Perhaps messing round the schedule and putting ATQ direct on certain days wasn’t the best move? With Turkmenistan and Air India gone it should give Qatar a boost. BHX really is struggling these days.
 
The suspension is due to the extended routings caused by the air space closure.

Today's inbound from Delhi is looking at around 11 hours and Amritsar direct is even further which must be causing a real headache.
 
I am sure, from listening to BBC World Service radio overnight, that Air India are hemorrhaging cash at an unsustainable rate and need to reduce operations because the airline are / is struggling. I admit this to be hearsay by an Indian business correspondent. Could this explain why numerous aircraft are idle as described in the Air India thread?
 
I am sure, from listening to BBC World Service radio overnight, that Air India are hemorrhaging cash at an unsustainable rate and need to reduce operations because the airline are / is struggling. I admit this to be hearsay by an Indian business correspondent. Could this explain why numerous aircraft are idle as described in the Air India thread?
I think you may be mixing them up with Jet Airways? I know they have 37 aircraft grounded.
 
Maybe it's too early for doom and gloom.....but.....Air India have their fleet seriously stretched at the moment due to several aircraft not flying, they have also expressed a desire to get more lucrative USA routes/frequencies up and running soon. Is this a ready made excuse to 'suspend' a couple of Euro routes indefinitely and focus their resources elsewhere?

Anyone remember the last BHX 'suspension'? It ended up lasting five years! Oddly it also roughly coincided with an incoming CEO.

Flights on the AI website are only blocked out to the end of the month (at the moment) so we'll see.
 
Too early Ray. If the BHX route are profitable then they will not scrap them. Plus they can lease and charter. But of a mess they are in. Never grow routes without having the aircraft in space.
 
Hopefully the Indian community in the Midlands will step in. They seemed to do a lot of canvassing to get Air India back and prove the market is there.They certainly seem to be know the game better than the BHX route development team.Hope they enjoyed their Far East junket.
 
Hopefully the Indian community in the Midlands will step in. They seemed to do a lot of canvassing to get Air India back and prove the market is there.They certainly seem to be know the game better than the BHX route development team.Hope they enjoyed their Far East junket.

There is no canvasing to do, the route has been suspended along with DEL-MAD simply due to extra 3 hour flying time - I hope !
Hopefully EK, QR, TK will be the winners here

Other Indian airlines are in the pipeline, so lets wait and see.
 
A spokeswoman said: "It is naturally disappointing that Air India is temporarily suspending its services from Birmingham Airport to Delhi and Amritsar from 16 March 2019.

"The airport is very understanding of the current situation which means that Pakistan airspace cannot be overflown and the operational impact that this is having on Air India.

"Passengers that are already booked on Air India flights from Birmingham will be contacted by the airline to re-book or to gain a refund.

"We are working closely with Air India to restore these flights to Birmingham Airport's schedule as soon as possible."



https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-47568649
 
Air India suspending BHX has it’s own dedicated thread on another forum, no prizes for guessing who the topic author is! He’s having a blast posting all this bad news. Anyway, there is a suggestion on that page that flights might resume March 31st?
 
It hasn’t got its own dedicated thread at all, it’s joint shared with Madrid as per the Air India release. maybe focus on the news and not the poster, seriously, time to move on.
 
Posters on another forum are saying the yields on all the suspended routes have been poor.

Apparently ATQ-BHX has economy filled regularly but is still loss making, so business class uptake must be virtually nil.

Qatar are the only one of the MEB3 with traffic rights to ATQ so could be a real shot in the arm for their pax numbers this month.
 
Posters on another forum are saying the yields on all the suspended routes have been poor.

Apparently ATQ-BHX has economy filled regularly but is still loss making, so business class uptake must be virtually nil.

Qatar are the only one of the MEB3 with traffic rights to ATQ so could be a real shot in the arm for their pax numbers this month.

I am always very wary of people on forums who make claims about an airline's yields. It is highly sensitive information and those who are privy to it generally do not blab to their mates or post it on internet forums such as this, their careers would be very much on the line if they did.

That said it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that there is very little business traffic to Amritsar. The vast majority of journeys are folks heading back to see family and are looking for the cheapest fare possible, it's why Turkmenistan are/were so popular.

The switch from Delhi looks to have been done purely for political rather than commercial reasons and I've heard many people question just why it was allowed to happen.

Anyway, there is a suggestion on that page that flights might resume March 31st?

The AI website shows all flights as 'sold out' until the end of the month then as of April they are still bookable.

One to watch as the date may slip further.
 
Why Birmingham? About time we started offering better incentives so the Brum flights stay and we are the last choice to cut. I get the horrible feeling that we are constantly being undermined. Not blaming anyone other than the BHX board. Cut throat world and we need to play the game.

More to this than just airspace crew and aeroplanes.
 
Due to the airspace closure Air India are having real issues with flights, in particular those heading west and Birmingham and Madrid are two of the furthest destinations in Europe away from Delhi. The detour they have to make is pretty substantial with flights from Delhi now being in the region of 11 hours (even more from ATQ), the knock on effect must be huge. Heathrow may have four flights per day but it is also heavily constrained and if AI don't use their slots they are liable to lose them so they will be protected at all costs, a situation that BHX has born the brunt of in the past.

It's far from an ideal situation but from a business point of view it kind of makes sense, apart from annoying a chunk of your customers. The plan at the moment is to restart in April, lets just hope that date doesn't slip any further.

AI have also axed BOM-JFK until the end of may. It will be combined onto one flight doing BOM-EWR.
 

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