Flights Between BHX and London LHR or LGW

[EZYA319]

I'm hoping someone may be able to assist....

I'm just trying to find out when was the last time an airline operated flights between Birmingham (BHX) and London LHR or LGW?

I believe it was the late 1980's, although I'm sure I've seen somewhere that it may have been later?

Thanks in advance.

[Flightrider]

A quick delve through the archive in the garage which covers mid 1970s to mid 1990s:

Gatwick services started in 1979 with a BCal Piper Navajo Chieftain 3 x daily, originating in LGW
By Summer 1980 this was a Brymon Twin Otter running 3 x daily and doing a PLH-BHX early morning and BHX-PLH late evening
Summer 1981 this was a Brymon Twin Otter running 4 x daily and based at BHX by then
This looks to run right through to 1990 when a Brymon Shorts 330 (must have been leased?) is showing 3 x daily BHX-LGW services
Service disappeared at the end of Winter 1990/91

Heathrow services were running on a mix of aircraft with British Midland normally at 5 x daily frequency - Viscount in 1980, F27 by 1982, Shorts 360 by 1985 and then ATP from 1989 until 1992. A Dash Seven then flew the route in 1992 and 1993 (aircraft in the fleet after the EuroCity Express experiment at LCY) and British Midland services then stopped at the end of Summer 1993.

Community Express had a short-lived attempt to fly EMA-BHX-LGW with a Shorts 360 in 1996.

Apart from positioning flights, those are the last regular commercial services on BHX-LON I can see. Happy to stand correct - and I'm sure there's much history before that time - if anyone has further info.

[AMC737]

Im almost certain that no one operated BHX to London after the already mentioned Community Express Airlines when bust in September 1996. Worth mentioning that the M40 extension opened in January 1991 which would have ended what little point to point traffic there was so I guess British Midland carried on for those few years based on connections and I suspect BMA wanted to use the Heathrow slots for european routes.

amc737

[oncemorealoft]

Flew on a BMA ATP in 1989 BHX-LHR on what was the first leg of a marathon BHX-LHR-MIA-MEX-ACA trip. Had a technical issue right after take off and diverted to EMA. So an hour into my journey I was further from my destination than when I'd started. Impressed that they served a quite good hot English Breakfast though on BHX-LHR although this was curtailed.

Journey involved an ATP, Pan Am 747 (I think a combi), Pan Am 727 and Mexicana 727.

[EZYA319]

Thanks, as always for the responses folks! Much appreciated.

[Matt995]

The final Community Express flights back in 1996 BHX-LGW were operated by J31 aircraft, Air Europe Express also served BHX-LGW with Shorts 360s for a while in 1990/1 before they collapsed.

[slf001]

In late 1995 when the Community Express flights started, a Cessna Citation II was used initially.
I can't recall the the reason; maybe the Short 360s weren't ready in time or delays in getting the licensing fully sorted.

G-OCDB and G-JETJ were used for a few weeks, the latter operated by Midland Air Taxis.

[WHBM]

I think the Brymon Twin Otter on Birmingham-Gatwick was involved in an Air Miss west of Heathrow once, there may be an AAIB report on it.

The BMA Dash 7 was indeed an ex-London City Airways aircraft, initially in their livery but then repainted. It didn't last long. They had actually changed the branding at London City from LCY to BMA as well in the final months. They were among the last Dash-7s built.

The difficulty with such short flights into hubs is they take principally transfer passengers, where the IATA/Alliance division of fare revenue gives little return to the local connecting airline from those on through tickets. It was at the macro scale a principal reason for BMA's continual losses and eventual ending, particularly after they joined Star Alliance, and likewise why Aer Lingus actually left OneWorld. The B Cal operation to Gatwick was presumably better, just being a wet lease of Brymon's aircraft.

[AMC737]

Digging out old timetables it appears Community Express operated Monday to Friday with outbounds from Birmingham at 08:40 and 17:15 getting to Gatwick at 09:40 and 18:15, the return left Gatwick at 10:15 and 18:45 arriving at Birmingham at 11:15 and 19:15. Apart from point to point traffic, the morning flight would have fed into the transatlantic wave out of Gatwick, I presume the evening flight would have mainly allowed european connections as I don't think there was a huge amount of longhual departures from Gatwick in the evening as British Airways had not moved the South American and African services from Heathrow at this point - these did leave in the evening.

amc737

[Flightrider]

I have to say that the Community Express venture was a mystery at the time and I’m not sure that any such level of strategic thinking underpinned it. The only surprise was that flights started to begin with, not that they stopped after such a short time.

[Helen49]

I think I recall BEA Viscounts operating the LHR flights from Birmingham in the mid-sixties?

[Mr Mac]

I did one trip in an ATP Birmingham to LHR with British Midland and would second comments re breakfast. However I think the LBA shuttle with BM Diamond Service tried harder in the evening, as they would do pre dinner drink (cart out passing Windsor like Finnair) and dinner up from LHR in the evening, a number of times we had to do long approach to allow CC to clear up, happy days !!!

Cheers
Mr Mac

[TCU]

Mr Mac

Hopeless diversion from main topic, but would agree. I used to fly LHR-LBA a fair bit in the mid-late 90's/early 2000's and ended up flying on all sorts of flying kit (typical BMI). On many occasions the taxi at LHR took longer than the flight and on stormy evenings at Leeds one would sometimes end up in MAN

One of the best flights I've ever had was one evening when an A321 pitched up at LBA to operate the service back to LHR....the very, very few of us who boarded and could sit where ever we wanted, were exposed to relentless service all the way back to LHR. Happy days. Miss British Midland an awful lot.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by TCU

One of the best flights I've ever had was one evening when an A321 pitched up at LBA to operate the service back to LHR....the very, very few of us who boarded and could sit where ever we wanted, were exposed to relentless service all the way back to LHR. Happy days. Miss British Midland an awful lot.

I had the opposite experience when BMI did a daily Heathrow to Inverness A319. Arrived at Inverness one evening to be told the flight was "full" and I had to sit squashed with all the others. I questioned the load, about 50, so presumed one of BMIs Embraer 145s was substituting. However, an A320 turned up, it was actually one of their mid-haul ones which normally ran to Middle East points, with a huge business class taking up about half the cabin. Nobody was to be seated there, though, and for weight & balance, although we were all in the economy rows behind, nobody allowed in the back rows either, so all squashed together 6-across abeam the wings. Somebody on here suggested it was Inverness dispatch being presented with such an oddball aircraft they didn't know what to do.

[meleagertoo]

Hard to believe some of the daft routes there used to be! Who in their right mind would waste all that time getting to and from airports to save such a short centre-to-centre train journey?

In the days when I flew for (I shudder to confess) PigLine (aka Suckling "Airways") I was ever in awe at the prices people would pay for Cambridge - Manchester or Waterford (where??) £250+ in 1993! And all in blissful ignorance of the appalling cowboy nature of the outfit they were trusting their lives to!

[WHBM]

Well I always enjoyed Suckling/Scots service and customer experience. Merlyn knew her stuff. I know others here have other opinions.

[Asturias56]

" Who in their right mind would waste all that time getting to and from airports to save such a short centre-to-centre train journey?"

IIRC it was for connecting services and access to LGW - Birmingham to Gatwick was a horrible drive pre M40 & M25 and train meant hauling your kit across the underground in London.

What killed it IMHO was the increased checkin time and security - when you could pretty mush walk on it made sense

[VictorGolf]

Time savings were the reason for my using Cambridge-Manchester on Suckling Airways. I live 30 minutes from the airfield, 30 minutes check-in, 30 minutes flight and 30 minutes to my destination at Manchester, so 2 hours overall and the same back in the evening for a total of 4 hours travelling. The best I ever did in a car was 3 hrs 30 minutes one way and the worst was 7 hours one way due to roadworks on the M6. I must confess I don't remember paying £250, I thought it was in the low £100s but it was worth it for the home cooked food and wine served from full-sized bottles. Plus their time-keeping was also very good in my experience.

[AMC737]

Although this is in danger of moving away from the original topic Manx also flew Manchester to Stansted with the J41, this became a British Regional Airlines route and later CitiExpress, I even remember the EMB-145s doing this route at its peak. I think when Eastern bought the J41's they took over the route. Obviouslly train journeys took longer back then so the route was more viable but I understand that Stansted being the centre of european low-cost airlines at that time before they went into regional airports there were people who would self-connect onto european routes.

amc737

[Asturias56]

"Obviously train journeys took longer back "

Actually on many routes train times have got slower and slower over the last 60 years - but Manchester - Stansted isn't a trip I'd want to make by train at ANY time...................

I can remember a Spitting Image sketch on the subject of the vast cost of Mount Pleasant in the Falkland's - "less crowded than Heathrow, easier to get to than Stansted" was one line.