Birmingham Airport - General Thread

[IanFarquharson]

I am the only person in Balsall Common who does not moan !

 

[wolfheze]

I went to Heart of England and I didn't complain! Mind you I did leave a little while ago

 

[IanFarquharson]

With the latest pax figures coming out and with Luton & Edinburgh posting huge increases I thought I would take a look at their movements in more detail.

The following is all taken from FR24 and represents tomorrows (Tuesday’s) departures – so may not be 100% accurate !

Total Departures

Birmingham - 141
Edinburgh - 160
Luton – 123


Airlines and number of flights
Birmingham – Aer Lingus (7), Air France (3), Air India (1), American (1), Blue Air (1), Brussels (4) , Eastern (2), EasyJet (2), Emirates (3), Eurowings (4), Flybe (56), KLM (6), Lufthansa (7), Monarch (3), Norwegian (2), Pakistan (1), Qatar (1), Ryanair (16), SAS (3), Swiss (2), Thomas Cook (3), Thomson (8), Turkish (1), Turkmenistan (1), United (1) & Wizz (2)

Edinburgh – Aer Lingus (6), Air France (3), American (1), British Airways (26), Brussels (2), EasyJet (30), Etihad (1), Eurowings (1), FlyBe (44), Jet 2 (3), KLM (6), Lufthansa (2), Norwegian (5), Qatar (1), Ryanair (22), SAS (1), Thomson (1), Turkish (2), United (1) & Vueling (2)

Luton – Atlasjet (1), Blue Air (3), EasyJet (54), ELAL (1), Monarch (5), Ryanair (17), Thomson (1), VLM (2), Vueling (1), Wizz (38)


Aircraft
Birmingham – A319 (5), A320 (19), A321 (3), A388 (1), 737 (1), 738 (23), 739 (1), 752 (6), 777 (3), 788 (2), 100 (1), AR1 (4), AT7 (5), CR9 (5), DH4 (40), E170 (14), E190 (5), F70 (1), J41 (2)

Edinburgh – A319 (23), A320 (24), A321 (2), A332 (1), 733 (2), 737 (1), 738 (34), 739 (1), 752 (2), 763 (1), 788 (1), AR1 (2), AT7 (6), D328 (3), DH4 (31), E170 (4), E190 (14), SF3 (8)

Luton – A319 (37), A320 (57), A321 (5), 734 (2), 738 (19), 739 (1), F50 (2)


Destinations

Birmingham - 55

Edinburgh – 68

Luton - 71

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Thanks, Ian.

I make it 3 788's. Thomson, Qatar and Air India.
I'm quite surprised how few Monarch services BHX has. They seem to be everywhere whenever I visit the airport.

Kevin

 

[jfy1999]

Monarch have found BHX an ideal place to park their planes when they're not operating. Most of the Monarch planes I've seen at BHX in the winter season were parked at remote stands all day. It'll get a lot busier in peak summer when BHX will have 6 A321's and 3 A320's operating all week.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Interesting figures.

Birmingham clearly has significantly more variety than Luton and I'd say more than Edinburgh, where we do fall down is destinations served, thirteen behind EDI and 16 behind LTN.

There is still Prague and Lisbon to come but I think we all have a wish list of missing routes that we'd like to see.

Luton may have more pax and are doing very well but there is no way that I would swap their set up for ours.

 

[Ashley]

Totally agree with you Ray, BHX infrastructure is miles better then Luton.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Below is a great article highlighting the impact that Mr Kehoe has had on the airport. Love him or hate him there is no denying that he has done wonders for Birmingham.

https://www.insidermedia.com/public...-business-insider-may-2016/the-wing-commander

These are just two snippets, it's well worth taking the time to read the full article.

he says. “But when I got here I was so disappointed. The airport was backward, with working practices we’d got rid of in other airports. The hangar stock was from 1939 and well past its sell-by date. The pier was 12 feet wide and more like something from a bus station than an international airport. The low-cost airline revolution had passed it by. The world had moved on – we hadn’t.”


The airport has also had to evolve to take account for the radically changed economics of the airline industry. Twenty years ago 80 per cent of its income came from airlines’ landing fees. Now – with the rise of the low-cost carriers who guarantee passenger numbers in return for lower charges – those fees account for only 45 per cent of its income. Kehoe agrees that the modern airport is as much a shopping centre and car park as a travel hub.

“The result is that we’ve had to become retailers, car park operators, property developers and advertisers to make money,” he adds. “The more we do that, the more the carriers can pass really low charges on to their customers, say a £20 fare, through discounted charging. We’ve had to drive down costs and get new sources of revenue so we can make offers to airlines that we would not have been capable of doing a few years ago.”

 

[jfy1999]

Life for many at the airport was nice: some even had two screens at their desks – one for chatting and a “CEO screen” which they would turn to and look busy as the boss walked past.

Makes the airport sound like it was rotten to the core

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Great article. Many thanks for posting the link, Ray.

Who used to own the slice of the airport that OTPP now owns (48.25%)? Was it Maquarie mainly?

Addendum

I didn't really phrase that very well. What I meant to ask was who had the bigger share, Maquarie or Rianta?

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Great article. Many thanks for posting the link, Ray.

Who used to own the slice of the airport that OTPP now owns (48.25%)? Was it Maquarie mainly?

Addendum

I didn't really phrase that very well. What I meant to ask was who had the bigger share, Maquarie or Rianta?

Hi there the localyokel, both macquarie and rianta both had 24% equal share in Birmingham airport, before selling it on....Andyc

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Many thanks, Andy.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there the localyokel, both macquarie and rianta both had 24% equal share in Birmingham airport, before selling it on....Andyc

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there the localyokel, looking at Birmingham airport on Wikipedia, states that seven metropolitan councils in West Midlands own up to 49 %, airport investment group Ltd own up to 48.25%, then employee share is about 2.75 %. , Andyc

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Thanks again. Have there ever been suggestions/rumours that BHX might be sold entirely into the private sector?

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there the localyokel, not that I'm aware of, but they already own bristol airport, have a minority stakes in Birmingham, Copenhagen and Brussels airports, so they may decide to full take control of Birmingham, who knows, we'll have to wait till they decide.... Andyc

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Be interesting if OTPP did decide to purchase BHX outright (assuming the local authorities were willing to sell of course) because competition issues might intrude if OTPP owned both BHX and BRS which are relatively close to each other.

When Ferrovial, the Spanish infrastructure investment group, was the leader of the consortium that purchased BAA (now Heathrow Airport Holdings) in 2006 they relinquished their very substantial holding in Bristol Airport (owned through one their subsidiaries, Cintra) as they feared competition issues would become an issue.

Around that time the company that owned Bristol Airport also became the preferred bidder for Exeter Airport that was being sold out of the public sector. Such a fuss was made by local politicians, business interests and others in Devon that this would have a negative impact on EXT that the OFT and EC began an enquiry on competition grounds. The BRS owners then withdrew their interest in purchasing EXT.

I know that MAG owns relatively neighbouring airports at MAN and EMA so I always wondered why there was a potential issue with BRS and EXT and BRS and LHR.

 

[nwoody2001]

I think for economic driver such as major airports, especially in the regions, they should always be a public stake. The local authorities of great Manchester control a 49% stake in MAG and the West Mids Authorities own a 49% stake in BHX. In the event an airport is own by a single private stakeholder, what is to stop them shutting up shop in tough times, only for the public sector to foot the bill!

 

[JENNYJET]

Private ownership = MANSTON!

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there all, I think that with Birminghams situation, as the local authorities have 49% of control, doesn't that act as a guarantore in case in thing happens if a private investor lost interest and wanted to pull out, these conditions may be in place to protect the airport should this happen...andyc