to deny that Swissport are in a mess at the moment. Someone said that they have turned into how Aviance used to be. Lets not forget many of Swissport's contracts came from Aviance (Mon, MYT, CY, FCA) due to airlines dissatisfaction with poor handling from Aviance. Swissport's battle now is to try and regain the quality of service that it did provide before the Flybe contract started (and pretty quick before contracts are lost). Unfortunately the service they offer to their other airlines has declined since April, and quite rightly these airlines aren't impressed and their patience is being tested.

On a positive note in the past, MYT (both lite and charter) were delighted with the improvement in OTP after they changed agents (5 aircraft based at the time some on 40min t/a), Monarch were overall happy with their handling prior to April and Swissport also provided a good level of handling for Duo who had 7 a/c based at bhx (ok it went bust nowt to do with Swissport). Swissport have steadily increased their portfolio of airlines up and till April when it took the large Flybe contract on. Maybe this was a step too far too quickly.

Since April Aviance do probably provide the better level of service, however they have the necessary staffing levels and experienced staff after loosing FLybe (loosing the contract allowed them to loose a lot of their less experienced staff) whilst Swissport have had to employ lots of people off the street. At present Swissport are turning into what Aviance used to be whilst Aviance are re grouping and are providing a good product (see jmc757 post re Aviance). Swissport still have potential to provide a good level of service, but they need to get their act together and quick.

All handling agents are the same, poor pay, lack of resources and insufficient time to allow for training in order to get bums on seats quickly. I think people should be wary of trying to play Avaince against Swissport, they both have the same problems, but they also both have some very capable under paid employee s who often go beyond the call of duty at times to get flight out on time.

As for the Flybe contract, I believe the decision not to have dispatcher's was forced upon BHX from above despite strong local opposition from the idea from all management at BHX. In fairness from what I have witnessed some of the team leaders have done remarkably well after being thrown into the deep end, however I believe a traditional dispatch model would have meant Flybe would have experience a better service up to now.

Anyway sorry to go on but I feel, airlines get what they pay for. If they pay peanuts to all handling agents then the level of service will decline. I think handling agents should stick together more rather than slagging each other off especially when they have the same restraints and experience the same problems. It's not a war. :)

Rant Over

Herman - Sorry for any spelling mistakes

[30W]

Super Furry,

FCA have never used Aviance at BHX. Years ago, and from their start of operations in 1991, they used MAS (Midland Airport Services). This later became Aviance of course. Before that happened however Groundstar was formed and FCA were their initial customer. For their first summer indeed FCA were their only customer - total bliss......

30W

[lomgop1943]

30w you are correct, however much like groundstar/swissport, mas/aviance are both the same animals with the same people owned by different multi national companies.

Swissport are finding the new challenge of flybe challenging enough.
The flybe challenge would be a lot easier if both companies worked in unison together (this is not always the case). Although the services they have been providing has not been great (some may see this as an gross understatement) there are a lot of people trying very hard to make it work from both companies.

The loss of the dispatch function has not helped the situation either, although with minimal training some of the ramp guys have done really well, they never chose their new roles and it was forced upon them. Some would make good dispatchers but some would also prefer to do the job they originally applied for.

[Dred18]

I appreciate Swissport are trying to do their best, however we (pilots) all said they would struggle to cope with such an increase in business, they are not used to being so busy.

Swissport when tendering for the contract insisted the service would be very much the same, but with far less cost (take dispatchers out of the equation), yes certain people on our side were gullable in believing this, but the service should be better than this.

They can keep hiding behind the fact they don't have dispatcher's, but what's the excuse for not sending prompt Ed's and Mvt's by sita, which a 'experienced ops department should be able to manage', constant check in errors, and in general lack of communication.

[OltonPete]

CAA provisional stats out: -

BHX a woeful 827664 down 2.4% (some transit pax to add I think) :{
Luton.......... 826152

I was expecting 2% up and then down for June, July, August & September.

I am just analysing the individual routes and it seems that Flybe French Routes have been hammered by I assume FR at NEMA.

The BACON loads were they are the sole operator seem little different
from May 2005 (Lyon, Hanover, Hamburg down).

5000 lost on the Newark due to the reduced frequency and even
Emirates only averaged 159 a flight (approx).

Tough times!

OltonPete

[Flap15Geardown]

Dred
I am sure if you looked a little closer at what was going on you would be aware that it isn't the Ops department that has the problem it is their IT. They have no way of knowing if messages are being sent until they start getting phone calls or clues start to pop up as everything appears normal. Everyone blames everyone else for the faults and little progress is made. If you have any doubts about the amount of work that they put in I would suggest you make an effort to go and see for yourself what actually happens. I am certain they would make you feel most welcome and you would have a much better understanding of the pressure they are under, last I heard it was 5 different check in systems, a seperate load control system, find for mvt's and messages, faxes over the email system as well as monitoring the airport fids system for flights that either don't call or have come from a station that doesn't send mvt's. On top of that there are four phones going most of the day and non stop radio traffic to monitor on the air/ground and base system. All this is run by two people, and an assistant if there is actually one rostered or not out despatching a/c or bridging flybe's. I am told that the noise in there can easily hit 85db+, I don't think you would survive too long on the flight deck if you had to work under those conditions day in and day out.
Two rants in two days, I must be turning into Victor Meldrew :eek: time to lie down in a dark room to recover

[Centre cities]

A worrying but not suprising set of figures.

This is the first month that Mytravellite figures are mssing from the stats.

No matter what your opinion of Lite they had a very strong Midlands brand and advertised aggresivly and they will be missed.

BHX seems to be in a catch 22. It is in my opinion the weekest of the major/full service carriers stations behind London and Manchester and is often the first to go in hard times.

It has a mix of so called lo cost carriers but with the absence of Lite nothing with a strong local or national image.

If I speak to non aviation related people about their holiday or booking a flight it is mostly Easy or Ryanair that they mention first, both with bases 40 odd miles up the road. These are the carriers experiancing groth.

It seems that BHX are anxious to hang on to the full service carriers they have. The attraction of more lo cost carriers may jepodise this.

The wish list is more longhaul which would be fine if the exisitng departures were not weight limited ( cargo ) by the length of the runway.

BA Connect are a major operator and their future must be considered uncertain following reviews and comments by the MD.

The IT market via tour operators where BHX was strong is declining, relaced by lo cost.

It would be interesting to know if NEMA and Ryanair struck a deal for the flights and how this will impact of the profits on NEMA compared to the financail results of BHX.

It is true that passenger numbers are not everything but they do generate other revenue in retail outlets, car parks etc.

Most airports have the occsaional blip to their passenger numbers and bussines and it is how they respond that counts. NEMA have responded by attracting Ryanair after their dissapointing results last year and they have introduced new flights that on the whole do not attack the existing carriers.

BHX had a large passenger reduction in 2004, recovered in 2005 by attracting Baby and Monrach BUT mostly on routes that were already catered for, RESULT the routes had over capacity and an airline withdrew. A short term gain only not sustainable.

When airports around are developing their route structures and passenger numbers a reduction in 2004 was unfortunate, a reduction in 2006 means 2 out of 3 years and that is rather more than unfortunate.

Some full service airlines will survive at BHX on connecting traffic, others wont. CSA sucumbed to Baby. Lo cost routes at Coventry or NEMA could account for others by making the passenger numbers not viable.

Time will tell who is correct but with runway restrictions BHX is working at a disadvantage on long haul.

Enough talk has been made of a second runway etc, the priority should be to get some length on the existing one otherwise the airport will loose out ( as it has done with First Choice already ) on the long haul charter market as better economics are offered else wher

Time will tell who is correct.


Centre cities

[AMM626]

Think CC has hit the nail on the head there, add to that the extortionate landing fees (4th in the WORLD after Toronto, Osaka and Tokyo based on landing a 747) and attracting airlines, especially long haul where the A/C will be larger and therefore more expensive to land, will be very difficult to do.

[OltonPete]

Apologies for posting the wrong title first time round, should be 2006.

Just had a look at the individual routes and all Flybe's French routes
have virtually shrunk by half (except TLS) and the Baby BOD only averaged 72.

BA Con Lyon was down but Paris was flat and Nice well up (Baby did
not start until 10/6/05).

The only difficulty analysing all the BA Connect loads is that there are quite a few shared routes but going by Geneva, Berlin, Lyon, Hamburg and Hanover one tends to think the worse.

If BA Connect do cease then BHX needs to do something drastic but
will they?

It has been said often on pprune that Easy have no interest in BHX but
it is a business and if the right offer is made surely they would listen.

OltonPete

[crewmeal]

After having worked for many years at the Eurohub in its heyday, I had cause to use it again recently to fly to AMS. What has happened to the old place? At what used to be a peak time checkin (0600)it was deserted apart from KL&AF!! The BA desks were empty and only 1 open for use. There were hardly any passenegers there. The place looked shabby and in need of a refurbish - indeed the old Caledonian signs were hanging down on 1 vacated check in desk.
The departure lounge was vertually deserted with coffee shops charging a fortune. Shopping facilities very limited. The apron was a disgrace with ground equipment/vehicles parked erratically, and it looked like a building site.
Why doesnt the airport authority spend some money on the interior with a lick of paint, provide more opportunity for other carriers to use it with bigger aircraft. I think the largest aircraft in use there is a barby jet?
Oh sorry - they moved the esclator and steps round to the front and changed the door in the arrivals area!!! Wonder how much that cost and for what purpose???
On the other hand Terminal 1 looks like a really professional Terminal with good facilites.

[Fried_Chicken]

An interesting day today for the airport (to say the least). There's already a thread running in Rumours & News about the TNT B733 landing incident but is there any truth in the rumour that the Airport company gave NATS (ATC) permission to use R06/24 for the smaller arrivals/departures (which can be used in good viz) but, then found out that no ATCO's were validated for approaches to 06/24!!

Presumably if the shorter runway was used, Brum wouldn't have lost the DAT & EZE flights to Coventry as these would have been able to use 06/24

FC

[Malcolm G O Payne]

Airport management can be more than a little short-sighted at times. I can remember seeing BA One-Eelevens using 24 at BHX when the crosswind was too great for 15/33 and yet they imagine that such a situation cannot happen again. Norwich closed their north-east/southwest runway and after building a new terminal on the end found they couldn't really do without the runway.

[upperecam]

BHX was, is and always will be run first and foremost for the management and staff. Passengers and airlines just get in the way of a jobsworth culture beyond belief.

[FougaMagister]

After having worked for many years at the Eurohub in its heyday, I had cause to use it again recently to fly to AMS. What has happened to the old place? The BA desks were empty and only 1 open for use.
The apron was a disgrace with ground equipment/vehicles parked erratically, and it looked like a building site.
I think the largest aircraft in use there is a barby jet?
On the other hand Terminal 1 looks like a really professional Terminal with good facilites.

Eurohub got a lot less busy after Duo went bust - and it's not the few Eastern Airways flights that will make up for the lost rotations. Also, due to lack of space and convoluted passenger arrival/departure procedures, short turnarounds times are simply NOT possible at T2. Also, it's still managed by BA who, of course, are both judge and jury when it comes to allocating stands/lounges etc. The apron looks like a building site, because IT IS! There is work being done at ground level. The largest aircraft to use it are actually KLM 737-800s/900s.

Cheers :cool:

[Flap15Geardown]

Not forgetting the occasional BA 744 on divert or charter flights:ok:

[FougaMagister]

Flap15Geardown

These wouldn't go to T2 where no stand could accommodate them. The odd Air Atlanta Europe, Saudia or Corsair 747s use stands 41, 42R or 85C instead.

Cheers :cool:

[Flap15Geardown]

That's mighty strange as stand 8C is perfectly capable of accepting 744's. If I remeber correctly there was one on there in 2004 doing a flight for a childrens charity to Florida. not much room to spare but it most certainly fits.

[Fried_Chicken]

Yup, Stand 8C at Brum can & has been used by a B744 in the past.

I notice tonights VSG flight is heavily delayed, presumably the perils of only having a single aircraft in your fleet as its hard to get the schedule back on track once delays do occur.

FC

[tickerdboo]

Look like the people who own Fly-Be are selling a 51% stake of the airline, give it a few months and were all be Orange, remember what happened to Go-Fly mark my words......:)

[WOWBOY]

Flybe's timetable section lists:


Birmingham - Galway

BE855 14:05 - 15:25 - Tu,Th,Su

Galway - Birmingham

BE856 15:50 - 17:15 - Tu.Th.Su

[OltonPete]

WOWBOY

Add

BHX - ABZ

BE841/2 DEP ??? 10.10 Mo-Sa
BE845/6 DEP 1755 2110 Su-FRi :D

BHX - HAJ or Hannover per the timetable

BE1951 1045 1455 Daily :D

ABZ shows 8th March Start and Galway but Hanover is 30/10

OltonPete

[Harry the Hound]

CC, You mentioned a little while ago on BHX's needing extra runway length to stop it loosing out on long haul as it already has done with First Choice, Obviously going back a few years that was the given reason for FCA swapping to EMA, but nowadays it doesnt seem to be an issue for them as they have just recently announced BRS - SFB/VRA/POP, these 3 are all going via MAN for fuel and cargo to go on, in the same way i believe they used to when they operated long haul from BHX, maybe its the BHX pax being fussy and not wanting to go via anywhere(understandable given the size of the airport) but the pax from the BRS area are booking it up like theres no tomorrow, already the SFB looks like it may be coming back to Feb 07 instead of May 07 and rumour of twice a week, and POP service possibly coming back to Feb and operating weekly instead of fortnightly, I guess where FCA is concerned BHX loss has been EMA and BRS's gain, :rolleyes:

[tickerdboo]

Nice to see that the "BIRMINGHAM" sign on the Glass house has been fully working in recent weeks, shame because I heard rumours its to be torn down and replaced with "STANSTED 2" very soon :eek:

[OPS1978]

In response to tickerdboo Birmingham will never be stansted 2 for the following reasons

1. WE are above the watford gap so we wont be reconized by anyone down south

2. We have proper airlines and proper aircraft not just low cost and small aircraft.

enough said we are birmingham and proud of it......

[RealFish]

BHX has always been my first choice airport not just in terms of location, but it beat other lage airports hands down in my view. But frustratingly I have needed not infrequently recently to travel elswhere to get the flights that I needed.

It does seem that Brum is missing out for some reason, I notice for e.g. that EMA will soon see BACON / GerBil services to TFS, seems strange when there is a dedicated BA facility atT2. I had looked forward to GB turning their attn. to BHX to save the drive to LGW. Oh hum !

Is there something wrong with BHX's marketing or strategy ?

[BEagle]

Well, I certainly prefer travelling from Birrmigoom than from the misery of Thiefrow!

Or used to....

Last Friday night's experience has definitely made me reconsider. I arrived back on the scheduled FRA-BHX flight at just after 2210 - but it took 25 minutes to get through the labyrinthine maze of the immigration and passport area. We had arrived just after a herd of holidaymakers from Corfu and there were a mere 3 out of 9 desks manned - one of which was devoted solely to non-EU passport holders. Luggage then took a further 10 minutes to arrive; after that there was another 10 minute wait for the Long Term carpark bus whislt 3 Staff Car Park buses came and went. As a result it took well over an hour to get from the aeroplane to the car park - where once it would take only half that time.

I shall be taking this up with the relevant person tomorrow. But BHX must sort this nonsense out - or its one overriding advantage will soon disappear.

[FougaMagister]

Not surprised to read about your experience. Whenever I have flown as PAP from T1 I have also experienced Passport Control delays that were nothing short of ridiculous, just because no more than 2 of these civil servants can be bothered to turn up. The baggage reclaim area is fairly limited in size and number of belts and that's a problem when several charters arrive simultaneously. As for the bus, be sure that staff quite often have to wait 15 minutes plus in the freezing morning when there is only one dedicated NCP bus. Most of us then choose to walk.

What BHX should do is REALLY clamp down on the number of cars supposedly dropping off PAX (when they are really picking them up) in front of both terminals. One solution, as at EMA, is to allow for 30 minutes free parking for precisely that - but then again, NCP :yuk: would see that as a loss of income and would prefer that all users face traffic congestion.

Cheers :cool:

[AMM626]

I think the extortionate charges are probably one of the main reasons why there is not many long haul charters at BHX, add the fact that the runway is too short and it's probably why FCA moved up the road. It makes no sense to pay top dollar charges when your aircraft has to make a tech stop somewhere else to get the cargo that pays for it, and probably saw a large chunk of the profits eaten up.

GB would be great at BHX in the future but if they had thier sights set on TFS then they would have been going up against ZB from BHX so probably a better move from EMA. Hope we see them in the future as there are stil plenty of destinations that could work for them. :ok:

[Mr Angry from Purley]

Fouga

NEMA has just gone down to 10 minutes free parking from 30 mins:\ , which is great except when folk get held up in immigration and you end up going round 4 times to avoid having to pay!. The result of pax feedback, alledgedly.

[Alloy]

Monarch have just announced Ibiza, another A321 and increases in just about all BHX flights for next summer.:ok: 120 flights per week from BHX for ZB.

[Ian Farquharson]

Quoting entire press releases and links to sales websites are not in accordance with PPRuNe non-advertising policies. Feal free to rewrite your post leaving out the company jingoism and sales links.

[BEagle]

Today I spoke with both BHX customer service and HM Immigration and Customs about my experience on Friday night...

To be fair, both were very polite and both promised action. The slothful T2 to Long Stay 1 car park bus service will be investigated; however, the HM C&I chap described a number of possible improvments such as 'fast track' processing for scheduled airline passengers (I'm uneasy about that - queue jumping on the back of a business class ticket seems immoral to me) and an increase in staffing levels.

But, like many, they're stuck with staff budgetary limitations, it seems.

Thanks anyway to the BHX folk who returned my calls!

[OltonPete]

Confirmed new routes as Aberdeen, Hanover and Galway.
Some confusion over start dates re Aberden and Galway as the timetable and
booking engine say March 2007 but I had an e-mail from them tonight re ABZ
claiming 29/10/06

If correct that will be six based flybe for winter 2006/7.

Faro has been chopped and Murcia showing as only two a week but of course
Monarch are operating both routes for the first time in the winter.

At last some decent news :) although still no new destinations just more of
the same.

OltonPete

[FougaMagister]

So you mean these nice Cabin Crew promoting Flywho in the T1 concourse a while ago weren't actually hosties? :sad: :{

[splash&dash]

Does anybody know what has happened to the proposed new start up airline 'Birmingham European'? :confused:

[Call Established]

Birmingham European website updated recently, still not raised all the finance required.

Regds.................

[WOWBOY]

Does anuone know what routes Birmingham European plan to operate?

Or anyone have any ideas?

[tickerdboo]

Well its all finger pointing in the Ops office of Swissport Birmingham tonight, I'm betting my last pound that it was the office cat, who in true swissport style has still failed to sort the mice running in and out of the rest room. :rolleyes:

P.S
"I Seem to have a sharp pain between my sholder blades, is this your knife number1delta" :*

[gaza1987]

this is a resspone to everyone who is slagging swissport off its not as bad as you think
well all i can say is that i have moved from avaince to swissport and think its alot better in some areas not so much the other areas but they will improve in time
i think a big problem is the staff most of them are now new and inexperince and need to know the job before they get trained on anything but this is not the case with the flybe contract now in full operation they are trying to make inxperince staff experinced but this comes with time and not training dont get me wrong the trainers are doing there best and keep it up.
please dont get me wrong the experinced staff that are there know there job and are brillinant at it and keep it up

as for the bitching in the company whats all this about and the end of the day to turn round aircraft it needs team work which we had at avanice so why bitch at each other just keep your thoughts to yourself and get the job done theres no need for it.
i must say there are alot of improvement to be made to make the company work better in certian areas and departments but this will take time and is it time airlines have to wait for or will they go else ware

[groundhogbhx]

At last some common sense. Nice one Gaza:ok:

[tickerdboo]

In response to tickerdboo Birmingham will never be stansted 2 for the following reasons

1. WE are above the watford gap so we wont be reconized by anyone down south

2. We have proper airlines and proper aircraft not just low cost and small aircraft.

enough said we are birmingham and proud of it......

You also forgot to mention

3. Everybody is unemployed so can't afford to go on hoilday.

4. Nobody flys in or out on business because all your industry has
moved out to China

5. Manchester is a much nicer place to go with a better airport.
(also know as Gatwick 2) :ooh:

[chiglet]

And here was me thinking that MAN was Liverpool East :rolleyes: ah well
watp,iktch

[tickerdboo]

does anybody know whats going on with that TNT Aircrath over on the western Apron, is it going to be fixed or are we going to have a bit of fire training with it, can of petrol and a box of matches and we can have a very expensive barbaque........

[scruggs]

Hi folks,

About 7:40 this morning a Corsair 744 flew over on approach to 15. I've just checked bhx.co.uk and it appears flight TOM 6294 from Palma was due last night, but arrived this morning at 08:19. Did the 744 replace the usual TOM aircraft?

It seems strange it took almost 40 minutes to land after I saw it though. I've flown over my house on the same approach in a 752, and we were down within 10 minutes - if that. I live in about 5 minutes away from IKEA Wednesbury. Those who know the approach will have seen the huge IKEA letters on the roof!

Anyway, thanks to all those who reply.

eP

[splash&dash]

Yep! TOM6294 from PMI. ATA 0741Z.

Filed to depart at 0900Z to ORY as TOM6967. :ok:

[scruggs]

splash&dash

:ok: Cheers mate!

[bazzab68]

Rego on the corsair was fhsex for anybody interseted, the reason for delay was probable due to it waiting on taxiway echo for a tug so it could be towed onto stand 40, the tug required was pushing a 767 on stand 55 at the time.

Does anybody know as to why at bhx with some widebodies we cannot have them taxi on to stands, have heard it down to jet blast but surely this cannot be as the 747 saudis both taxied onto stand and also the emirates does every day but then they tow others such as the air india and this case of the corsair. Most confusing i beleive!!!

[scruggs]

It is strange. On a few occasions when I've flown into KJFK on VIR, The engines were shut down before being pulled onto stand.

On the ITVV A330-200 video, they did the same there, only this was because the aircraft engine got very close to the air bridge.

[-BHXboy-]

At BHX there are a few (too many!) diffrent rules for widebody aircraft taxiing onto stand, depending which stand they are going onto, the aircraft type and time of arrival.

Stands 40-42, 747 and 340 aircraft are generally towed onto stand however it is all based on yet blast affecting the stands behind. (activity of the T2 aircraft and ground vehicles at the time, i would assume). All other aircraft taxi as normal.

Stand 56, 767-300 are stopped short and pulled on by a tug due to the airbridge being a tad close to the engine when using Door 2

Stand 58 for the Air India, depending on the arrival time this aircraft may have its engines shut down at the end of taxiway V and be towed in due to the closure of taxiways U and T between 11pm and 6am.

Hope this helps with your querey.

[Dred18]

this is a resspone to everyone who is slagging swissport off its not as bad as you think
well all i can say is that i have moved from avaince to swissport and think its alot better in some areas not so much the other areas but they will improve in time
i think a big problem is the staff most of them are now new and inexperince and need to know the job before they get trained on anything but this is not the case with the flybe contract now in full operation they are trying to make inxperince staff experinced but this comes with time and not training dont get me wrong the trainers are doing there best and keep it up.
please dont get me wrong the experinced staff that are there know there job and are brillinant at it and keep it up

as for the bitching in the company whats all this about and the end of the day to turn round aircraft it needs team work which we had at avanice so why bitch at each other just keep your thoughts to yourself and get the job done theres no need for it.
i must say there are alot of improvement to be made to make the company work better in certian areas and departments but this will take time and is it time airlines have to wait for or will they go else ware

You've just confirmed what we've already said on the subject, lack of experience and common sense from staff seems to be Swissport downfall.
How many years do you need until everyone is 'fully trained' as you put it or has the relevant 'experience'.

Everyone knows you can't just recruit people off the street and expect them to become familiar with procedures and regulations straight away.

Anyway, anyone know what's happened with Monarch?
They've asked agents other agents to tender, but rumour is they've re-signed with Swissport? Also anymore news on FCA who want to move as well?

[tickerdboo]

:) cant see the problem with widebodys, we have loads of them at Swissport :)

[groundhogbhx]

Dred

Monarch are quite happy where they are, going round other agents is all part of normal business practise, would you renew your insurance without checking you were getting a good deal first? Anyway why would Monarch go anywhere else as they get handled by Swissport at all our Uk bases.

If you want to start talking rumours, how are bmibaby going?? Was told a couple of weeks ago that you'd be given 60 days:ooh:

Tickerdboo - don't you have any work to do??

[OPS1978]

In answer to dred why would monarch change handeling agents in the middle of summer season.

I Have worked along side monarch now for 5 years and know alot of pilots and cabin crew who fly with the airline they say what a great job we do so why would they consider leaving us we do a great job, there average early departure every day is nearlly always 10 min before std dont think they will get that any were else from the other agents at bhx.

Fca have said the service has improved so why would they leave us aswell.

The only way monarch would leave swissport i feel would be if they went self handeling which i hear might be an option at bhx.

nice to see tickerdeboo your busy working hard?

[johnrizzo2000]

Does anybody know how long it would take to get off a flight in T1 and get up to check-in in the same terminal?