Birmingham: (BHX) - General Thread

[thunderchild]

Not that it's an issue but I assume BHX couldn't handle a B748 as it's longer than the A346 ?

 

[Ray Finkle]

I've done a bit of Googling but can't find the wheel base for the 747-8 so can't answer that I'm afraid.

 

[bummieboy]

We could get an idea from JFK Airport!

TAXIWAY WIDTH

13. State why modification would provide an acceptable level of safety.

The current taxiway width at JFK is 75 feet with 25-foot wide shoulders and erosion pavement creating a total pavement width of 175 feet (see Figure 1).

The design characteristics of the Boeing 747-8 and the Boeing 747-400 are essentially identical with the only significant difference being a small increase in wingspan. It is this increased wingspan that elevates the 747-8 to a Group VI aircraft even though all other design characteristics comply with Group V criteria. This is an important consideration when assessing the relevance of design group standards such as taxiway width.

The outer engine of the 747-8 will be located at the same distance from aircraft centerline as the 747-400 (68.35) feet from aircraft centerline, and the jet blast environment will not be significantly different from that experienced with the 747-400 (see Figure 2). The 35-mph contour is used for erosion protection purpose and the 747-8 is shown to have the same width as the 747-400. The distance between the main landing gear wheel outer edge to the edge of taxiway, 16.65 feet, exceeds the 15-foot Group V taxiway edge safety margin. The Group V standard is far more applicable for the 747-8 as Group VI standards assumed a much greater landing gear width (Group VI standards assumed 60’ wide landing track, Group V standards assumed 45’, the 747-8 is 41.75’). In addition, analysis of taxiway centerline deviation data obtained at JFK indicate that large aircraft stay very close to centerlines while taxing (Scholz, F.W., Sept 2003), “Statistical Extreme Value Analysis of JFK Taxiway Centerline Deviation for 747 Aircraft”. This study shows that the risk of a 747 outer main gear tire deviating outside of the 75 ft wide taxiway is 3.17x10-8.

.................

Heavy shoulder is used 100 feet before start of a fillet and ends 100 feet after the fillet and at the top of T intersections. Shoulder pavement is used elsewhere. Taxiway intersections at JFK have been designed for judgmental over steering maneuvering procedures (see figure 3). The existing fillet radii 112.5 ft as built in these intersections are being gradually increased at locations, throughout the airport, to 175 ft system wide to accommodate longer wheelbase aircraft such as B777-300, A340-600 and the A380. The 175 ft radii fillet taxiway intersections provide an acceptable level of safety and meet the operational requirements for the 747-8 as the distance between the outside edge of the 747-8 wheels and the full strength taxiway pavement is greater than 20 feet, which is compliant with both Group V and Group VI taxiway edge safety margin and taxiway dimension standards. Further, the [hi-lighty:229sj7ls]747-8 wheelbase (92.3 ft) is less than that of the 777-300 (100.4 ft), A340-600 (108.9 ft), or A380-800 (97.8 ft)[/hi-lighty:229sj7ls].

The 747 has operated safely for more than 35 years at JFK on 75-foot wide taxiways. The 747-8 is an aircraft with essentially the same operational characteristics as the 747-400. Given the similarities between these two aircraft and the long history of safe 747-400 operations at JFK, the 747-8 can be expected to operate on the existing 75-foot wide taxiways at JFK with no difficulty.

http://aci-na.org/static/entransit/jfk_ ... ywidth.pdf

 

[Ray Finkle]

Great find, I seem to remember reading that the 777-300 is getting close to the limit for BHX so the extra 8ft for the A340-600 must just exceed it.

 

[Ash]

Minimum Clearance Radii - Nose Gear
A340-600: 36.6m
B747-8: 32.0m

Add to that the 747s MLG steering which is assumed inop in the above and its quite a bit more maneuverable than the 346 (relatively speaking of course!

For reference the 77W is 35.2!

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there and Ray and Aviador, once the runway has been extended and opened up at Birmingham Airport, have Emirates yet indicated when they are going to start their direct flights to Perth, Australia yet at all.....thanks andyc

 

[User0001]

Emirates will not be starting a direct BHX-PER. Not only do they have no intention of operating said route, it could not be done with any meaningful payload. Im not sure where or what you have heard in terms of that, but its not happening.

 

[ELectric Warrior]

The long haul potential destinations can be found in the link hope this helps.




http://www.hellomoreworld.co.uk/runway

 

[Ray Finkle]

Emirates doing BHX-Perth direct, that's definitely a new one :s_yes

 

[Ray Finkle]

Passenger Numbers Continue to Climb at Birmingham Airport

17 January 2014

Birmingham Airport is celebrating yet another major milestone, as passenger numbers for the 2013 calendar year reach over nine million for the first time since 2009.

Latest figures reveal 9,119,709 passengers chose to fly through Birmingham Airport in 2013, a 2.3% increase compared to 2012.

The nine million milestone was achieved after the Airport enjoyed a busy December, which saw 574,854 passengers pass through the terminal, representing an 8% increase compared to the same period last year. December also saw the largest monthly percentage increase in 2013.

The biggest growth sector in December was non-EU charter services (+12%) to destinations including Barbados and Gambia, fuelled largely by passengers seeking some winter sun over the Christmas break and opting to travel from Birmingham Airport.

Paul Kehoe, the Airport’s CEO, said: “2013 has been a fantastic year for us in many ways. In terms of passenger numbers, we’ve seen consecutive growth in the past eight months, which has led to our best yearly performance since 2009.

“Helped by a strong December, over nine million people have decided to take advantage of the Airport’s world-class facilities and its growing network of flights throughout the past 12 months.

“We are now looking to build on this success in 2014, which will see the opening of our longer runway and with it, the capability to serve more long haul destinations than ever before.”

Scheduled routes that experienced particular growth in December included Stuttgart (+89.2%), Milan (+81.7%), Chambery (+74.7%), Funchal (+65.4%), Istanbul (+45%) and Belfast (+40.2%).

Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham, added: “The Airport’s strong 2013 performance is testament to the ongoing activity to promote the Greater Birmingham and Black Country region as a popular visitor destination.

“Over the past 12 months we have undertaken marketing campaigns with our tourism partners at VisitEngland and VisitBritain to strengthen links with countries including Germany and Italy. The significant recent growth in passengers from Stuttgart and Milan indicates that our work to grow the region’s profile and reputation is bearing fruit.

“The prospect of more of the international business community being able to fly to and from Birmingham in future months thanks to the Airport’s runway extension, coupled with our current work with European funding partners to attract more visitors from Southeast Asia, shows that 2014 could prove to be even more successful.”

Charter services seeing an increase in passengers included Barbados (+70.2%), Gambia (+21.4%), Austria (+8.9%), Finland (+5.6%) and Spain (+5.3%).

Scheduled services seeing an increase accounted for 87.9% of all traffic, whilst charter made up the remaining 12.1% of passengers flying from Birmingham Airport during the month of December.

The top scheduled destinations in 2013 were Dublin, Dubai and Amsterdam, and the most popular charter destinations were Dalaman, Palma and Tenerife.

http://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/meta ... rport.aspx

 

[Ray Finkle]

JLR chief hits out at "lack of priority" for Birmingham Airport
17th January 2014

Duncan TiftBy Duncan Tift - Deputy Editor, West MidlandsDr Ralf Speth, Chief Executive Officer, Jaguar Land Rover

Dr Ralf Speth, Chief Executive Officer, Jaguar Land Rover
THE chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover has criticised the recommendations of the Airports Commission for failing to properly consider the case for regional airports.

At a conference in London arranged to discuss the Commission’s report into the future of UK aviation policy, Dr Ralf Speth said he was sick and tired of spending wasted hours commuting to London when there was an airport virtually next door to one of his plants in Solihull.

Dr Speth, who has to regularly travel to India to the base of parent company Tata Motors as well as other global commitments, said the Commission had failed to prioritise regional airports.

This is considered a crucial point as regional hubs are often closer to manufacturing bases and overseas buyers are often faced with an extra travel burden when they need to visit UK factories.

Dr Speth declined to say whether he favoured expansion at Heathrow, Gatwick or a new site to the east of London but was reported in The Daily Telegraph as saying he currently spends “too much time” on the M40 commuting to London to catch flights when Jaguar Land Rover has bases in the West Midlands – a portfolio that will shortly be expanded with the opening of the new £0.5bn engine plant at the i54 site near Wolverhampton.

The newspaper quoted him as saying “one disappointment from the interim report is the lack of priority given to the non-London locations”.

To try and overcome the problem in the past JLR has chartered executive jets from Birmingham Airport but there range is limited to European destinations.

The recommendations from the Airports Commission propose new runways at Heathrow and Gatwick for expanding UK airport capacity.

The three options put forward by the Commission, led by Sir Howard Davies, include adding a third runway at Heathrow, lengthening an existing runway at Heathrow, and a new runway at Gatwick.

It has not proposed immediate expansion at Birmingham although it said there could be a case for considering it for a second runway by 2050.

http://www.thebusinessdesk.com/westmidl ... rport.html

 

[Ray Finkle]

Birmingham Tops UK Punctuality Charts

Birmingham Airport recorded the best overall flight punctuality of any UK airport operating both scheduled and full service charter flights in the third quarter of 2013.

During the busiest period of the year (July to September), 88% of scheduled flights and 90% of charter services operated on-time; the biggest on-time percentage recorded.

The Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) quarterly punctuality report highlighted Birmingham as having the biggest increase in flight on-time performance out of any UK airport – six percentage points on scheduled services and five percentage points on charter flights – compared to the same quarter of 2012.

Birmingham Airport also reduced the length of delays from eleven minutes to eight on scheduled services and from nine minutes to eight on charter flights, compared to Q3 2012.

These were the shortest delays of any UK airport outside of London – and a better performance than the national average, which recorded 12 minute delays on scheduled services and 16 minutes on charter.

Paul Kehoe, Birmingham Airport’s CEO, said, “These results are testament to the team effort at Birmingham and the hard work that’s been put in over the last few years to deliver a world class airport.

“We’re therefore really proud to have come top of the punctuality charts for Q3 2013 and hope that this demonstrates, to those who have not yet experienced what Birmingham has to offer, the benefit of travelling through an efficient and convenient airport.”

During July and September 2013, Birmingham Airport handled a total of 3,030,192 passengers (2,303,610 scheduled and 726,582 charter).

Link to full CAA report in the article: http://www.airportsinternational.com/20 ... arts/15164?

 

[Aviador]

That's a good achievement for an airport of Birmingham's size. It's normally the smaller airports that achieve it.

 

[Ray Finkle]

The NATS charts have been updated to show the new RWY33 threshold.

http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadbasic ... -02-06.pdf

 

[Ray Finkle]

No surprise really but the Estonian E170 will be operating the Saturday IT flights for Inghams, formerly operated by Flybe.

ELL8721/8722 E170 07:00/11:35 SZG
ELL8723/8724 E170 12:15/16:55 INN

 

[TheLocalYokel]

No surprise really but the Estonian E170 will be operating the Saturday IT flights for Inghams, formerly operated by Flybe.

ELL8721/8722 E170 07:00/11:35 SZG
ELL8723/8724 E170 12:15/16:55 INN

A few weeks ago on the BRS forum it was said that the Estonian E170 would operate BHX-VRN-BRS-VRN-BHX on Saturdays for Inghams this summer. Then someone on the Dried Plum said it would operate BHX-INN-BRS-INN-BHX on Saturdays for Inghams this summer.

Checking the Inghams booking site it seems the Verona flights from BHX on Sats will be on the TOM service with Austrian and Mistral operating the INN and VRN services respectively from BRS.

 

[News Guru]

[textarea]Aircraft engineering operation in Birmingham folds

An aircraft engineering facility which opened at Birmingham Airport to great fanfare has collapsed less than three years later.

Around ten jobs are to go with the closure of Eurojet Aviation’s engineering arm at the airport, as the firm also announced it was close to completing a deal with a new partner for an amalgamated firm based in the city.

The facility opened in May 2011 as part of an ambitious £5 million expansion plan which it pledged would create 50 new jobs.

http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/busines ... am-6755031[/textarea]

 

[Ray Finkle]

Birmingham Airport and Marketing Birmingham Join Up For New China Tourism Campaign

Birmingham Airport and Marketing Birmingham have become two of the first 100 companies across the UK to be awarded a new Chartermark declaring they are fit to welcome Chinese visitors.

The GREAT China Welcome Charter is a new initiative from VisitBritain to make Britain the destination of choice for the rapidly-growing Chinese market. Visitors from China have doubled in the last five years and tourism bosses hope they will treble again by 2020.

The new Charter will help Chinese visitors easily identify hotels, attractions, retailers and tour operators that are making themselves ‘China-ready’ by providing information in Chinese and adapting their products for the market.

This comes following the recent announcement by Birmingham Airport that it will become the UK’s first airport outside of London to launch direct flights from China, and the first UK airport to launch charter services from July 2014. The joint initiative between Birmingham Airport, China Southern Airlines, Caissa Travel Management Co Ltd and Birmingham China specialist agency, United Travel, demonstrates the enormous demand for more flights between the two countries.

Birmingham Airport qualified as one of the first Charter members because it is making a number of investments to give Chinese visitors a warm welcome and a stress free journey through the terminal. This includes Chinese terminal signage, staff cultural awareness training, Mandarin speaking front of house staff, specific web-pages translated into Mandarin, and a dedicated VAT refund facility for passengers to use before jetting back home.

Jo Lloyd, the Airport’s Marketing Director, said: “We are experiencing strong interest from China and are looking forward to launching direct charter flights between Birmingham and Beijing in July, welcoming hundreds of Chinese tourists to the Midlands region, which is home to world famous attractions such as Shakespeare’s Birthplace, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and Warwick Castle.

“Being a Charter member will enable us, and our partners, to be recognised for the work that we are doing to welcome Chinese visitors and we are proud to be a founding member.”

Marketing Birmingham, which operates the city’s leisure tourism programme Visit Birmingham, is also among the first 100 organisations to be awarded the new Chartermark. The strategic marketing partnership has attended recent VisitBritain trade missions to China and other countries in the Far East, meeting with travel agents and developing a product to bring more Chinese visitors to the city.

A range of online developments are being made to the city’s official visitor website visitbirmingham.com, including dynamic translations of the whole site, along with the addition of an enhanced travel trade web portal with Chinese sales tools, both in Mandarin and Cantonese. Working with trade association UKinbound, there will also be an increased focus on Chinese social media and travel trade communication.

Neil Rami, Chief Executive of Marketing Birmingham, said: "We are actively promoting Birmingham both to Chinese travel agents and inward investors – positioning the area as a gateway to the country. The Birmingham area is being shown as a must-visit UK destination and there is particular interest from China in our strong retail and heritage offer.

"We are committed to working with regional partners, Birmingham Airport and VisitBritain to further realise China’s potential. We have engaged heavily with the Chinese travel trade and, over the coming year, plan to build on increasing awareness of the Birmingham region by connecting with a multimedia savvy Chinese audience through targeted digital and social media campaigns."

Sandie Dawe, Chief Executive of VisitBritain, added: “There is strong evidence that businesses who go the extra mile in catering for certain nationalities quickly reap the benefits. Birmingham Airport and Marketing Birmingham are great examples of organisations, which have been quick to recognise the massive potential of the Chinese market and invested accordingly. We’re delighted to be able to count them among our first 100 members and hope that many more British tourism and hospitality businesses will follow their example.”

http://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/meta ... paign.aspx

 

[Aviador]

It's good to see the airport throwing their weight behind the new route, I hope it does well for them. Birmingham has some great shops and the Chinese love shopping and I expect the route will do particularly well. Birmingham isn't short of the big brands.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Definitely, Bicester Village is extremely popular with Chinese visitors and I'm glad they are promoting BHX as a gateway to it. Birmingham definitely has an impressive retail presence which I'm sure will be banded about to potential tourists.

Birmingham Airport qualified as one of the first Charter members because it is making a number of investments to give Chinese visitors a warm welcome and a stress free journey through the terminal. This includes Chinese terminal signage, staff cultural awareness training, Mandarin speaking front of house staff, specific web-pages translated into Mandarin, and a dedicated VAT refund facility for passengers to use before jetting back home.

It's good to see money being spent on this, especially in these tough times, hopefully behind the scenes the signs have been good which is why they're making the investment. No one can accuse them of not trying.