Beijing Capital Airlines

[thunderchild]

Thanks for that.

As Ray says it's easy to see where the conversation could go, I think discussion is best left until a time when (hopefully) something official is announced.

 

[nwoody2001]

PK has not denied it on twitter!!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

I hope nwoody doesn't mind me repeating this here but below is a Twitter conversation with Mr Kehoe.

Scheduled flights from BHX - PEK & PVG soon to be announced, can't wait!

His reply: Watch this space.

 

[thunderchild]

Well if BHX can also secure scheduled flights to China then it is something to be applauded. I think PK must be confident it's in the bag.

 

[andyc941]

Hi Ray,i see now why you didnt want to post the link so not to cause a heated debate.PK said a Chinese
carrier it might not be BCA it might be an other airline,I know last year you were expecting China Southern to repeat the charters flights but Hainan took you all by surprise

 

[ronnoc1k8]

BCA took me by surprise when I first heard it was applying for slots.

 

[David_itl]

The interesting bit is that no-one has advised where BHX-PVG has appeared from. Perhaps Hangzhou doesn't grasp the same imagination as Shanghai. And if the frequency is just weekly to each, then it's not really an endorsement of the sentiment that "Around 150,000 people flew between the Midlands and China last year and Kehoe said an overwhelming majority of them wanted to fly from their local airport.".

 

[Ray Finkle]

Yes mate, this thread is for discussion about the impending announcement. Any MAN vs BHX stuff can be done elsewhere.

I personally think when he mentions Shanghai it is actually Hangzhou. They're only about 100 miles apart, which in China is pretty much nothing.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

I've had a feeling that something has been going on behind the scenes for a while now.
If it were to be another series of charters, would we not have already heard? Another alternative is that there will be no flights this year.
But, as I said in my opening sentence, I feel something bigger is happening. My only concern is Mr Kehoe's comment

'Following the huge success of these flights, negotiations with a Chinese airline have progressed well and the airline has now filed slots to operate scheduled flights between Birmingham and Beijing and Birmingham and Shanghai this summer'.

If there are to be scheduled flights, could these be just seasonal ?

Kevin

 

[User001]

Why oh why do such sensationalist articles like this have to come to the fore?

'MAN poaching BHX passengers', and 'MAN trying to undermine Birmingham'.

I know the article isn't a BHX official release, but, this bickering for a Chinese flight is getting a bit childish now. I don't understand why it's the China route causing such a stir for BHX and its supporters/commentators and media outlets?

First we had the 'MAN bribed Hainan with government handouts', then the media in the Midlands 'MAN stole the BHX flights' and now all this. What the hell is going on?

When Virgin announced MAN-SFO, where was the media outcry? More flights for Norwegian from MAN, did Paul Kehoe claim it was subsidies that brought in the flights to MAN rather than add to the BHX schedule?

I just don't understand why China in particular has brought this much pettiness and ridiculous headlines?

Surely at a time when Heathrow and Gatwick are now reaching capacity, focus should be getting the myriad of new flights that can't use those 2 airports, and not bitching about one single route that both airports can sustain independently and both support anyway.

 

[David_itl]

It's not something that would be ideal (similar to the VS services at MAN recently announced). I would hope that there'd be something like a minimum 3/4 weekly service in the summer and 1/2 weekly in the winter given the size of that market which is a fractionally smaller than the MAN market which is 4 weekly year round and potentially 8 weekly if Air China gets confirmed. Trust me Ray, I did about a dozen attempts in my mind regarding the earlier message before settling on what I put.

 

[Brum X]

Great news if BHX can get Beijing and Shanghai at a decent frequency.

I for one will be a happy boy and BHX can start poaching our customers back from MAN to BHX

And i think the regulars on here knew there was something going on behind the scenes. Lets hope it is confirmed soon and to put us out of our misery.

To put the record straight, Birmingham and Manchester are "fierce" rivals (Both airports and city region) this region of ours exports more to china than Manchester so i would expect our leaders to be passionate about this issue becouse in there eyes why should Manchester have direct flights to the second biggest economy in the world and Brum which exports more doesnt ???? Without getting into the BHX v MAN rival argument, i can see there point. I suppose they wouldnt be doing there job if they didnt make such remarks. These are passionate people at the end of the day.

 

[User001]

Given there are no new route applications for BHX on the CAAC portal, I assume that we are still talking about BCA as the airline and that Shanghai should actually read Hanzhou given its close proximity to Shanghai (in the grand scheme of things).

I wonder if this is only possible thanks to the £12m subsidy paid to BHX (or is it only PK that can make those sort of claims).

In all seriousness, it's great to see our regional airports prosper, I for one hope ALL routes succeed rather than worry who is poaching off who and what not. Long may it continue.

 

[nwoody2001]

Why oh why do such sensationalist articles like this have to come to the fore?

'MAN poaching BHX passengers', and 'MAN trying to undermine Birmingham'.

No idea User001, but probably for the same reason that whenever such an article comes out, you're the one that has to bring it to peoples attention. If you notice, you're the only person to bring up the BHX vs MAN element of the article, everyone else has taken that element of it with a pinch of salt and ignored it accordingly. You on the other hand appear not to be able to drop it!

You have seen enough to know what PK is like, deal with it!

 

[User001]

Woody,

Plenty of people have taken issue of the article from what I've seen on other forums, I'm the only one brave enough to say anything on here though,

But, I suppose it's easy to defend the mighty Paul Kehoe when his fan club thinks the sun shines out of his ass and the head of the airport you love. When the man can do no wrong, of course you are going to against what I say, and wouldn't expect anything less.

 

[nwoody2001]

Then talk about it on those forums rather than going over your same rant time and time again here every time PK makes his statements. You have a lot to offer these forums but lord, your soap-box rants are as predictable as his statements.

So, as Ray ha said, rather than go of topic about about the boring predictable MAN vs BHX rant, can we keep on topic!

 

[Ray Finkle]

This is exactly why I didn't post the full article, it's oh so predictable.

If anybody feels that strongly then they need to contact Paul Kehoe directly. He is readily available through social media and via email, in our experiences he usually responds.

As nwoody has said can we now go back on topic and talk about this possible announcement. Any posts about anything other than this may be deleted and if necessary the thread will be locked.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Seems like the news is out -

http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/bus...ingham-airport-secures-two-scheduled-11217432

Starting 19 July, Beijing Capital Airlines operate scheduled services to Beijing on Saturdays and Shanghai (Hangzhou) on Tuesdays. Aircraft will be A330-200.
It's stated to run from 'this summer', so I'm still unsure whether the flights are seasonal or year round.

Excellent news, and very well done to Mr Kehoe and his team.

Regards

Kevin

 

[Ray Finkle]

Unless anything has changed it should be from 14th June through until 29th October.

Tuesday in 10:50 out 12:50.
Saturday in 17:30 out 19:30.

Now that it's out there I'd imagine an official announcement today?

 

[Jon Dempsey]

Seems to me that the Manchester marketing team have been aware of the impending announcement and are attempting to drum up local sales before it becomes public.
You cannot knock them for doing their jobs.

And it is good to see the hard work of PK's team come to fruition.