Birmingham Airport - General Thread

[IanFarquharson]

BREAKING NEWS

PK's got a beard !

https://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/med ... s-airport/

 

[Paulsstrange]

Re: BREAKING NEWS

PK's got a beard !

https://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/med ... s-airport/

Ian this makes sense PK and his team have promoted and acheived a lot of 'growth' at BHX recently...

 

[Ray Finkle]

A lengthy but interesting interview with Paul Kehoe. Various things are discussed but there are a couple of snippets.

“The question is, how do we remodel Birmingham Airport to bring it up to world class status? Our old terminal 2, built in 1991, is now looking tatty outside. But we’ll soon have a brand new HS2 rail station.”

At this, Kehoe points to the airport’s site viewed from his 5th floor office window at Diamond House, and shows me where the HS2 line could snake in, giving the airport a great chance to use the construction work as a trigger to smarten up its terminal.

The airport, he explains, has just started a ‘master plan’, proposing and consulting on what it could look like in the next ten to 15 years. “It might be that we end up with a modest plan, or perhaps we’ll be ambitious,” he says. “Personally, I want to be ambitious.”

“That’s because the China downturn, US migration issues, and security issues in Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt will all impact on some parts of the flying public. But I’m an eternal optimist, and I still think we can deliver 7% to 8% growth.”

Kehoe says: “We’re 75% to 80% full in early morning slots, and we’re planning extra lanes of security to help, and other minor remodelling, like a new fast track. But we have loads of space for the rest of the day. There are peaks at lunchtime and early evening, when we’re at 50% capacity, but in between we’re empty. Our opportunity is how we maximise that down time. We need to provide incentives for non-based airlines to fly into our gaps.”

Kehoe believes Birmingham can increase passengers by 50% to 15 million by 2025, with only “minor remodelling”. And then he says HS2 will add around another one million passengers, putting Birmingham’s growth at 60% to 16 million passengers a year from 2026....

...But if our shareholders said: ‘We’re seeking to make sure we are HS2 ready,’ then they might ask for a major reinvestment before 2026, which means we could grow faster.

We’re still in China discussing options,

As I leave, I ask Kehoe what he’d say if he could tell the UK government one thing. The man who calls himself the ‘chief plate spinner’ is swift and direct with his answer: “Use Birmingham Airport now. Forget the hub [a reference to Birmingham’s second runway plan], that’s been rejected – fine. But use Birmingham now to maximise the opportunity for this city and the Midlands engine for the UK’s economy.

“Come on government: Birmingham’s one of the UK’s key gateways. We don’t need money to support routes like Scotland and Wales (although that would be nice). But we do need tourism organisations aligned, and for the government to call Birmingham a national gateway for international traffic, because that will encourage people in.

“Support Birmingham with a strategy of integrated transport. That’s already happening with HS2 – no-one else is getting that in the next 20 years. Help us maximise and shout about that great opportunity.”

http://www.bqlive.co.uk/2016/03/14/our- ... nt-action/

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there ray, can you tell me, does the viewing lounge inside the airport still exist at all, because the last time I was up there was just before kehoe took over.... Andyc

 

[Ray Finkle]

Not anymore, the viewing area went quite a few years ago. I can't think of anywhere land side in the building that gives any sort of view.

Car park 5 is a cracking spot though :good:

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there ray, so why did the airport get rid of, it was a good vantage and view point see aircrafts land...Andyc

 

[Ray Finkle]

Terminal extension works blocked much of the view and visitor numbers dwindled. In the end it just wasn't economically viable to keep it open.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Wizz Air

Budapest is now 3x weekly with an extra Thursday flight added. The first one tomorrow is currently showing just under 80% inbound and 93% outbound.

Wroclaw also starts on Friday and there is an extra Warsaw next week.

Norwegian

Madrid is full inbound tomorrow and Saturday, outbound for both are showing at over £300 so not many seats left. Iberia start a week on Sunday with Ryanair a few days later so we'll see how it looks when the competition arrives.

Malaga is sold out for the next few Fridays.

Barcelona is sold out both ways tomorrow with only a few seats left on the next few flights, £340 one way.

All of the above routes go back to 3x weekly in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Brum X]

MIPIM 2016

The development of Birmingham over the coming years will have a positive effect on the future growth of BHX, so over the last couple of days the movers and the shakers in the south of france have met for there annual property/investment gathering. I have got to say some great things have been announced with regards millions of pounds of funding to build new glass office towers in our city centre, lots of new residential (funding secured) and a fantastic new masterplan for the south of the city centre to create a buzzing 24 hour place to live, have fun and relax. The midlands engine for growth will be the catalyst for a successful and growing BHX so this weeks announcements are great news. BHX will also unveil its own masterplan so that it can continue the growth that this city and region needs and deserves. Lots of stuff has already begun with lots more over the next few years.

I for one am feeling really positive about Birmingham and BHX at the moment and anybody who writes off Brum, is a fool. :good:

Not wanting to dilute this forum with non BHX related stuff, some great stuff in todays Birmingham post RE: MIPIM 2016
http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/

 

[justplanecrazy]

Stand 54 is ready to go it was used for the morning flight to Dubai. Also the first 3 stands on the 70s opposite stand 54 have been reduced in size they can only accommodate aircraft up to an a320 the 321s can't be parked there due to the wing span of the a380.

 

[BHXsupporter]

Amazing size. Accidentally parking an A321 opposite would certainly create some headlines for BHX!

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there ray and all, its all sounding great for Qatar ,Emirates ,Czech air, plus all these other new airlines due to start shortly, but what Birmingham needs are more airlines to come too and plus more new routes that still are not still serving Birmingham to fill that gap that needs filling, hopefully more new announcement of new airlines coming in during this year to start up later this year, or from next year, Birmingham desparantly needs to keep its growth rate expanding even more ,year after year....Andyc...

 

[Ray Finkle]

Hi Andrew, I agree.

The last couple of years have seen some great work plugging many of the numerous gaps that we had, there are still more to fill but it takes time. I hope next year they can keep the momentum going and see growth from our airlines, both new and old, it's an area where we seemed to struggle in the past.

There are lots of rumours out there at the moment (many that have already been discussed on here) we just need a few of them come to fruition :smile:

 

[andrew.clarkson]

hi there ray, yes your right of course, needs for some unexpected shock announcement, that another big carrier has agreed to start up ops and flights and hopefully look and see where all the missing gaps has that need filling, start to fill them, then once established, start announcing more further routes in the couple of years, any way, by the way ray, correct me if I'm wrong how many gates do Birmingham have to heathrows 125......Andyc

 

[Ray Finkle]

Well 18 months ago the likes of Budapest, Warsaw, Lisbon, Madrid and Prague were all unserved. JFK was the largest unserved long haul market and Emirates had east bound traffic all to themselves. We've also seen a slight improvement on the sunshine routes but nowhere near enough. There has also been a good increase to Poland and gained nice niche routes such as Bucharest.

As for what's next we still have the likes of Riga and Vienna that could do with direct flights along with 3 or 4 Scandinavian cities. It would be nice to see some destinations such as Bilbao, Seville, Valencia, Pisa, Florence and Porto.

Long haul wise I think Florida, Toronto, Cuba and Las Vegas have been discussed enough so won't repeat. In the next few years we need a scheduled flight to China and hopefully one of the Asian hubs such as Singapore, Hong Kong or Bangkok. Another US hub over the summer months would be nice.

I also think we need more on the sun routes to really bolster capacity. In the last few weeks Ryanair have gone from 4 to 8 aircraft at EMA whereas we've only seen the odd extra frequency so far. Thomas Cook are still only using one aircraft at BHX which is crazy considering many schools have broken up. Ian's figures show that the core sun routes are still significantly down on 10 years ago.

For 2017 I think we definitely need something very significant from one of our based airlines and/or another base from a new airline. If we can also get more from some away based airlines it will hopefully help to stem the leakage of pax from our region. I'd have liked to have seen Alicante added by Norwegian and Malaga and Palma from Vueling but it wasn't to be.

Still early days, even for winter, so we'll see what happens. I'm sure much is going on behind the scenes.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Another new hotel for BHX has gone in for planning, this one is to be located next to Diamond House across from T2.

A fairly recent consultative committee meeting said that this site had been earmarked for hotel development and we naturally thought that it would be for the new Radisson Blu. This is a separate application however no operator is mentioned as yet.

PL/2016/00791/PPFL |Erect 178 bedroom hotel and ancillary site works. |Proposed Hotel Development Concorde Road Birmingham Airport Solihull

 

[nwoody2001]

I don't want to get you lot excited, but does that look like a rooftop restaurant or bar??? Great location if so ...

 

[Brum X]

Im liking the look of that, again BHX planning for the future with more growth hopefully in the pipeline.

Busier Airport=Busier Hotels=Busier shops/Bars=More Jobs=Birmingham grows (City and Airport)

 

[jfy1999]

Apparently BHX handled its trial of the new flight paths poorly and is facing complaints from the local residents and their councillors.

http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/new...am-airports-introduction-trial-flight-8593406

 

[Jon Dempsey]

To be fair, I know a couple of people who live in Balsall Common by the Saracen.

They compained from the start.

However, if Birmingham airport closed, they would moan about it being too quiet.