Icelandair

[thunderchild]

I doubt we’ll be seeing WOW here anytime soon.

 

[Brum X]

So it appears all the hard work Paul Kehoe did at BHX just a few years ago is slowly dripping away.

Sad times for BHX and everybody who supports it.

Everytime i log onto this forum im expecting bad news.

 

[Brum X]

I doubt we’ll be seeing WOW here anytime soon.

Just out of interest Thunder, was this the airline you were suggesting was quitting BHX or what is one of the others ?

 

[Jerry]

So it appears all the hard work Paul Kehoe did at BHX just a few years ago is slowly dripping away.

Sad times for BHX and everybody who supports it.

Everytime i log onto this forum im expecting bad news.

I'd say there were lots of positives Jet2 and Primera being the main 2.

 

[thunderchild]

Just out of interest Thunder, was this the airline you were suggesting was quitting BHX or what is one of the others ?

No, this one took me by surprise and I thought the switch over to the 737MAX meant it was out of harms way. Actually, the route I was alluding to earlier was Florence. At least that one resulted in some good news for a change.

 

[smithy108]

Straight from horses mouth, if there was any doubt, received this response from their booking enquiry email


We will not be flying to/from Birmingham after the 18th.January.2018
We fly direct to London Heathrow,London Gatwick,Manchester,Glasgow,Aberdeen

Kind regards,
Hildur Rós
Icelandair UK & Ireland
Tel:. +44 (0) 20 7874 1000

 

[Ianbutty]

Straight from horses mouth, if there was any doubt, received this response from their booking enquiry email


We will not be flying to/from Birmingham after the 18th.January.2018
We fly direct to London Heathrow,London Gatwick,Manchester,Glasgow,Aberdeen

Kind regards,
Hildur Rós
Icelandair UK & Ireland
Tel:. +44 (0) 20 7874 1000

I am going to boycott listening to Sigur Ros.....not good. Hopefully some one will step in. Getting embarrassing now.

We cannot seem to sustain a boom when others can. Damn our geography.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there ray and all, as I have said before many times, what ever deal has been initially agreed for the first twelve months, then after that the agreed price will go up to what ever is the airports normal fixed is, this when after the first 12 months, then the airline decides thats it and pulls out with an excuse, thus leaving frustrated passengers with no airline to use at bhx. This obviously how bhx has operated either under Paul Kehoe or before him. The question that you have to ask yourselves is who's next I wonder... AndyC

 

[oriona300]

That's put my plans for next year up sh*t creek only a week ago i was looking to book 2 trips one for a weekend and another to Washington for a couple of weeks . I was looking to try and get on the MAX but now looks like i'll have to fly up to Glasgow Flybe and cacth the flight from there to KEF and i'll go back to KLM for washington .
I went to KEF a few weeks ago for the weekend and there was only 10-15 spare seats . I thought they we're doing well from BHX and how the hell has Aberdeen still got it's flight's .

 

[Jerry]

Aberdeen like Belfast City i

That's put my plans for next year up sh*t creek only a week ago i was looking to book 2 trips one for a weekend and another to Washington for a couple of weeks . I was looking to try and get on the MAX but now looks like i'll have to fly up to Glasgow Flybe and cacth the flight from there to KEF and i'll go back to KLM for washington .
I went to KEF a few weeks ago for the weekend and there was only 10-15 spare seats . I thought they we're doing well from BHX and how the hell has Aberdeen still got it's flight's .

Aberdeen like Belfast City has Q400 flights from Air Iceland.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Aberdeen like Belfast City has Q400 flights from Air Iceland.

A Q400 would be far better than having to transit via GLA with Flybe. Some of the journey times shown on the Icelandair website are horrendous.

Kevin

 

[jfy1999]

Getting embarrassing now.

We cannot seem to sustain a boom when others can. Damn our geography.

My thoughts exactly Ian

 

[Ray Finkle]

I've not done a scientific study but we do appear to lose quite a few airlines at around the 2-3 year mark (although not all), it makes me wonder why?

As suggested earlier, is BHX being oversold and it soon becomes apparent that the returns are not what was expected? Is it to do with new airline/route subsidies running out making the route unviable at the regular cost base?

I guess with such details being commercially sensitive and not in the public domain we will never know for sure but I hope that two or so years from now we're not speculating about Primera potentially cutting routes, or seeing big Jet2 reductions.

 

[thunderchild]

I am going to boycott listening to Sigur Ros.....not good. Hopefully some one will step in. Getting embarrassing now.

We cannot seem to sustain a boom when others can. Damn our geography.

I think part of the problem is “last in, first out”. While there obvious exceptions, generally legacy and flag carrier airlines looking at the UK go to London first, ideally Heathrow with Gatwick second best. Then they look to expand up North into Scotland/Manchester and when that does well we start to see expansion elsewhere which is where we come in along with the likes of BRS.

So off course when things aren’t looking rosey the smaller airports get cut first. AA dropped BHX-JFK first, then MAN-JFK. Obviously LHR-JFK won’t go but you get the idea. United and Air Transat have followed suit. BHX was Aegean’s smaller UK destination with Icelandair in a similar position.

Off course there are exceptions - Czech Airlines and Air India buck the trend slightly but any airlines looking to trim to UK capacity will cut BHX first and concentrate their efforts north and south.

Personally, I think a lot of this is all down to the increasing uncertainty surrounding Brexit.

 

[Jerry]

A Q400 would be far better than having to transit via GLA with Flybe. Some of the journey times shown on the Icelandair website are horrendous.

Kevin

Yeah true. I've never understood why Icelandair haven't teamed up with Flybe in a codeshare or a joint venture. They'd get pretty coverage of the UK if they did that with a couple of E jets based maybe at KEF.

 

[Silvercity]

I've not done a scientific study but we do appear to lose quite a few airlines at around the 2-3 year mark (although not all), it makes me wonder why?

As suggested earlier, is BHX being oversold and it soon becomes apparent that the returns are not what was expected? Is it to do with new airline/route subsidies running out making the route unviable at the regular cost base?

I guess with such details being commercially sensitive and not in the public domain we will never know for sure but I hope that two or so years from now we're not speculating about Primera potentially cutting routes, or seeing big Jet2 reductions.

I think Liverpool suffers with this a bit too, of course it' in the shadow of Manchester Airport which is much bigger. Liverpool expands well when the UK 's economy is doing OK, maybe Birmingham is similar . At the moment everything is so uncertain, so might be some contractions.

 

[Aceshigh]

There has to be more to all these airlines rushing to the exit door. If it was purely Brexit uncertainty you would see the same effect at Stansted Luton EMA Edinburgh etc.

Whilst BHXs catchment covers part of Manchester Bristol EMA Luton it could be argued that being in the epicentre it should actually be in pole position to make capital but it seems to be it's a achilles heel ?

I think the poster who suggested incentives possibly had it right.

I have no idea on the figures but there is a feeling that BHX was always a high cost airport so are airlines simply buying into a reduced landing fee for year or two then bailing as soon as the "normal" landing fee structure kicks in ?

I'm also now more suspicious of the timing of the CEO departure, it seems to have gone a wee bit pair shaped since he left. Either he knew what might happen or his going has infact impacted the airport negatively. I cannot for the life of me understand how one of the largest organisations on the West Midlands has not sought to fill the position ASAP!

 

[whateverg]

I think the suggestion that an airline comes to Birmingham purely for the incentives knowing that chances are they will leave once they finish sounds a little simplistic. I am sure that starting up a new route is not a decision that an airline takes lightly and requires a decent investment, for example even in marketing. I expect the airline started the new route in good faith and likely a number of factors came together at the same time which forced their hand. We will never know what these are for definite but contributors could be poorer performance than expected, Primera Air starting, incentives finishing, better use of the aircraft elsewhere... What is particularly interesting is the fact that the route has been axed with such short notice. In any case, a real, real shame. An airline I really liked having at BHX.

 

[Vile8er]

I have no idea on the figures but there is a feeling that BHX was always a high cost airport so are airlines simply buying into a reduced landing fee for year or two then bailing as soon as the "normal" landing fee structure kicks in ?

Does anyone know why BHX is such an expensive airport for airlines or have the airport management ever revealed their reasonings why costs there are so high?

 

[JF57]

Does anyone know why BHX is such an expensive airport for airlines or have the airport management ever revealed their reasonings why costs there are so high?

Are the standard figures known for all airports to know which are normally more expensive?