Birmingham Airport - General Thread

[Ray Finkle]

The top ten airlines for winter by full season seat allocation.

Thomas Cook just about make it into the top 10 but still have less seats allocated than easyjet.

1) Flybe 1,082,376 (+7787)
2) Ryanair 883,008 (+75,699)
3) Jet2 444,807 (+142,834)
4) TUi 390,025 (+53,305)
5) Emirates 337,220 (+21,309)
6) Lufthansa 297,246 (+6873)
7) Aer Lingus 274,740 (+5774)
8) easyjet 207,672(-11,259)
9) KLM 199,078 (+7171)
10) Thomas Cook 189,840 (+39,905)

 

[58terminus]

The top ten airlines for winter by full season seat allocation.

Interesting figures Ray. Especially Ryanair who take a lot of stick for apparently having little interest in BHX but still offer seat numbers that are not far short of Jet2/TC/TUI combined. We should be grateful.. Is this further evidence that it is becoming a 7 month bucket and spade airport?

 

[Ianbutty]

207k from Easyjet on two routes. Can you imagine what they would do with a base?

still the top10 airlines are serving holidays out from the region and business in.

 

[nwoody2001]

Some pretty compelling numbers there Ray....

- a great range of airlines to have in your top 10 from holiday, loco and full service. Certainly not what you’d expect from a “bucket and spade” airport.

- of the top 10, 9 are growing, with Jet2 leading the way but also the likes of Ryanair growing some 8.5%. Again, whilst new routes from them may be limited, stagnation appears to be perception than fact.

- and finally ...Welcome back to growth!!!

Having studied the report, the AI suggestion appears to be an error, esp as the table on the previous page shows AI as 6x weekly,

 

[Coathanger16]

Especially Ryanair who take a lot of stick for apparently having little interest in BHX but still offer seat numbers that are not far short of Jet2/TC/TUI combined.

I imagine that's largely because a number of Ryanair destinations attract passengers year round, whereas Jet2/TCX/TUI carry the bulk of their passengers during the summer whilst the winter is quieter for them. Look at seats available next summer and I'm sure Jet2 & TUI will each offer more seats than Ryanair.

As @nwoody2001 pointed out however Ryanair are offering not an insignificant number of extra seats, which I assume is more from increasing frequencies on existing routes than launching new routes.

The top ten airlines for winter by full season seat allocation.

Thomas Cook just about make it into the top 10 but still have less seats allocated than easyjet.

1) Flybe 1,082,376 (+7787)
2) Ryanair 883,008 (+75,699)
3) Jet2 444,807 (+142,834)
4) TUi 390,025 (+53,305)
5) Emirates 737,220 (+21,309)
6) Lufthansa 297,246 (+6873)
7) Aer Lingus 274,740 (+5774)
8) easyjet 207,672(-11,259)
9) KLM 199,078 (+7171)
10) Thomas Cook 189,840 (+39,905)

Is the Emirates figure of 737,220 correct? If so shouldn't Emirates be in 3rd not 5th?

 

[jfy1999]

I think it's meant to be 337,220.

 

[rollo]

Thought I would take a quick look at todays at todays movements for non bucket and spade stuff ie businness, city breaks and VFR type routes.

Today is something like this.

Lufthansa nine
Aer Lingus eight
KLM seven
Brussels four
Air France three
Eurowings three
Easy Jet three
Swiss two
SAS two
Turkish two
Wizz two
Czech one

Long haul Emirates two A380. Qatar 787, Air India 787,Pakistan 777.
We also have the likes of Vueling, Iberia Express and Turkmenistan who have no flights today.

Additionally the airline we all love this hate (guilty) today have five flight to Dublin plus Madrid, Barcelona and Madrid as well as flights to Eastern Europe and the dreaded bucket and spades.

This close to sixty flights all told and does not include Flybe who will push the figures up considerably towards the one hundred.

Yes we would love more but all in all not too shabby given its basically the winter period.

So far as Benidorm, Malaga,Tenerife etc I think the midlands is underserved given passenger figures achieved elsewhere and Bhx could support considerable expansion not least in the direction of Florida (there I go again ). These routes are important as after all many people work all year for their family hols amongst other things.

The above is not mean that be exaustive but just to give a quick rough picture.

 

[rollo]

Ryanair details on post above should read Madrid Barcelona and PORTO, sorry too long a post for my brain?

 

[Ray Finkle]

I think it's meant to be 337,220.

Apologies for the typo, you are quite correct.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I posted the article below in the Flybe thread but it's probably more suited to the general thread.

According to Lucy Chadwick, who is the Director General at the DfT, discussions about post Brexit air route agreements haven't even started. With just five months left to go three issues, notably aviation, rail links and driving licences, were described as 'red' indicating 'very serious concerns about deliverability'.

https://www.independent.co.uk/trave...ope-eu-uk-no-deal-fly-transport-a8600201.html

Ms Chadwick admitted that talks with individual countries or Brussels about route access had not begun, saying: “Where we are actually in our discussions around air services agreements: we have not been able to start those bilateral discussions or multilateral discussions yet with either member states or indeed with the Commission.”

For Eurostar trains, Ms Chadwick said: “Although we have started rail bilateral discussions with our counterparts in France, Belgium and Holland, it’s at a very early stage.”

“Our confidence at the moment in the programme [of readiness for Brexit] is somewhat decreasing because of the dependence on those bilaterals and given where we are,” said Ms Chadwick.

“That increasingly will become a cause for concern for us.”

 

[Brum X]

I posted the article below in the Flybe thread but it's probably more suited to the general thread.

According to Lucy Chadwick, who is the Director General at the DfT, discussions about post Brexit air route agreements haven't even started. With just five months left to go three issues, notably aviation, rail links and driving licences, were described as 'red' indicating 'very serious concerns about deliverability'.

https://www.independent.co.uk/trave...ope-eu-uk-no-deal-fly-transport-a8600201.html

Ms Chadwick admitted that talks with individual countries or Brussels about route access had not begun, saying: “Where we are actually in our discussions around air services agreements: we have not been able to start those bilateral discussions or multilateral discussions yet with either member states or indeed with the Commission.”

For Eurostar trains, Ms Chadwick said: “Although we have started rail bilateral discussions with our counterparts in France, Belgium and Holland, it’s at a very early stage.”

“Our confidence at the moment in the programme [of readiness for Brexit] is somewhat decreasing because of the dependence on those bilaterals and given where we are,” said Ms Chadwick.

“That increasingly will become a cause for concern for us.”

Exactly the reason why I haven't or wont book anything for S19 as its stands.

But im sure it will all be fine

 

[Ray Finkle]

Exactly the reason why I haven't or wont book anything for S19 as its stands.

But im sure it will all be fine

I've got flights to Amsterdam in April and a holiday in Gran Canaria in May already booked

 

[thunderchild]

Didn’t Michael O’Leary say Brexit could mean Ryanair pulls out of the U.K.? They way they’ve been adding routes left, right and centre for next year I’m beginning to think it’s just BHX leaving the E.U. in March! lol

 

[mullion]

Won`t need many aircraft then will he

 

[Jerry]

Didn’t Michael O’Leary say Brexit could mean Ryanair pulls out of the U.K.? They way they’ve been adding routes left, right and centre for next year I’m beginning to think it’s just BHX leaving the E.U. in March! lol

In a recent interview he basically said everything will carry on as before!

 

[Jon Dempsey]

I've got flights to Amsterdam in April and a holiday in Gran Canaria in May already booked

Canary Islands are outside of the EU, so no problems there Ray. Perhaps they should have had a “backstop”!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Canary Islands are outside of the EU, so no problems there Ray.

I was thinking along the lines of transiting EU airspace to get there?

 

[Ianbutty]

I was thinking along the lines of transiting EU airspace to get there?

Whilst there is currently no agreement on place in the event of no deal, I think we can be pretty confident that a 'lets carry on as now' arrangement will be in place. After all it is on some member states interest to not stop the tourists heading to their resorts. Plus an awful lot of TATL traffic from the EU flies over the UK. Problems will be at the airports and ports.

 

[Brummiegem]

The Canaries are probably the least problematic to get to from the U.K. with regards to routing.Airlines and ATC can use what is known as an oceanic routing,flying off the coast of France and Spain.That routing is fairly common now anyway,especially during peak times.The only problem is the aircraft will need a HF radio as opposed to VHF,because for the oceanic leg they will be in contact with Shanwick control instead of Swanick or French/Spain equivalent ATC.However most aircraft will have that as standard.For those who may not know,Shanwick deal with all TATL traffic outside of normal overland ATC,as well as flights using airspace close to the coastlines of Northern/Western Europe but not inside the FIR boundary.

As I have said in a previous post,plus adding to Ianbuttys post,the flights situation I believe will be sorted relatively quickly.An awful lot of flights will be affected,not just U.K and EU.
As an example,on any given day of the week,if you watch the airspace above Birmingham on a clear day you will see:-

Wow Air,Icelandair,KEF to CDG and BRU etc.
Numerous flights from the US to European,Middle Eastern and North African destinations.
Various European airlines from DUB,KEF and US to their home bases.
Many cargo flights also overfly the U.K.on a daily basis,as well as Biz jets and other private flights.
Plus all those these flights go in both directions.
So as you can see,it is not just the U.K and EU affected.

Aviation as a whole will suffer if an agreement isn’t forthcoming,so I think something will happen relatively quickly.

 

[jfy1999]

Will we have to negotiate individual aviation deals with countries outside the EU?

I don't remember hearing anything on the UK-US Open Skies agreement (critical for Norwegian) for several months. All the news has been focused on the UK-EU negotiations.