British Airways Cityflyer

[Ray Finkle]

When BHX does actually get the flights: 'fantastic', 'welcome/good news'

Really!?!? What did you expect then, "my local airport has gained four new routes, I'm gutted?"

Honestly!

Any new route is good news for an airport and the comments will obviously reflect this.

'beginning of long term growth'

I've been through the thread and at no point have I seen anybody post that this is the beginning of long term growth? The only mention was from the Chief Operating Officer, who I imagine knows a lot more than anybody on here.

If people are attempting to quote what others are posting, how about actually making it accurate?

'no great loss', 'just making use of LCY closure', 'one flight a week!',

I can't speak for others but my feelings haven't changed. As I said, any new route is welcomed but if BHX hadn't been announced I certainly wouldn't have lost any sleep over it.

I think that the good folk of the Birmingham forum have welcomed the news but with more than a hint of caution, which is more that can be said of a certain other forum which looked to treat it akin to the second coming. If it leads to more in the future then so be it, for me, at the moment it's a decent addition but nowhere near the significance of the likes of Jet2.

DaveBham summed it up perfectly when he said that 'we hope it isn't to the detriment of other airlines who may be planning expansion'.

 

[richard winterbourn]

Ray, your words as a moderator carry far more weight than those of us who are mere posters and the veracity of your comments are to be applauded. This is a Birmingham forum, and as such, i think it always operates on a good and friendly basis, particularly when we are making comments to our own 'kind'.

 

[hammerb32]

The return of BA is good news even if it is to utilise the aircraft that would otherwise be gathering Pigeon droppings in the East End of London. The mention of future growth is interesting, BA were always very open about the fact that BHX was the only regional base that made a profit. Clearly these routes on their own are not going to be money spinners, going forward are they looking to go up against Flybe/LH/SK et al on those lucrative business heavy routes or will they be happy just to increase the utilisation on the leisure routes announced.....

 

[Ray Finkle]

Richard, thanks for your kind words but I assure you that you are not just a 'mere poster'. We are all equal on here, I just happen to be able to delete people's posts if I don't like them

I too think that we are a friendly bunch and I hope that it stays that way, there are plenty of other forums where nastiness prevails. I also hope that other MAN forumers do not think that my comments were aimed at them. There are many on the MAN forum who I find very knowledgeable and they make a great contribution, I'd like them to know that they are always welcome here

I'm going to have a look at some of the flights and see how they compare to other airlines. One things for sure the timings are awful, I don't fancy arriving in Malaga at 02:55

 

[Brum X]

Good news that BA are back at BHX on a seasonal basis. Im sure Mr K will remind us hundreds, maybe thousands of times during the next few months, LOL

It was also nice to hear Luke Hayhoe, British Airways' commercial and customer general manager, said: "We are very excited to be returning to Birmingham with four very popular routes.

 

[Daza]

Great replies Ray! Am I so old that I remember when flights often arrived in resort at daft o'clock?
Daza

 

[Ray Finkle]

Am I so old that I remember when flights often arrived in resort at daft o'clock?

I remember those days well, it didn't bother me one bit when I was in my teens or twenties

I'm too old for all that now and with two young kids in two these flights will sadly not be used by me.

Wasn't Florence on your wish list so to speak Ray?

Definitely, I wanted to use the Flybe service but that only lasted a season.

It's a shame that they're just weekly though, even 2x weekly would have been an option, not that I'm complaining as I understand the reasons why. I'm going to look into a possible two centre trip, maybe combining it with Venice. It depends on the logistics though and how it would work out with the kids.

 

[Coathanger16]

I may be overthinking things here - if so by all means ignore what follows - but been going over BACF recent announcements.

Various people on both the Birmingham and the Manchester forums have suggested that these moves by BACF could be BA "testing the water" for future mainline operations. Whilst I personally hope that is what's going on, my brains telling me its more about trying to maximize fleet utilization.

However thinking about it, could it be BA "testing the water" for a different reason.

It may have been just empty threats by BA, but before London City was given permission to expand BA threatened that they would pull out of LCY if the management there drastically increased the airport charges to fund expansion.

This is where the huge leap comes in - could BACF be launching these routes (besides fleet utilization) to see if there could be a market for BACF in the regions if LCY charges become too high? Whilst I find it highly doubtful BACF would pull out of LCY completely, if the charges become too extreme, might they shift their expansion focus elsewhere?

Certainly with Crossrail coming online next year, it'll be just about as easy to get to Heathrow from "The City"/Canary Wharf as it is to get to LCY.

Most likely this is just hopeless optimism, but maybe at the very least its something to think about.

Whilst these events by no means indicate BA's grand return to the regions, it does suggest that BA isn't adverse to operating from the regions in the future.

 

[58terminus]

“Having British Airways return to Birmingham is not only great news for the airport but also the Midlands region and we are confident this is the beginning of a long-term growth plan with the airline."

I can remember a very similar statement when Easyjet started their ski flights.

 

[58terminus]

I think that these flights are aimed at people who have owned accomodation over there.

I'm not sure but don't BA still have a substantial package tour business? (i'm sure they wouldn't call it that)

 

[Ray Finkle]

When other members have the same views and have also been vociferous about them, they have been met with nowhere near the same response as I have.

Maybe this should set some alarm bells ringing?

We have posters come on here from Cardiff, Bristol, Leeds and even Manchester without an issue. They aren't all here to blow smoke up our backside either, some can be rather critical of BHX and we can agree. One has to wonder what the one common denominator is in all this?

I think (and people may say that I am wrong) that the BHX forum is one of the most well balanced and whilst we do trumpet the successes, we are also not against discussing the shortfalls.

Lose the Manchester shaped chip off your shoulder and stop wording every post as if you are trying to incite a MAN vs BHX war and I'm sure that you will have no problems in the future

Maybe we can get back to discussing BACF at BHX?

 

[IanFarquharson]

Lets see what happen at Routes America next week, there is possibilities things could really heat up on the forum, I think Ray maybe busy as referree.

 

[Brum X]

Lets see what happen at Routes America next week, there is possibilities things could really heat up on the forum, I think Ray maybe busy as referree.

However its funny how things can change Ian, only last week when we were having the last debate about BA, you told us "BACF is not going to happen".

 

[Daza]

Ian F is not often wrong I'm glad he was on this occasion! My advice on the people who try and railroad the BHX threads is don't feed the trolls...
I often write out a scathing reply then delete it....sort of makes me feel better.
Daza

 

[Ray Finkle]

In fairness to Ian there was a valid reason to think that BACF wasn't happening but thankfully it turned out to be some crossed wires.

I now make that 47 new routes for this year, will we hit the 50 mark?

 

[58terminus]

I often write out a scathing reply then delete it....sort of makes me feel better.

Post them.Scathing replies often produce interesting discussions.

 

[IanFarquharson]

I was told no BACF BHX base - and that it still true !

 

[Brum X]

Post them.Scathing replies often produce interesting discussions.

But then Ray Finkle has to tidy up the forum and keep the peace and have sleepness nights. No, lets keep this forum civil please.

 

[thunderchild]

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I've quite often typed out a rant but stopped myself from posting at the last minute!

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there ray and all, so finally there we have it, various British Airways summer flights starting from May 2017, excellent news to start off with, now the locals from the west midlands area can now book up these flights and show British Airways that there is a demand, now watch how this will hopefully work and grow, then hopefully more additional routes added, with bigger aircraft to fly them. What a good piece of new year luck that Birminghams had in attracting back British Airways, let may it continue... Andyc