Chinese Charters

[Ray Finkle]

Unfortunately not.

I'm working flat out now until around the second week in August so won't be able to get down during the week. I should see it from work though :good:

I'm planning on going down in August. It should be a busy Monday morning with American, United, Thomson 787, Emirates new flight and Hainan in amongst the usual suspects :smile:

 

[jfy1999]

Almost comparable to MAN...
I will keep my eyes on FR24 to see what's operating it.

 

[Brum X]

Great to see BHX back on the Beijing departure boards. :hatsoff:

02:30 KE858 KOREAN AIR T2 Seoul Incheon B17-B20 15 Dep at 02:55
02:30 SU201 AEROFLOT AIRLINE T2 Moscow A14-A18,A20 08 Dep at 02:40
02:30 CZ4519 KE858 CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES T2 Seoul Incheon B17-B20 15 Dep at 02:55
02:45 HU7949 HAINAN AIRLINES-HU T2 Birmingham D11-D15 18 Dep at 02:55
03:10 KA997 DRAGONAIR T3 Hong Kong C25-C32 E19
03:10 CA6537 KA997 AIR CHINA T3 Hong Kong C25-C32 E19
03:10 CX5997 KA997 CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS T3 Hong Kong C25-C32 E19
03:20 LH8397 Lufthansa German Airlines T2 Frankfurt 02
04:40 RU422 AIR BRIDGE CARGO T2 Moscow 02
04:50 GH528 GloBus Airlines T3 Yakutsk C01-C10 E22
05:05 EY905 ETIHAD AIRWAYS T2 Abu Dhabi 03

 

[Ray Finkle]

Hainan 763 B-2490 is on her way :smile:

http://www.flightradar24.com/CHH7949/6b1858a

I do wish it was a permanent service though. Maybe one day.

 

[Ray Finkle]

From Mr K's Twitter

Paul Kehoe ‏@Paul_Kehoe 12m12 minutes ago
Another chapter in @bhx_official Chinese ops begins. Hainan on the way.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Birmingham Welcomes First Passengers in Extended Series of Direct Flights From Beijing

The Secretary of State for Transport Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP has welcomed the first passengers on a flight from China in the first of an extended series of flights, which, if developed into a daily service, could deliver an additional £81 million to the UK economy each year, including £62 million per year for the West Midlands.

The Boeing 767-300 aircraft, operated by Hainan Airlines, arrived this morning with 233 passengers visiting the UK on organised package tours. This is the first in a series of flights that will see more than 4,000 Chinese visitors to the region over the summer months through packages offered by Caissa Touristic, one of China’s largest tour operators.

Secretary of State for Transport Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP said:

“Airports play a vital role in our long-term economic plan so this route between Birmingham and China is a great step forward.

“The new service will showcase the West Midlands to thousands of visitors and potential investors.

“Birmingham Airport’s work towards a daily service shows their commitment to creating opportunities and new jobs in the region.”

Paul Kehoe, CEO of Birmingham Airport, has joined business leaders in hailing the flights as a sign of continued growth in the region:

“Last year’s test of direct Beijing flights were the result of collaborative working with Birmingham City Council, Marketing Birmingham, VisitBritain and the Government. I am delighted that we have been able to push on from last year’s success to offer a series of 34 flights this summer.

“The Midlands is a powerful engine of growth at the heart of our country and needs direct aviation to succeed. As the only region to have a positive balance of trade with China, we know how much the Midlands tourism and manufacturing industries value this direct connection.

“All involved in the deal intend that these Hainan flights will build over the coming years, before becoming the first scheduled service between a non-London UK airport and mainland China.”

A daily scheduled route would offer significant potential economic benefits to the West Midlands. In a forthcoming report being undertaken by York Aviation, the transport analysts say that “such a flight could support additional Gross Value Added in the region of around £62 million a year and around 1350 jobs”.

In addition, York Aviation say that the time savings for passengers in the West Midlands, able to fly from Birmingham to China rather than via Heathrow, would be worth £5 million a year to the economy.

Businesses across the region have been quick to welcome this development.

Supportive business quotes

Paul Faulkner, the new CEO of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, has responded to the announcement:

“The expansion of the Birmingham-Beijing links will be a tremendous asset to the region’s business community. The West Midlands continues to be the only UK region enjoying a positive trade balance with China and it is vital that we not only maintain that position but improve on it.

“The airport’s extra links will help enormously and even in this digital age, there is nothing like direct contact to create, promote and maintain trade. It will also encourage additional tourism between the two countries, further benefitting the regional economy.”

Barry Clemo, the Strategic Marketing Director at Resorts Worlds Birmingham, said:

“We have been actively supportive of the China initiative with Birmingham Airport during 2015. Being part of the Genting Group, an international business with roots in Asia, we recognise the importance of attracting business from China for Resorts World Birmingham and indeed the wider region. We will therefore continue to give our full support to this initiative and intend to be more actively involved in 2016 and beyond.”

Paul Noon OBE, the Regional Director of UKTI West Midlands, said:

“China is an extremely important market for goods and services produced in the West Midlands. Building up the cultural, business and academic links between this region and China is vital to the future prosperity of the West Midlands. These flights will be pivotal in building new people to people and business to business relationships between the engine of British growth and one of the world’s most important economies.”

Mandy Robinson, the National Sales Manager at Virgin Trains, said:

“This is great news for the city and wider region. Improved connectivity is vital to help boost both the local economy and that of the nation as a whole. Virgin Trains is proud to play our own small part and congratulate Paul and his team at the Airport for adding China to the map. We look forward to welcoming some new visitors onto our trains in the coming months.”

Robin Tjolle, the Chief Executive of Shakespeare’s England, said:

“Shakespeare’s England is proud to support Birmingham Airport in connecting our region to the rest of the world, and China in particular. Tourism is such an important part of the local economy and the development of a direct route to Beijing will help us encourage more Chinese visitors to come to the region and experience some of our history and heritage along with our Shakespeare connections.”

Tony Elvin, the General Manager of Hotel du Vin Birmingham, added:

“I would like to add my support for the cheaper flights between Birmingham and Beijing. China is becoming an ever important country for us in terms of foreign stays and dining within the hotel and this can only help and assist in promoting the region so that others follow.”

Steve Brittan, Managing Director of BSA Machine Tools, said:

“At present, BSA use carriers to fly from Birmingham Airport to European hubs or to Dubai to connect with long-haul flights, as this is easier than travelling to Heathrow. When BSA visits customers in Taiwan, we do fly from Heathrow via Hong Kong but this incurs the added inconvenience of travelling to and from London: fighting through traffic congestion and incurring parking expense and hotel fees.

“These difficulties also affect our overseas customers visiting our plant here in Birmingham. It would be of tremendous benefit and put Birmingham on the international map if Birmingham Airport could cater for long-haul point-to-point services.”

Peter Matthews, CMG; Chairman, Black Country Metals, said:

“Having a direct link from Birmingham to China is some of the best news I have heard for some time. The energetic region of the West Midlands can only benefit and grow with these flights. I, for one will be using this fantastic connection.”

https://birminghamairport.co.uk/media-i ... m-beijing/

 

[Ray Finkle]

“All involved in the deal intend that these Hainan flights will build over the coming years, before becoming the first scheduled service between a non-London UK airport and mainland China.”

If BHX are still several years away from making this permanent then I can't say I share Mr K's faith that by then it will be the first direct service outside of London.

 

[jfy1999]

Manchester looks like beating us to it in terms of scheduled services, but we're still first to have China flights overall. We can still be proud of that. I wonder why BHX have chosen Hainan as the prime candidate for scheduled flights.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Possibly because Hainan offered the best deal for these charters or were the only ones with spare operational capacity? Who knows?

I'm going to try not to come across as negative because I'm loving these flights.

Whilst the charters are great for us enthusiasts, they raise the BHX profile in China and go some way to proving demand a permanent service has to be top of the agenda. If these charters do lead to a permanent flight then that's fantastic but if somewhere such as MAN or EDI goes in, does the business and gets a flight there first then it could make things so much harder for BHX and potentially put them back years.

I was sort of secretly hoping that this run of flights would have led to something starting maybe early next year and we'd hear about it today but judging by Mr K's comments it appears they are still many years away. I just pray it's not too late by then.

Back to positive stuff and the flight was 100% full today with a convoy of coaches taking the pax away from BHX :good:

 

[Brum X]

Another great day for BHX.

I agree though, it was a bit "silly" for Mr K to make that comment. No doubt somebody will tweet him and remind him that there are x2 other UK airports that want these flights.

Hainan is Hainan so who knows what they will do. And the same goes for China Southern etc etc

 

[Brum X]

China is massive so i actually dont think it would put BHX back years if MAN/EDI had a flight first.

After all the rumour going around at the moment is for MAN and EDI to share a flight to PVG (Shanghai), BHX should be going for an airport like Guangzhou so i really think there is room for everyone to have flights to different parts of China.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Quite possibly but if the Chinese market is so huge why are airports (and not just in the UK) finding it so hard to attract services? LGW has struggled with it's on off flights and after years of drawing a blank it's looking as if MAN may have to share a service. Even BHX is having to go down years of charters desperately trying to prove the demand is there.

Since Emirates went 2x daily it's taken 10 years to get a third service. The reason most cited as to why.....because BHX is in between LHR...and MAN.

BHX still has no presence from the ever expanding Qatar and Etihad. Again the reason most cited....because BHX is in between LHR...and MAN.

American Airlines avoided BHX for years. Because BHX is in between LHR.....and MAN?

Even looking at short haul, BHX has only just been able to attract Icelandair and cannot seem to get Finnair or TAP, again because BHX is in between LHR...and MAN.

If Hainan start a successful PVG or PEK service from MAN then who's to say someone such as China Southern wouldn't look at that success and decide to start a rival service competing at source,
rather than 100 miles away? A CZ flight to BHX wouldn't necessarily be a viable option for those using Hainan at MAN and may only serve to dilute their own LHR service.

Qatar and Etihad didn't come to BHX to compete with Emirates at MAN, they went direct to the source. Whenever Emirates have expanded at MAN Qatar and Etihad haven't set up rival services from BHX, they've expanded themselves at source.

Birds of a feather and all that.

I just think it's very naive of Mr K to think his is the only airport in the running. Either he has assurances that MAN is not being looked at (I seriously doubt that) or he's playing a very dangerous game.

I just hope he knows what he is doing.

 

[Ray Finkle]

A nice article from Midlands Today about the Hainan flights. It includes a few words from Steve McCabe MP urging Mr Cameron to reject LHR and support a network of regional airports.

The Hainan flights are popular with 95% of all the seats sold :smile:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNKLZ-7N7j8[/video]

 

[Ray Finkle]

谦卑竭诚欢迎伯明翰机场。 :smile:

It looks as though they had a good reception at Warwick Castle.

Birmingham Airport (BHX) & Hainan airlines celebration at Warwick castle. Fantastic job by Mandy, Justine & the team

https://twitter.com/Steve_Brittan/statu ... 08/photo/1

 

[Brum X]

WOW that looks brilliant.

BHX really are pulling out all the stops to try and WOO these chinese airlines. I hope it works.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Looks great doesn't it? :smile:

Last year we had a market test and sold out all three A330's. It was a drop in the ocean but still a good start.

This year we have seen a 2x weekly service for two months and have as good as sold out every flight, this without it being available on the airlines website, booking engines etc.

If that isn't enough to prove that the demand is there then it makes you wonder just what else BHX need to do to get some interest. Surely they have now proven that the seats will sell and as long as the travel agents remain on board then putting the flights on general sale can only improve numbers.

Alot of time and effort has been put into getting us to where we are now, it would be such a shame to fall at the final hurdle.

 

[Brum X]

I would love to have been a fly on the wall with the guys from BHX and im assuming some guys from Hainan Airlines ????


When they are launching flights to cities such as Prague, then it does make an airport like BHX a big possibility.

So will next year be a 4 month programme of flights ???

 

[Ray Finkle]

I have no idea what's next.

I can't see what else they need to do to show demand. You would have thought that the latest numbers would prove a service is viable, even if it's seasonal for a year or two to start with?

Who knows what's going on in the various boardrooms.

Maybe we could ask Mr K if he can say just where we are in relation to something permanent.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I thought I'd ask him on Twitter where we are:

Realistically are we close to a China service? Demand must have been proven now? MAN/EDI reportedly closing in!

The reply:

yes but@HainanAirlines @bhx_official early days but some progress

Make of that what you will.

 

[Brum X]

I thought I'd ask him on Twitter where we are:

Realistically are we close to a China service? Demand must have been proven now? MAN/EDI reportedly closing in!

The reply:

yes but@HainanAirlines @bhx_official early days but some progress

Make of that what you will.

Thanks for taking the time to email him.

Nothing we dont know i suppose.