Birmingham Airport - General Thread

[Matt995]

Andrew same old story with the UK government, they don't know that anything exists outside of London, no matter what we are talking about!

Re their planned London expansion, not only an extra runway at Heathrow, but also an extra runway at Gatwick, and large expansion at Luton is on their agenda.

Will expansion at Luton affect us too, with all this traffic likely to be low cost carriers, so Easyjet, Wizz and Ryanair especially, what impact might this have on Birmingham?

 

[Otisblue]

It will be interesting to see what decisions are made on UK airport expansion plans, but I think the UK government deserve a bit of credit for actually taking decisions on UK Limited major infrastructure projects that have been left in limbo for a long time.

I don't buy the London centric nature of the last few posts. It is not the Government agenda or plan. It is the owners of Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton who are putting forward the expansion plans and it is the Government who ultimately have to make the decision because of our current planning regulations. So, all the Government are doing is making decisions on plans submitted by airport owners. You could probably add Stansted, Bristol, Newcastle and Leeds/Bradford to the list as they all have either consultations started or plans to expand their terminal/car parks footprint.

At the moment as far as I know, there are not any plans from BHX for the government to make a decision on........well there is one they could call in i suppose......the plan that will actually reduce the airport footprint by half a car park..MacDonalds..in my view it would be great it they turned that down, so the land could actually be used by the airport rather than a litter making machine.

I think if there was a plan ready to go for a new terminal at BHX, the Government would approve it. The problem is the current ownership and management lack the vision to actually expand the current terminal footprint. I believe 100% of the current ownership are using the airport as a cash cow, and they are just happy to continue with the status quo and spend as little as possible on the current infrastructure. We can only hope that we get new owners who have the vision and means to really invest in the airport and expand the capacity of the infrastructure and also improve the customer experience.

So then, runway 3 at Heathrow.......this does not have to be a disaster for the Airport. If the Airport owners and management just continue pootling along, it no doubt could turn into a disaster for BHX. BHX does have a lot going for it. I flew out last week, the air rail link was really busy, and the airport was fairly busy which for a Monday afternoon in January I thought was decent. Our location is nearly always referred to as an issue ( between London and Manchester ), but actually being in the centre of the country with good rail and road links it should be a selling point to bring passengers in rather than they use other airports. But that just comes back to my previous point. The facilities at BHX need big money spent on them to improve the customer experience and to make people want to fly from BHX. I could be wrong here, but I am sure a new terminal at BHX could be built and active before runway 3 at Heathrow would be active, so BHX could have a window to get in first and
attract the passengers who would potentially be lost to Heathrow and runway 3.

Build it and they will come.......

 

[Nethercote2019]

Build it and they will come.......

Unfortunately this didn’t happen with our runway extension- but there again this is Birmingham !

 

[Jon Dempsey]

The last time Labour were in power, there were suggestions of shutting BHX and building a new airport near Rugby.

 

[HPsauce]

The last time Labour were in power, there were suggestions of shutting BHX and building a new airport near Rugby.

I recall many years ago a plan was suggested to turn RAF Gaydon into a potential new Birmingham Airport and act as an overspill option for the London airports.
Of course it never happened.
The runway was already there, and it would have been ideal for access to motorways north and south.

 

[nancledre]

And then there was talk of Honily

 

[HPsauce]

Not much encouragement for BHX in Chancellor Reeves speech today.
A third runway for LHR ( I Can remember when they had six!).
Talk of future expansion of LGW and STN, plus LTN.
Doncaster-Sheffield to reopen, and expansion for EMA.
Attacked from all sides it seems!.

 

[Brum X]

Not much encouragement for BHX in Chancellor Reeves speech today.
A third runway for LHR ( I Can remember when they had six!).
Talk of future expansion of LGW and STN, plus LTN.
Doncaster-Sheffield to reopen, and expansion for EMA.
Attacked from all sides it seems!.

In fact there was nothing for Birmingham/West Midlands at all.

 

[jfy1999]

I already posted this on the Heathrow thread but I think it’s worth re posting here:

I don’t think this means the government will be handing out money to London airports. I think this speech simply means that the government will be more likely to wave through airport expansion proposals and it means local councils will have less ability to obstruct them.

So that would mean that if any airport, whether that be LHR or BHX, has its own masterplan that it can fund itself, the government will approve it, regardless of objections from local councils or other local groups.

The question is whether the government will invest any of its own money into such projects…and this speech doesn’t seem to indicate anything of the sort.

 

[nwoody2001]

I already posted this on the Heathrow thread but I think it’s worth re posting here:

I don’t think this means the government will be handing out money to London airports. I think this speech simply means that the government will be more likely to wave through airport expansion proposals and it means local councils will have less ability to obstruct them.

So that would mean that if any airport, whether that be LHR or BHX, has its own masterplan that it can fund itself, the government will approve it, regardless of objections from local councils or other local groups.

The question is whether the government will invest any of its own money into such projects…and this speech doesn’t seem to indicate anything of the sort.

It is completely this... a little smoke and mirrors but aimed at giving the markets and industry confidence. Rachel Reeve is not offering ANY government money for any of these schemes. All the schemes are privately funded and somehow already in the planning system. Todays speech was merely supporting them through the planning system. This offer them some support but they still have to navigate the planning system.

As stated above, its now an offer to private investors to come forward to deliver national infrastructure, and the govt will seek to support you. The question is, what will BHX and a new buyer be keen to put forward?

 

[Mackadown spotter]

Considering going jobs fair on Friday at the airport Diamond house however diamond is actually huge so I’ll manage to find car park 1 though I don’t drive.However this is probably one of the biggest events for me in the last 3 years personally.Be good to see familiar faces aswell.Need to speak to Dnata and swissport about what they have on offer and maybe speak to other parties aswell as easyjet and Jet2

 

[Nibbles]

Good plan, and good luck.

Keep in mind, if you dont drive, the airport is not the easiest to get to at some of the unsociable hours that are necessary for some organisations. Bus is about the limit.

On the subject, i saw via LinkedIn that there are several roles with SSP within the catering offerings on site, which gets you in and able to chat to people etc. Take a look. Also note that there are 7 roles currently recruiting for the airport itself;

https://careers.birminghamairport.co.uk/airport-vacancies/

 

[whateverg]

I appreciate this may be more of a 'me problem' than a forum problem but I don't know if this is something that other's agree with or not. However, I've found in recent times there being a lot of posts on the forum with very little information, wishlisting, discussion of ideas that have been discussed many times over etc. Unfortunatley it makes me less interested to read the forum when I know that I'm less likely to find content that is interesting enough to engage in. I wonder if wishlisting etc discussion could be had in a separate 'wishlist' thread and maybe mods keep the other threads for more substantiated discussion or rumours from only those that have a history of being in the know?

 

[jfy1999]

I appreciate this may be more of a 'me problem' than a forum problem but I don't know if this is something that other's agree with or not. However, I've found in recent times there being a lot of posts on the forum with very little information, wishlisting, discussion of ideas that have been discussed many times over etc. Unfortunatley it makes me less interested to read the forum when I know that I'm less likely to find content that is interesting enough to engage in. I wonder if wishlisting etc discussion could be had in a separate 'wishlist' thread and maybe mods keep the other threads for more substantiated discussion or rumours from only those that have a history of being in the know?

Noted. I think there’s a balance to maintain because some “wish-list” type posts can prompt responses from people who are in the know and actually have solid news or credible rumours to discuss. I’m quite busy at the moment but I will have a look through recent posts at some point and discuss with others to see if anything needs to be done

 

[Mackadown spotter]

I’m guilty for wish lists so I apologize

 

[rollo]

There is actually already a "Your wishlist for BHX" thread already in existence.

 

[Matt995]

I appreciate this may be more of a 'me problem' than a forum problem but I don't know if this is something that other's agree with or not. However, I've found in recent times there being a lot of posts on the forum with very little information, wishlisting, discussion of ideas that have been discussed many times over etc. Unfortunatley it makes me less interested to read the forum when I know that I'm less likely to find content that is interesting enough to engage in. I wonder if wishlisting etc discussion could be had in a separate 'wishlist' thread and maybe mods keep the other threads for more substantiated discussion or rumours from only those that have a history of being in the know?

I strongly suggest you don't read the Leeds/Bradford threads then, the amount of off topic posts, on there, especially today, with some of the comments posted, would drive you mad!!

 

[jfy1999]

There is actually already a "Your wishlist for BHX" thread already in existence.

Thanks for reminding me, here it is

Your wishlist for BHX

For a bit of fun what routes do you think could realistically be announced by our carriers over the next 12 months? These can include announcements for Summer/Winter 18 starts aswell. Could be interesting to look back in twelve months and see how many we might have got right! Blue Air Bacau...

forums4airports.com

So from now on, i propose the Route Development thread is reserved for discussions based on sources from the airline industry, like airlines applying for slots, news articles saying that an airline is interested in starting, and so on.

If anyone wants to ask “do we think there’s a chance airline X could start route Y” but there aren’t any news sources talking about it, it should go in the Wishlist thread.

 

[whateverg]

Noted. I think there’s a balance to maintain because some “wish-list” type posts can prompt responses from people who are in the know and actually have solid news or credible rumours to discuss. I’m quite busy at the moment but I will have a look through recent posts at some point and discuss with others to see if anything needs to be done

Thanks, I've got to be honest, I'm not sure what the answer is either as I've also noticed that wishlist discussions have prompted exactly that. Also, I don't want to stifle any interest in the airport or to dishearten anyone. On the other hand I should probably also just point out that similar wishlisting conversations happen throughout threads not just the routes&dev thread, particularly airline threads. Maybe something just to keep an eye on for now?

Could I also suggest that if any discussions within the wishlist thread (which is great to see) do prompt something more substantiated, as long as mods time allows, this gets moved over to the routes & dev thread?

 

[Mackadown spotter]

Hi and happy new week to you all.
Very quiet regards to news around the airport.
We expecting anything to come or is it just wait around till something happens?