Airport Consultative Committee

[Ray Finkle]

A couple of snippets from yesterdays consultative comittee meeting, nothing major though.

Qatar Airways – CEO has announced that the airline would be commencing new routes to the UK
from their Doha base and that Birmingham would be one of these. However no details have yet
been confirmed and it is understood they are awaiting confirmation of delivery schedules for their
B787 aircraft.

Meetings continue to be held with airlines in China, North America and the Middle East with a view
to establishing new services from Birmingham in the future.

East Midlands Campaign – In light of the demise of BMI Baby, a strategy to capitalise on the
reduction of services from East Midlands Airport has been developed. Birmingham Airport
launched a wide reaching campaign across the East Midlands region to target EMA passengers
and convert bookings to BHX. The campaign includes high profile roadside and city centre poster
sites in Nottingham, Derby and Leicester, an intensive radio campaign on Capital FM East
Midlands stations, a promotional stand and leaflet drop at Highcross Shopping Centre in Leicester
and leafleting on cars in NCP car parks across the East Midlands region. The response to the
Capital FM radio campaign has been significant, with more than 3,500 hits on the dedicated
Birmingham Airport webpage and 1700 entries to the competition. The radio advert asked
consumers ’Can’t get the flights you want from East Midlands?’

A strategy to increase business passenger bookings in areas
where LHR is an alternative has been developed. Birmingham Airport launched an extensive outdoor advertising campaign on key transport routes into London. The campaign states
’Birmingham makes more sense than Heathrow’.

Emirates – A joint promotional plan has been developed with the Emirates sales team aimed
specifically aimed at increased bookings from the outer catchment area where competing airport
services are an option. A key sales tool will be the offer of a joint branded voucher booklet for
Emirates customers, giving added value at Birmingham Airport concessions. The aim is to have a
positive effect in securing bookings that would otherwise fly from Manchester or London.

No.1 Traveller has announced that it will open a new lounge at Birmingham this October, its first
outside London, creating 20 new jobs. No.1 Birmingham will offer business travelers a workfriendly
environment and range of business support services, while the leisure passengers will be
able to enjoy a new standard of premium pre-flight hospitality. The lounge will be located beyond
security and will offer a range of facilities for all departing passengers, including:
• A range of seating areas, across two levels, featuring relaxed television and bar lounges, and a
hot-desk working area
• A fully-tended bar, serving complimentary soft drinks, beers, spirits and selection of wines
• A bistro serving a range of freshly-prepared hot and cold dishes, and a self-service pantry
• Meeting rooms, supported by business and travel concierge services
• Complimentary newspapers, magazines and internet access

Watchman Radar Replacement – Work on the new radar is now well underway and the tower is
expected to be completed in September, with a programme of testing to follow.

Runway Extension - Main works on the A45 Road diversion have commenced following the
discharge by SMBC of the relevant planning requirements. Work continues to progress the
discharge of archaeological conditions on site, where some finds have been made and work is
ongoing.

In respect of other pre-commencement conditions, the Planning Committee also agreed to vary
Condition 19 of the Runway Extension consent. In effect this means that the details of the
proposed works to the M42 Junction 6 and associated A45 works can now be agreed within 12
months of commencement (as opposed to pre-commencement) and that timing of these works
can also be agreed at this date. This means the Airport works can potentially tie in with a SMBC
scheme to widen the A45 West Coast Main Line bridge, providing operational and potential
financial benefits to both parties.

Initial discussions are being held with Chiltern Railways about the introduction of a shuttle service
between Solihull Station and Birmingham Airport to enable increased rail access from the M40
corridor, and the Black Country.

http://www.ukaccs.info/bham/050912it4.pdf

 

[Aviador]

Thanks for posting that Ray Finkle it's much appreciated. On our Leeds forum we have a member of the committee who comes on and updates us each time there's a committee meeting. It would be great if we could get someone from the BHX Consultative Committee to do the same. Is there anybody on the Committee that might be approachable?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Not much from this meetings report that isn't already known.

One thing I did notice is the new Airport Gurus seem to be targeting local business travellers. A significant deal on business seats taken could only help in the quest for more long haul routes, I know some of MAN's North American routes have business contracts with companies in the area.

A Birmingham Post Corporate event was attended, where Travel Managers from Caterpillar, JCB,
No.5 Chambers, Carltons, and KPMG were present. Birmingham Airport Gurus visited Caterpillar
and surveyed staff for routes required from BHX. An ongoing relationship with Caterpillar will look
to increase propensity for business travel from Birmingham.


United Airlines / BHX sales activity with JTA, a large corporate travel company, achieved a 31%
year on year increase in BHX bookings with JTA during the period Jan – Aug 12.


Corporate sales meetings have been held with travel managers from E-on in Nottingham and JLR.


A business travel survey has been sent to 1496 businesses within the Herefordshire &
Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce area. This survey focuses on where businesses currently
travel for business, where they anticipate travelling in the future and also how people access
Birmingham Airport. The survey offers businesses the opportunity to contact the Airport for
additional information, including access to the Airport Gurus. A similar survey has been sent to
businesses within the Black Country Chamber.

http://www.ukaccs.info/bham/211112it4.pdf

 

[Ray Finkle]

Not much from the recent meeting.

Turkish - has increased its operations to 10 weekly services on Istanbul and is experiencing
strong sales for Summer 2013. Discussions continue with a view to encouraging further growth
from Birmingham.

The Airspace Change Consultation for proposed changes to Standard Instrument Departure
(SIDs) procedures was extended by 5 weeks, closing on 17 May 2013. In response to feedback
from the community and its representatives, the procedure designers designed a further route for
aircraft travelling southbound which formed part of the extended consultation. The new route
(‘Option 6’), lies approximately mid-way between Knowle and Balsall Common. However, as a
consequence of this, there is a change in the position of the route over Barston. The Airport
Company held three further community roadshows in Hampton-in-Arden, Balsall Common and
Barston, to enable residents to view the new option. The Airport Company has received an
overwhelming response to the consultation and will now take the time to consider and analyses all
responses before a decision will be taken over which route to be put forward as part of the
Airspace Change Proposal.

 

[Ray Finkle]

BHX Consultative Committee.

The airport has released the activities report for July - Dec 2014.

Here's a few snippets.

Pax ATM up 6%, Cargo ATM's up 30%. Total movements up 10%.

Since launching the Birmingham
route, Air India has carried around 110,000 passengers in 16 months.

Marketing
The Marketing team continus to be extremely active in promoting Birmingham
Airport within the UK and overseas to a wide range of customers and
stakeholders. The following gives a flavour of their activities during this reporting
period:
A joint Air India/Visit Britain campaign to promote Birmingham in Delhi ran for 6
weeks in November and December. Regional advertising promoting the daily
service began in December.
Birmingham Airport sponsored the Institute of Asian Business Awards at the
ICC, reaching 300 people local businesses within the West Midlands region.
Marketing Birmingham and Shakespeare's England have been involved in a
campaign to promote the Airport's German network connections. A sales mission
and training event took place in Hamburg with 60 travel agents and tour
operators, highlighting awareness of the region, new Flybe routes and the Airport
itself.

Birmingham Airport joined Resorts World Birmingham in attending the annual
Visit Britain China sales mission, where 64 one-to-one meetings took place with
travel trade from mainline China in Guangzhou and 16 one-to-one meetings took
place with Hong Kong travel agents. There was a positive response from each
meeting and revealed that awareness of Birmingham Airport and the surrounding
region was more prevalent due to the summer charter programme with Caissa
and China Southern.
The Airport Sales Team conducts sales visits throughout the region. In November
for example, visits were made in Coventry, Balsall Common, Solihull, Lichfield,
Cannock, Nottinghamshire, South Staffordshire, Shropshire, Wolverhampton and
Oxfordshire.

There have been major developments in the Departure Lounge over the summer
in partnership with with LSTR (Lagardere Travel Retail Services).
Eye Love, a new sunglass concept, was the
first to open followed closely by the Watch
Collection, selling high-end brands such as
Burberry, Longines, Tag Heuer and Mont
Blanc. ‘The Fashion Place’, now open in
space previously occupied by Tie Rack,
offers bags and small leather goods by
American brand ‘Guess’ alongside jewellery
and accessories from Austrian crystal
specialist Swarowski. Discover England
offers British themed souvenirs, gifts and food
and there are also two other top brand names
in Hugo Boss and Victoria’s Secret. Many of the units are the first in the UK for
LSTR and are the result of significant investment.
Page 20 Also in the Departure Lounge, WH Smith have now opened a dedicated Books
Plus store.

The Airport has embarked on an upgrade to its Food and Beverage estate. The
All Bar One unit in the south lounge has been extended to include a new
Espresso Coffee area. All Bar One continues to perform exceptionally well and
has vastly improved the food and beverage offer in the south lounge. Also airside,
a new Costa unit in the north lounge is now open. Frankie and Benny’s landside
has been refurbished to transform the look and feel of this popular restaurant,
while the Est Presso unit landside has disappeared and will be replaced in 2015
with a new offer.
The Regus Business Lounge is now open
on the site of the old Job Centre Plus. It
provides an drop-in workplace situated
within a short walk of the check-in and
arrivals area and features a professional
business lounge and suite of meeting rooms
alongside workspaces with comfy seating,
laptop stands, secure wi-fi, printers and
scanners as well as complimentary
refreshments and administrative support.
Amazon customers can now pick up their
online orders at Birmingham Airport, with
the introduction of Amazon Lockers inside
the terminal - the first of its kind at a UK
airport. Amazon Lockers are ideal for
passengers, visitors and staff who want to
place orders online and pick up their items
on the move.
A Softeksim Flight Simulator is now located
in the arrivals area, offering flight simulation
experiences to pre-booked customers.

A new purpose-built transit facility has
been created on the International Pier,
allowing connecting passengers
travelling onwards on a connecting flight
to remain airside, without having to pass
through immigration or be processed
through security. The new facility will
improve the Airport’s ability to cater for
long haul services.

Fixed Electrical Ground Power (FEGP) is provided on aircraft stands to minimise
the need to run auxiliary power units, (essentially small engines in the tail of
aircraft used to provide electrical power when the main engines are not running),
which create noise and emissions. The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft has
specific electrical requirements for FEGP and has presented a challenge because
the majority of existing FEGP units at Birmingham are not compatible with its
requirements. With B787s becoming a more regular visitor (both Air India and
Thomson now operate the type) there is a need to provide new, compatible units
and this work is continuing. There is also an ongoing programme of replacing
some of older FEGP units because they are no longer supported by the
manufacturers.

A project to upgrade the north baggage handling capability has been approved
which, when completed in 2017, will double the Airport’s baggage capacity. The
project includes replacing Hold Baggage Screening Equipment with units which
are twice the size of the existing units, entailing significant amounts of
Engineering work to accommodate them.

The south airbridges are approaching the end of their life and consideration is
being given to their replacement. A variety of options are available and it is
anticipated that works will commence during 2015/16.

Airport Development
Since early November, the airfield has
been closed to all arriving and departing
aircraft overnight between 23:00 and
06:00, Monday to Friday inclusive. This
has been to facilitate works to complete
the resurfacing of the runway, which was
commenced last winter.
The works comprise resurfacing or
overlay of approximately 800m of the
north end of the runway. In addition to
the asphalt works, all existing Airfield Ground Lighting fittings within the
resurfaced pavement are being replaced with new LED fittings, which are more
energy efficient than the previous Halogen fittings.
Repairs to areas of aircraft pavement have also been undertaken. The pavements
at Birmingham have remained in service with only routine maintenance since the
mid-1980s. Maintaining them to the high standard required by the regulator, while
accommodating ever larger and heavier aircraft and minimising disruption to the
movement of aircraft, is a challenge requiring innovative ways of working.
Recently, 10 concrete bays constructed in 1984 were replaced. Located in the
centre of Taxiway Yankee, the main taxiway for serving Stands 1-7 and 20-25,
their failure had the potential to generate Foreign Object Debris (FOD) which
could place the use of the taxiway at risk. Normally the plan would be to address
the failures with small local repairs or to replace with a quicker to lay, but shorter
life concrete. However, with assistance from Airfield Operations and the Airport
Control Centre a plan was formulated to divert aircraft from the area with an offset
taxiway centreline, enabled a long term, cost effective repair to be undertaken.

Following the second reading of the HS2 Hybrid Bill in Parliament on 28 April
2014, Birmingham Airport has been in discussions with HS2 concerning the route
and design of the proposed people mover system between the airport and the
HS2 Interchange Station. As a result of these discussions HS2 has agreed with
the airport, subject to the final design of the proposals, that a single stop for the
people mover should be provided above International Station and the route should
be diverted to avoid a site adjacent to Diamond House that is proposed for a hotel
development. Any additional costs required as a result of these changes would be
borne by the airport or other sources of funding.

During the past 6 months a number of proposed developments within the airport
have received either the consent of SMBC or their agreement that they constitute
permitted development. These include the following:-
• Demolition of Hangar 1 (Elmdon Site);
• Installation of electric vehicle charging points in the drop and go car park;
• Erection of a cycle shelter (Elmdon Site);
• Change of use of Comet House to allow Regus to operate from the ground
floor;
• Relocation of Taxi Corral to site adjacent to Long Stay Car Park 5;
• Improvement works to Long Stay Car Park 5.
With regard to the runway extension, this was completed and first brought into use
in July 2014 whilst the resurfacing of the existing runway and ancillary works such
as the installation of new LED lighting will be completed in February 2015. The
landscaping and ecological works required as part of the runway extension
(primarily via the ‘Historic Environment Ecology and Landscape Management
Plan’) should be completed before the end of the current planting season (March
2015).

http://www.ukaccs.info/bham/bhxaccagenda050215.pdf

 

[Ray Finkle]

A few snippets from July's meeting. It now seems as if we've moved from T1 and T2 to North and South Terminals.

Icelandair have started well.

Norwegians first three routes are performing well

Vueling and American both had slow ticket sales at the start but following work by the team they are both now at, or ahead of, where is expected.

The name of the Airport will not be changed to ‘Shakespeare Airport’, and that this was simply
a term used in marketing the airport in China where Shakespeare is very widely known, part
of a wider programme of marketing the Airport around the world by whichever are the most
effective means.

asked if it was still planned to change the name of Birmingham International Station. The Airport Company (Paul Kehoe) responded that in his view, in the long term the name would change, particularly in view of the existing and potential future confusion arising with the advent of HS2 at Curzon Street, which should become the Birmingham International Station in the future. He concluded that the debate was not yet over.

Total pax - April 771,320 +1.7% average load factor 76.52%. May 904,860 +1.2% average load factor 76.39%. May 989,294 +2.9% average load factor 80.3%. Cumulative 2,665,474 +2% average load factor 77.74%. Cumulative ATM's were down 3.3%

Marketing

The Airport participated in the Visit Britain sales mission to Denpasar, Bali where,
over the course of two days, 42 one-to-one meetings were held with travel agents
from Asia, the Middle East and Africa over two days.

Closer to home, the Airport Sales Team has been active with sales visits
promoting new routes across the West Midlands, the Cotswolds and
Warwickshire. Of particular focus have been the American Airlines and Vueling
routes, both of which saw a slow start in terms of forward sales. With the help of
the hard work of the team, these routes are now performing in line with or ahead
of expectations.

The team introduced the Icelandair sales team to the trade during a two day sales
campaign to encourage sales of the Reykjavik service, and hosted a
familiarisation tour of the Airport with Icelandair.

A meeting was held with the International Director at Aston University to discuss
Chinese services and collaboration for this year’s charter project.

Security queue time has been around 88.8% less than 10 minutes and 99.7%%
less than 20 minutes. Average dwell time in the departure lounge is close to 60
minutes, benefitting customers and supporting strong commercial.

Negotiations with HS2 are continuing over the route alignment and the design of a
single stop at Birmingham International Station for the people mover that will link
the Interchange Station with the Airport.

The Development team is currently assessing competitive tenders for the major
elements of the North Terminal Baggage Upgrade System, including the Hold
Baggage Screening equipment. Site works will begin in November and are
expected to take two winters to complete, increasing North Terminal baggage
capability to 4000 bags per hour.

The full report is here: http://www.ukaccs.info/bham/bhxaccagenda290715.pdf

 

[Brum X]

Interesting snippets of information.

Good to see that both Vueling and AA are where they need to be with one of them now ahead of expectations.

Its also good to see that the team at BHX appear to be working really hard to make these routes a success and that can only be a good thing and i am confident they will be.
I think with the AA route, the team will have to do more work on this one as Americans are a bit "backward" when it comes to England (UK). Only London and maybe a little bit of Manchester (Man utd thing) but anywhere else they havent heard of. And our fine city is often confused with BHM, the wrong one.
Really need to get working with the Americans on this one and promote Birmingham and our airport as an great alternative to the congested LHR.

North and South Terminals ??????? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Never really thought that this one terminal thing would work and it obviously hasnt. And BHX is not really one terminal, yes there is one departure lounge but is there ????? If you travel Flybe or Ryanair you depart from a completly different part with its own departure lounge and bars. And the check in arrangement is a bit confusing, again in 2 different buildings.

Good to see they are talking about the future, lets see what the new year brings and news to follow.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I agree about America and the fact the London is the UK. It's oneof the reasons that they are using Shakespeare in their promotions, trying to tell people that Stratford, Oxford, Bicester, Derbyshire etc doesn't have to be done on a day trip from London, they are destinations in their own right.

I think we have to remember that AA have been away from BHX for 14 years or so and were pretty much forgotten, it's going to take alot of work to get them back into the forefront of peoples minds. There is also the fact that the same alliance has 10 or so daily departures from LHR on the same route and over 30 per day to the US with a choice of timings. That is some competition. I don't think it's a coincidence that their marketing was done around Warwickshire and The Cotswolds where LHR is probably just as accessible and is usually the default option for long haul travel.

Vueling are new to the region and pretty unknown in most parts of the UK so it's going to take time to build brand awareness. I remember their radio advert in which they actually had to spell the name of their website

 

[Brum X]

And they are both part of IAG group which BHX didnt have until these two arrived in April/May.


Interesting that they both had weak ticket sales at the start but are now bouncing back.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Vueling are part of IAG but AA aren't. They're very closely linked though :smile:

 

[Brum X]

Vueling are part of IAG but AA aren't. They're very closely linked though :smile:

For some reason i think IAG/Oneworld are the same but clearly they are not. :blush: :blush: