easyJet

[tompo]

Hi there all, regarding the easyJet previous posts, about reduction of routes, do remember that easyJets base is only at London Luton Airport, which is 50 or 100 miles down the road. Perhaps not realising now that HQ is at Luton, which handles 18 million plus passengers, where as Birmingham Airport, just up the road, 12 million passengers, but with Luton airports ex-boss who built them up from nothing, to now handling over 18 million passengers a year, so that leaves a difference of 6 million passengers deficit. So two or three years of easyJet growth and expansion at Birmingham airport will hopefully gain this advantage to close the gap on Edinburgh and Luton, this will then enable Birmingham airport to draw level and then forge ahead, thus surpassing Luton airport, then trying to catch up on Stansted airport, then Manchester airport. So maybe this might be a cautious approach to see how the new routes at Birmingham airport manage and increase further.

There are a myriad of reasons for the relatively rapid growth of Luton v BHX . However to name a few:
Investment- over 100 million pounds was initially invested in new facilities during the period around 2015. The sums currently set aside for further expansion (T2 etc) would make BHX supporters cry!
Ownership - There is only one owner: Luton Borough Council, however it has an operating company of which AMP, with its vast cash reserves, owns 49.9%.
Political: The government of the day accepted the ‘Oxford review’ which recommended the levelling up of Airport facilities in the London area and fully supports expansion north of London.
The name: As part of the London airports group it is aptly named London (Luton Airport), and the major tenants: for example WIZZ , attract passengers of which, a large proportion are non English speakers or residents and are not fully geographically aware.
Some time ago, there was a fairly laughable suggestion that BHX was re-named London (BHX) !! This may not be now as fanciful as suggested.

 

[Coathanger16]

Veering away from easyJet @ BHX, but still linked to BHX - although easyJet have a base at Luton and their HQs there, Luton's success in recent years is largely down to Wizz Air's expanding presence at the airport.

Just over 40% of LTN's passengers in September flew to Eastern Europe (mostly with Wizz Air) compared to just 6% of BHX's passengers. Luton also accounted for a third of all passengers to Eastern Europe from across the whole of the UK.

By comparison, in September BHX saw 18% more passengers to Western Europe than LTN did.

Other than Eastern Europe, the only regions that Luton sees more passengers than Birmingham is the Near East (Tel Aviv and Amman) and North Africa (Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco). The Near East is currently, and certainly for the foreseeable future, unserved from Birmingham, whilst the addition of Jet2 to Morocco next year will likely put BHX ahead of LTN in that market.

Essentially the only reason that LTN is busier than BHX is due to its massive Eastern European network.

In a similar vain, if you exclude domestic passengers from both airports, in September Birmingham was 9% busier than Edinburgh. Of the markets that both BHX and EDI serve, the only one that EDI has more passengers to than BHX is the USA. Obviously there are markets that EDI serve that BHX doesn't (Canada, Far East Asia, etc), but equally there are markets that BHX serve that EDI doesn't (Caribbean, Mexico, India, etc).

Not to undermine those airports in any way - total passengers are total passengers and both are busier than BHX - but both airports serve a niche of the market that BHX doesn't and likely never will. Not in any way being BHX's fault, but just how the aviation market is:

- Wizz has a massive network to Eastern Europe from Luton. Unless another Eastern European LCC sets up a base at BHX to do the same, BHX's Eastern European market will always be smaller than LTN's. Even then, there likely isn't the demand in the UK to have another airline do that.

- Edinburgh is very popular with Americans for tourism and due to its "remote" location relative to the majority of the population of the UK, it benefits from plenty of domestic flights. Birmingham doesn't have that draw with Americans and it's easy to get to most of the large population centres in the UK by train or car. Neither of those facts are likely to change.

 

[Ianbutty]

Thanks Coathanger really valid points.

As with all headline stats, you need to scratch away at the surface to reveal the real story. (Just look at the inflation deceptive figures...)

You are right about EDI. It is a thriving airport that has developed into the premier Scottish Airport - sorry Glasgow. That market is huge as demonstrated by the 20+ million for Edi and Gla together. As you say it is heavily domestic, and I doubt whether it is a hub yet which encourages the domestic traffic.

However, success of any kind breeds success and I keep reading on here and elsewhere that an airline is considering EDI first etc. I wonder if the airlines look at the headline stats rather than scratch away at the surface and would see that BHX should also be on the go to list.

Sorry I did not mention easyJet which will keep this post on topic. For me next year is the game changer.

 

[IanFarquharson]

Finally some BHX based flights appearing in the booking engine for flight only - a whopping 4 per week.

Sunday 31st March Palma 17:05 EZY6629 22:50 EZY6630
Sunday 31st March Belfast 08:00 EZY6661 10:40 EZY6662
Monday 1st April Edinburgh 12:05 EZY6641 14:50 EZY6642
Friday 5th April Glasgow 19:00 EZY6651 22:55 EZY6652 - longer turnaround so I presume aircraft swap

Credit PC

 

[Karl C]

Finally some BHX based flights appearing in the booking engine for flight only - a whopping 4 per week.

Sunday 31st March Palma 17:05 EZY6629 22:50 EZY6630
Sunday 31st March Belfast 08:00 EZY6661 10:40 EZY6662
Monday 1st April Edinburgh 12:05 EZY6641 14:50 EZY6642
Friday 5th April Glasgow 19:00 EZY6651 22:55 EZY6652 - longer turnaround so I presume aircraft swap

Credit PC

Is it the flight number that denotes that it's a based aircraft?

 

[mullion]

I used to think it was but as extra flights added just doesn`t seem to work

 

[IanFarquharson]

You can tell by times as flight originates at BHX and returns to BHX plus as the flight numbers are EZY66**

 

[mullion]

It used to be easy at MAN as flight numbers started 18** but those seem to have mainly dissapeared as flights have changed so wether BHX stays the same after a time I doubt it

 

[Nethercote2019]

You can tell by times as flight originates at BHX and returns to BHX plus as the flight numbers are EZY66**

I think last year we had some W routing flights using BFS aircraft

 

[Brum X]

Been reported elsewhere that EZY could announce more new routes from BHX in the coming weeks.

Yipeeeeeee, my dream is coming true. Lots of orange tails at lil old BHX



I've only waited over 20 years for this.

 

[Paulsstrange]

Been reported elsewhere that EZY could announce more new routes from BHX in the coming weeks.

Yipeeeeeee, my dream is coming true. Lots of orange tails at lil old BHX



I've only waited over 20 years for this.

What's your source ? Does this definitely include BHX ?
Nothing mentioned on the usual groups forums.....

 

[IanFarquharson]

Been reported elsewhere that EZY could announce more new routes from BHX in the coming weeks.

Yipeeeeeee, my dream is coming true. Lots of orange tails at lil old BHX



I've only waited over 20 years for this.

I wouldnt bank on new routes from BHX as we have 15 not on sale already !
I keeping getting easyjet black Friday e-mails but no BHX flights still

 

[Birmingham Aviation]

I would probably predict
Inverness -Birmingham 4 weekly
Hamburg -Birmingham 2-3 weekly
Newquay-Birmingham Daily

 

[Brum X]

What about BHX - Reykjavik Ant ?

 

[Birmingham Aviation]

What about BHX - Reykjavik Ant ?

No I can’t see it happening.
Jet2 operate 2 or three weekly flights and Reykjavik is covered by Heathrow Manchester,Luton I believe

 

[Ray Finkle]

Flight only on sale Thursday.

Airline giant to open new Brum base early with flights to 16 destinations

City breaks and sun spots are plentiful in easyJet's list of 16 destinations it will be flying starting early in 2024

www.birminghammail.co.uk

 

[Karl C]

Like the part about 29 routes

 

[Ray Finkle]

Like the part about 29 routes

The 29

As far as I understand Nantes will not be returning next summer (with easyjet anyway).

1. Amsterdam
2. Alicante
3. Antalya
4. Barcelona
5. Belfast
6. Berlin
7. Edinburgh
8. Enfidha
9. Corfu
10. Dalaman
11. Fuerteventura
12. Geneva
13. Glasgow
14. Jersey
15. Lisbon
16. Lyon
17. Malaga
18. Milan
19. Paris
20. Sharm El Sheikh
21. Kos
22. Tenerife
23. Faro
24. Heraklion
25. Larnaca
26. Naples
27. Palma
28. Rhodes
29. Salzburg

 

[Karl C]

The 29

As far as I understand Nantes will not be returning next summer (with easyjet anyway).

1. Amsterdam
2. Alicante
3. Antalya
4. Barcelona
5. Belfast
6. Berlin
7. Edinburgh
8. Enfidha
9. Corfu
10. Dalaman
11. Fuerteventura
12. Geneva
13. Glasgow
14. Jersey
15. Lisbon
16. Lyon
17. Malaga
18. Milan
19. Paris
20. Sharm El Sheikh
21. Kos
22. Tenerife
23. Faro
24. Heraklion
25. Larnaca
26. Naples
27. Palma
28. Rhodes
29. Salzburg

Ahh righto....hoping it would be an extra 13 new routes

 

[Ray Finkle]

Press release from easyjet below.

Antalya and Barcelona now starting March 18th, Alicante and Tenerife March 19th, Larnaca March 20th and Malaga and Enfidha March 21st.

It seems as if Berlin and Jersey are now to be 2x weekly but BCN goes up to 3x weekly.

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