I've been saying it for years the airport is too expensive for airlines to operate from so naturally we get the chop first !
It was not served for years.Why? It seemed to be doing well first time around with Czech sometimes operating 2 on some days and also Bmibaby.
Then its gone completely!.
Then it comes back and the stats show it is carrying more or very close to most of the airports we are competing with who have benefited from uninterrupted services and it gets cut back again.
What the hell is going on at BHX? Why when route reductions are required are we always the first in line even when a route seems to be increasing passenger numbers month on month?
It cannot be solely down to the airlines.There must be an underlying reason for the chaos and uncertainty that has prevailed for the last 2 or 3 years.
Which airlines are you thinking of, though? Some may have chopped BHX before other airports but in the vast majority of cases it has turned out to be part of a wider route cull in which much larger airports have also suffered.
BHX has often been the smallest UK airport served by an airline so when times get tough it is the done thing for airlines to retreat to London and Manchester, and Scotland (since Scotland has a big tourist market and isn't sandwiched between the first two). But in the case of Norwegian, Blue Air, Vueling, American and United, even London, Manchester and Scotland haven't escaped the route cuts. They were just less noticeable because those airports had a larger operation to begin with.
Flybe's route cull is UK wide and as things stand we have got off lightly with only two routes permanently cut. Icelandair's route cull has become worldwide with even the global giant that is San Francisco being dropped!
Yes a case could be made that Ryanair have singled BHX out for destruction if their s20 schedule remains unchanged, but Girona, the Canaries and Murcia are missing from most other UK airports, plus the Belfast and Glasgow bases have already been cut, so again, we are not the only ones affected.
If the few carriers who are expanding, the likes of Jet2 and Wizz, were growing at other airports but not BHX, then I would consider that to be evidence of deeper underlying issues. But right now they are growing us with the rest. If easyJet keep growing it would indicate more of an airline problem than a problem with the BHX landing charges, or ILS, or whatever.
Now my question re: Czech is, can we really compare Czech to Jet2 and easyJet? BHX is their only UK point and the brand awareness over here must therefore be very limited (when was the last time we saw an advert for them?). Furthermore they are in the middle of a complete fleet transition, we haven't had one of their own aircraft on the flight in months as everything is being operated by their new owner Smartwings (who have been running up big losses as a result of the takeover plus new aircraft orders). Czech Airlines seem to be a whole different animal from Jet2 and easyJet!
The issue seems to be as Ray says: too much loyalty to an airline, plus I would add a willingness to get "anyone and everyone" serving a route as a short term fix (Primera) rather than trying to grow sustainably with airlines that have been proven to make the routes work.
On Matt's point re: infrastructure, Mr Barton will be used to major problems from his time at Luton Airport...
