Route Development & Rumours

[Ianbutty]

They will hammer because of the city and market BHX serves. And I agree about flybe. Great airline who should be given the freedom of the city and a star on Broad Street.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Probably pie in the sky, but something has been ticking over in my head.
Monarch were talking of going into long haul. As such, I would imagine that quite a detailed study would have been undertaken looking at costs and revenue.
Monarch's management team are now probably looking for alternative employment. With all the figures they have in place, I wonder what the chance is of them creating a start up airline to run long haul operations from BHX?

Kevin

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there Kevin Farnell, I totally agree with what you're saying, why not, if in a previous post was mentioned New York, Boston, Toronto, Cape Verde, Barbados and the Maldives. But why stop there, why not go further, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas- Fort Worth, San Francisco, Hawai, Hong Kong..... AndyC

 

[Coathanger16]

Probably pie in the sky, but something has been ticking over in my head.
Monarch were talking of going into long haul. As such, I would imagine that quite a detailed study would have been undertaken looking at costs and revenue.
Monarch's management team are now probably looking for alternative employment. With all the figures they have in place, I wonder what the chance is of them creating a start up airline to run long haul operations from BHX?

Kevin

It does seem a shame they could't switch over to the long haul model in time. Perhaps if they'd started those plans this time last year they might have managed it. I guess the issue with it happening now is funding. Was it Greybull that decided to pull the plug on Monarch (or was it Monarch management or the CAA?) - if it was Greybull, they'd be unlikely to support funding a start up airline.

On a slightly more positive note, I see Virgin has opened a fast track pilot scheme for ex-Monarch pilots.

 

[Brum X]

Probably pie in the sky, but something has been ticking over in my head.
Monarch were talking of going into long haul. As such, I would imagine that quite a detailed study would have been undertaken looking at costs and revenue.
Monarch's management team are now probably looking for alternative employment. With all the figures they have in place, I wonder what the chance is of them creating a start up airline to run long haul operations from BHX?

Kevin

And this new airline should be called FlyBHX.com.

Just like the Air Berlin name carried that cities name all over the world, this would do a similar thing for BHX.

 

[finchy168]

Air Birmingham

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there Finchy168, I think thats an excellent name and choice to take up the baton and mantle where Monarch have sadly left it, it's very sad what's happened to them. So let's hope that someone comes along and starts up Air Birmingham ASAP, then starts with those long haul flights that were mentioned earlier.... AndyC

 

[User001]

As noted on the MAN forum with its own route gone too, Another scheduled route that goes unserved is Kittila. Monarch had converted it to scheduled this coming winter.

Although like MAN, BHX will still have charters on this routes

 

[58terminus]

And this new airline should be called FlyBHX.com.

Having second thoughts about that name.Looks good to an enthusiast but to be honest 75% of Brummies would fail to see the connection with their home city never mind the rest of the world.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there 58 terminus, the new airline name should be Air Birmingham.... AndyC

 

[58terminus]

Probably pie in the sky, but something has been ticking over in my head.
Monarch were talking of going into long haul. As such, I would imagine that quite a detailed study would have been undertaken looking at costs and revenue.
Monarch's management team are now probably looking for alternative employment. With all the figures they have in place, I wonder what the chance is of them creating a start up airline to run long haul operations from BHX?

Possibly not pie in the sky if they move to other airlines.I have a vague memory that one of the guys responsible for
Monarch starting BHX operations had moved from BMI BABY. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[58terminus]

Hi there 58 terminus, the new airline name should be Air Birmingham.... AndyC

Would be nice but to be honest there have been many AIR (name your city) and variations over the years
but they never seem to last long.To restrictive in the modern world.I think even Norwegian's name may have hindered their ambitions for the UK market.
A nice neutral name and plenty of advertising is whats needed for an ambitious airline..Come on Primera.

 

[Coathanger16]

Come on Primera.

Speaking of which - any idea when the 3rd route will be announced? (& 4th if that is still on the table)

 

[Ray Finkle]

Jet2 have been helping out with extra flights added at short notice and if they are able I'm sure that more will be added next year. Naples and Split will be covered at the same frequencies that we saw this year, we just have to hope that they are in a position to take on Nice and Venice.

I'm sure that Thomas Cook and TUI are reviewing the situation and it wouldn't surprise me if we saw a little more added for next year.

Flybe could potentially pick up Rome, the likes of Lisbon, Stockholm and Porto also saw good loads. My concern is that they have their own issues at the moment and may not be in a position to do much.

Vueling and Norwegian could do a job by adding more sun flights and maybe the likes of Rome. I'm not convinced that either would ever get anywhere close to the levels that Monarch were at.

For me there is only one answer now and that is Easyjet! They are the one airline that could give us a network similar in size and diversity to what Monarch had, within four to five years an Easyjet base could potentially be up there approaching double digit aircraft (look at their network from BRS as an example). Will it ever happen though? For many of us enthusiasts (even non BHX followers) it's one of the biggest no brainers out there but something is preventing them looking at our region. Mr Kehoe said that their spectacular failure at EMA put them off the Midlands, maybe back then but BHX is totally different to EMA. Others have had replies from Easyjet stating that Birmingham 'doesn't meet their requirements as a base', has anything changed? I've heard other rumours that there is a reluctance from BHX to give incentives on key routes, to protect the full service carriers, which is the stumbling block. As said that's only a rumour but if true it could well be achievable?

In the past I've been a little wary about any arrival of Easyjet, mainly to protect Monarch who were doing great things. I think that the time has now come and although we will see a few years of stunted passenger growth, Easyjet could be the airline to get it back on track.

We just need BHX to make it happen!

 

[BHXsupporter]

I agree Ray that this surely is Easyjet's opportunity - a now or never for BHX - and as you say if they don't go for this then there clearly is an irrevocable clash of cultures between the airport management and them. Oh for a CEO! (and that was strange!)

 

[Jon Dempsey]

A friend was due to fly out to Malaga on Monarch yesterday, but managed to rebook on easyJet via Bristol so I gave him a lift.

After the nightmare traffic, TLY will understand, we got there. I was totally unaware of the large range of destinations available through easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz!

 

[BHXsupporter]

Sounds like Midlands travel agents and BHX! ...and people wonder what the effects of marketing can be and question its existence!

 

[Brum X]

Having second thoughts about that name.Looks good to an enthusiast but to be honest 75% of Brummies would fail to see the connection with their home city never mind the rest of the world.

How about FlyBrum.com

 

[Coathanger16]

I've heard other rumours that there is a reluctance from BHX to give incentives on key routes, to protect the full service carriers, which is the stumbling block. As said that's only a rumour but if true it could well be achievable?

Well maybe now that BHX (soon I hope) will have a new CEO, if that is the case, perhaps it might be addressed.

There is certainly a large Midlands shape gap in easyJet's UK bases:

 

[Brum X]

Re: Easyjet base at BHX as much as I would love it. Lets not count out Ryanair just yet either, they have a habbit of surprises but the only problem with them, nobody trusts them. They are sneaky at all levels, they could have 10 aircraft at BHX one year and then reduce the fleet back down to 4 the next. Im expecting them to announce something in the next few weeks /months though especially on the key sun routes for S18.