2016

[Ray Finkle]

I think it's unlikely now that we'll see much more for S16 so I'll make a start on W16/17. If we're lucky enough to get multiple announcements for 2017 then I'll separate this into it's own thread.

W16/17 so far

Wizz Air - Budapest, Warsaw and Sofia all upgraded to A321. New winter routes to Sofia (2x weekly), Bucharest (2x weekly) and Wroclaw (2x weekly). Budapest and Warsaw see extra frequencies both +1 weekly.

Blue Air - Bucharest (+1x weekly)

Iberia - New winter route to Madrid (3x weekly).

Monarch - New winter route to Lisbon (3x weekly).

Norwegian - Gran Canaria (+1 weekly).

Ryanair - New routes to Sofia (2x weekly) and Warsaw (3x weekly). New winter routes to Madrid (4x weekly), Verona (2x weekly), Murcia (2x weekly) and Vilnius (2x weekly). Fuerteventura +1, Gran Canaria +1, Malaga +1, Malta +1, Tenerife +2, Barcelona +2.

Flybe - New routes to Rotterdam (12x weekly) and Luxembourg (daily)

Thomson - New routes to Punta Cana and Dubai Al Maktoum both weekly. Winter sees 9x weekly long haul flights.

Thomas Cook - Extra based A321 with new routes to Hurghada (weekly) and Las Palmas (weekly). Increases to Lanzarote (+1 weekly), Banjul (+1 weekly) and Tenerife (+3 weekly).

Vueling - New routes to Tenerife (2x weekly) and Malaga (2x weekly). New winter route to Alicante (3x weekly).

 

[nwoody2001]

Well hopefully the Ryanair winter schedule press release may bear some fruit!?

 

[jfy1999]

Well hopefully the Ryanair winter schedule press release may bear some fruit!?

We could do with a bit more from them although you have to wonder how the old Eurohub will cope. If there is a big expansion and the southern pier fills up (however unlikely that is) then they could always use the 80's stands.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there ray and all, with all these new and resumed carriers coming into Birmingham, was that 11 for this year, then surely with all these trips that the route development team and William Pearson and Paul kehoe are making, then surely they should be following up with all this networking and new contacts there making at all these shows and conventions they are attending, they should be following up all there leads they had made and hopefully making better contacts and arranging follow up meetings at the airport, before hopefully announcing new carriers, but it seems to be very slow progress at bhx, all other airports have taken the initiative and moved, in Birminghams case, just thought about it, then wondered why there lagging behind there rivals all the time... Andyc

 

[Brum X]

Sorry Andrew for the rant but i disagree with you on all levels of your message. I dont think you are giving the guys at BHX much credit for all there hard work.

You quote why other airports are doing so much better than BHX ???? Really

What airports are these then ?? Yes you could say that historically BHX has been slow, we have been chatting about this for years, however over the last 24 months, something has changed at BHX and for the better and i dont really think your views are valid as of today. Lets leave judgement until we hear that no new routes have been put in the bag after this years routes conference shall we ???

Im sure we will continue to hear good news from BHX, i feel it in my bones.

However you are free to have your say and your views are much appreciated, however on this one i think you are soooooo out of touch with the reality of what goes on and what hard work goes into getting a new route/airline.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I'm with Brum X on this one.

Historically BHX has been very slow and littered with one season wonders. I think from the arrival of Turkish in 2008 there was very little until 2013 when Air India came back. As said though the last two years have been unlike anything BHX has ever seen before and all of the team deserve huge credit.

The key thing though is not only have they secured new services, at the moment they look to be doing well and staying or increasing. Steady frequency increases from Norwegian, 140% increase this winter from Wizz, new route and increases from Vueling, Iberia remaining 4 weekly into winter, massive increases from Emirates. Even Ryanair have expanded. The only two new airlines now to confirm winter are Czech Airlines and Blue Air, all of the others have remained committed.

As for not following up leads have you seen the amount of travelling that they have done lately? They've been in Singapore, Helsinki, USA, Routes Americas in Puerto Rico and numerous trips to India. Routes Asia starts in 9 days and Routes Europe is in April, Birmingham will be attending both. They're just the ones that we know about, I'm sure that there are more.

Don't forget it can take several years from the initial discussions to the first service being launched. Paul Kehoe said that Air India took five years of discussions, I think there were 3 years with Wizz Air.

Another thing to be careful of is over capacity. New services are great and we all love them but they need time to mature, adding too much too soon can be counter productive and in the end can leave you with nothing.

I've been critical of BHX in the past (I think we all have) but they are doing some outstanding work at the moment and deserve huge praise.

I'm just really hoping that it can continue :smile:

 

[Brum X]

Also Andrew, lets not forget the money they are spending on infrastructure over the last couple of years. Thery have extended the runway, built a new pier, built a new control tower, new filters on the taxiways and now building a state of the art double deck airbridge. Its not all about getting a new route to China or west coast of USA.

What other regional airport are doing this atm ???

Edinburgh (Rival) Nothing= They are relying on out of date terminal facilities, old 80s airbridges on brand new Qatar 787s. Cramped Apron apace when busy

Luton- Dont even go there. That airport is a mess and horrible

Glasgow- Yes they have new routes this year like BHX but again i dont lose sleep about there airport infrastructure either.

Manchester- Yes they are our biggest rival and always will be, again they are going through massive redevlopment in the next few years and fair play to them. They are and will always be ahead of BHX unless something out of the norm happens, however for an airport that carries 10.2 million pax against an airport that will carry 23 million very soon. I dont really think BHX is doing too bad at the minuite by comparisson. An area that BHX is doing better (yes there is one) is India, Air India had 91% load factor yesterday and so it should. If we can get a Mumbai to add to our Delhi and Amritsar then this will be one area where BHX excels. Over the years there may be others to look forward too.

 

[Brum X]

Would also like to include:


Bristol= I would say this is one airport BHX needs to keep an eye on. It is doing great with passenger growth (better than BHX) upgrading its terminal facilities and has the mighty Easyjet. However im sure they are looking over there shoulder with the arrival of Wizzair, Norweigan and Vueling and asking themselves what on earth do we need to do to get a daily flight to New York ?????

 

[richard winterbourn]

Yes, as has been stated by the previous two posters, A.C's comments are not justified when you consider the achievements over the past 18 months.

But i think we have to look at how these achievements were secured.

Clearly what is described as the route planning department at BHX didn't just get up from their desks two years ago and collectively say: 'Let's go out and find some new routes'.

At that time there was clearly a fundamental change within the BHX management structure. With the backing of the respective owners - the seven metropolitan boroughs of the West Midlands and Airport Group Investments - a new and aggressive strategy was set in place to see the airport achieve a greater throughput of passengers. And this in part to fully utilise the major infrastructure developments carried out there ie the extended runway and the main terminal development, and to see the airport offer greater opportunities to the vast West Midlands conurbation.

Fine, the route planning department have done a marvelous job, but let us not forget that they are working to the current strategy, a strategy that has been spearheaded by the current CEO Paul Kehoe. And it is to him that a lot of praise should be given.

He's had difficult times at BHX but perhaps now we can understand what level of commitment and drive he has shown in raising not only the throughput of the airport but also its profile.

For me, i would like to see a new forward-thinking strategy set in place publicly that will identify what we can hopefully achieve in the next five years - not only in increased passenger levels but also infrastructure improvements that will cater for this need.

 

[thunderchild]

I echo all the above - from next month BHX will be offering it's highest ever level of service which certainly isn't something to be laughed at.

 

[nwoody2001]

I also echo all of the above and I would really question what planet Andy C is living on in order to arrive at such conclusions!!!??? The mind boggles. BHX is likely to grow by circa 1,000,000 pax in a single year, attract numerous new airlines and routes, but apparently the route development team aren't doing enough???

In addition to everything people have said above, I would also like to promote how far BHX has come in the last 5 years.

I remember circa 5 years ago a report coming out stating that BHX has the highest landing charges than any other regional airport in the UK and some of the highest in the world. These costs at the time were a necessity to fund the on-going running of the airport but the consequences were that this make BHX an unattractive airport to new airlines, especially low cost operators. However, if going through and coming out the other end of the largest recession in history, BHX has totally re-structure its cost base. It has had to go through horrible times with pay reviews, redundancies, cost cutting etc, none of these are pretty but are a necessity if BHX is to compete. We are now seeing the fruits of this labour. PK stated recently that BHX now has one of the lowest cost bases of any regional airport in the UK which I suspect has resulted in a dramatic reduction of fees resulting in the growth we are now seeing! all this at a time the airport has also invested close to £1billion in major infrastructure over the same time!

A miracle as me, and one which should be congratulated!!! I just hope now that the guys at BHX are able to maintain such momentum and see such growth continue, and I have no reason to doubt that the RD Team at BHX are more than capable of doing this!!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Great comments from everyone and I'm glad that the RD team are getting the credit that they so deserve. We've all criticised when we've sat back and watched other airports opening new services whilst BHX saw nothing. Now we're enjoying a period of success it's only fair that we offer our praise.

I don't think any of us are under the illusion that BHX is now the finished article, we're all well aware that there is still much to be done. Long haul leisure is pretty woeful, Scandinavia has huge gaps and there are still European markets that are unserved or lacking in frequency.

Great strides forwards have been made this year and what stands out to me is that there is a spread across different markets.

We've secured new loco operators in Norwegian, Wizz Air and Vueling, all are showing signs of growth. We've seen a new European full service carrier in Czech Airlines, who are likely to be followed soon by Finnair and potentially LOT Polish. We're also seeing an impressive five new long haul routes starting this year with added capacity on others.

I respect everybody's opinion and welcome them to be posted on here but perhaps one more look at nwoodys list is needed.


New Airlines into BHX (As of the start of 2016)

• Alba Star – Palma de Mallorca (2x weekly)

• Blue Air – Bucharest (2x weekly), Cluj - Napoca (3x weekly)

• CSA Czech Airlines – Prague (5x weekly)

• Iberia Express – Madrid (4x weekly)

• Qatar – Doha (8x weekly)

New Routes into BHX (As of the start of 2016)

• Monarch - Lisbon (4x weekly), Madrid (3x weekly)

• Norwegian - Tenerife (2x weekly), Las Palmas (1x weekly) - both new for summer

• Flybe – Knock (6x weekly), Limoges (2x weekly), Nantes (5x weekly), Rennes (4x weekly) Rotterdam (12x weekly), Toulouse (Daily)

• Ryanair – Corfu (2x weekly), Madrid (4x weekly), Verona (2x weekly), Vilnius (2x weekly), Sofia (3x weekly)

• Thomson – Punta Cana (1x weekly), Dubai (1x weekly)

• Vuelling – Alicante (3x weekly), Tenerife (2x weekly)

• Wizz Air – Bucharest (2x weekly), Poznan (2x Weekly), Wroclaw (2x weekly), Sofia (2x weekly)

Increasing capacity at BHX

• Aer Lingus – Dublin (+ 14x weekly)

• Emirates – Dubai (1x 77W upgrade to 1x A388, 1x 3 class 77W to 1x 2 class 77W)

• Flybe – Aberdeen ( +7x weekly), Amsterdam (+7x weekly), Bergerac (+1x weekly), Berlin (+6x weekly), Biarritz (+1x weekly), Dusseldorf (+7x weekly), Edinburgh (+7x weekly), Glasgow (+7x weekly), Hannover (+7x weekly), Milan (+13x weekly), Stuttgart (+5x weekly)

• Icelandair – Reykjavik (+1x weekly)

• KLM – Amsterdam (+5x weekly)

• Monarch – Barcelona (+2x weekly), Gibraltar (+1x weekly), Ibiza (+1x weekly), Rome (+1 weekly), Lanzarote (+1 weekly), Gran Canaria (+1 weekly), Alicante (+2 weekly), Fuerteventura (+1x weekly), Malaga (+2 weekly), Palma (+2 weekly), Tenerife (+2 weekly), Dubrovnik (+1 weekly)

• Norwegian - Barcelona (+1x weekly), Gran Canaria (+1 weekly)

• PIA - Islamabad (+1 weekly)

• Ryanair – Alicante (+ 4x weekly), Barcelona (+ 2x weekly), Dublin (+ 14x weekly), Malaga (+ 1x weekly), Malta (+ 1x weekly), Palma (+ 2x Weekly)

• SAS – Copenhagen (+ 4x weekly)

• Thomson – Skiathos (+1x weekly), Montego Bay (+1 weekly), Sal (+1 weekly)

• Thomas Cook - Banjul (+1x weekly), extra based aircraft for W16/17

• Turkish Airlines – Istanbul (+ 2x weekly)

• Vueling - Barcelona (+2x weekly)

• Wizz Air – Budapest (+1x weekly), Warsaw (+1x weekly). Both Warsaw and Budapest switch from A320 to A321

 

[jfy1999]

I make that an extra 214 weekly flights not including the extra flights from the new Thomas Cook A321:

Tenerife South +3 weekly, Arrecife +1 weekly, Las Palmas +1 weekly

That makes a total of 219 extra flights per week for when S17 rolls around although I imagine the winter and summer schedules will vary considerably. Vilnius replaces Kaunas and the extra Thomson flight to Sal replaces a flight to Hurghada, so those flights don't count towards the grand total, but if all the extra flights were to operate year-round we would have 11,388 extra flights a year, or an average 31 extra flights a day! Unfortunately that isn't the case but it shows just how much we can expect in 2017!

 

[Paulsstrange]

UPDATE as of 2nd April :


Increases/changes impacting 2016:

Aer Lingus – Dublin Increases to 5 flights on some days for Summer. NOW COMMENCED.

Air Malta – Malta will change from charter to scheduled service from May. Currently it shows reduced from twice weekly to once weekly. This is still to be confirmed. Thomson are selling seats on this weekly flight so a second may well be added.

Albastar – Will operate a once weekly charter flight to Palma for Summer 2016 using Boeing 737 400 aircraft. Flights run from end May to end September on Thursdays.

BH Air – Will return to Birmingham this summer with 2 weekly charter flights to Bourgas using Airbus A320's. A Friday flight will commence mid May, and a Monday flight will operate high season only between August 1st and middle September.

Cello Aviation – Will add a second Boeing 737 to its fleet from April. This will take the total fleet based at BHX up to 3 aircraft operating V.I.P Charters.

Cityjet – Will return to Birmingham this summer with a weekly charter to Innsbruck on Saturdays using their new Superjet SSJ100. Starts end May.

Emirates – Will upgrade their lunchtime service to the A380. Stand 54 is to be upgraded to 3 air bridges and the airport to become A380 compliant. Commences March 2016. NOW COMMENCED.

Eurowings – Dusseldolf – Flights upgrade to A320 from October.

Evelop – Will operate 3 charter flights a week to Palma for Summer 2016 using Airbus A320's. Some flights will be for Thomsons. Flights will operate Saturdays ( June – end September), and Sundays and Mondays both ( End May – end September).

Flybe – Increases on a number of key routes for Summer 2016 (Amsterdam, Dusseldolf, Berlin, Milan, Stuttgart and Aberdeen), estimated 13 or 14 based aircraft, in total including new routes (see below) up to 12 additional return rotations per day compared to summer 2015. Amsterdam will see 2 extra daily flightsNOW COMMENCED

Flybe – There will the usual gradual re-introduction of previously operated French summer routes from April though to July. These will include up to a maximum of during high season as follows; 2 weekly Avignon, 1 weekly Bastia, 6 weekly Bergerac, 3 weekly Biarritz, 5 weekly Bordeaux, 4 weekly Brest, and 3 weekly La Rochelle.NOW COMMENCED – STILL BEING PHASED IN

Icelandair – Rekjavik increases from 2 weekly to 3 weekly from February 2016.NOW COMMENCED.

Icelandair – Increase in flights for winter 2016/2017 to between 3 and 5 weekly.

KLM – Amsterdam increases to 6 daily on week days from end March. Equipment used not known but will be varied. NOW COMMENCED.

Lufthansa – Munich upgrades from Embraer 195 to an Airbus A319 on the majority of flights from end March. NOW COMMENCED.

Monarch Airlines – Capacity to increase with a 9th based aircraft added from June. The extra aircraft will be an Airbus A320. New routes and additional capacity on existing routes will see an additional 14 to18 weekly return flights. Its thought the base will see 6 A321's and 3 A320's based. The new routes are mentioned further down, but additional capacity will also see one additional weekly flight each to Gibralter, Ibiza, Barcelona, Arrecife, Rome, Las Palmas, Fuertuventura, and Dubrovnik, with 2 additional weekly flights each to Malaga, Alicante, Palma and Tenerife South.

Norweigan – Las Palmas and Tenerife will operate for the first time during summer, Las Palmas weekly and Tenerife twice weekly. NOW COMMENCED

Norweigan – Norweigan will also increase flights to Barcelona from 2 to 3 weekly from April 2016.

Norweigan – Will also increase flights to Malaga from 3 to 4 weekly from June.

Norweigan – Las Palmas will increase to twice weekly from October

Pakistan International Airlines– Increase in services to Islamabad from 3 up to 4 weekly from April, with the historical Saturday service reinstated. Flights will be a mix of Boeing 777 200 and Boeing 777 300.

Ryanair – Increase in existing services for summer 2016 with increased based and away based flying, resulting in between *20 and 30 extra weekly return flights when compared to summer 2015 (*Figure also includes new routes see further below). Dublin up from 4 to 6 daily, with the following weekly flight increases, Alicante 10 to 12, Barcelona 7 to 9, Malaga 7 to 9, Malta 2 to 3, and Palma 7 to 9 weekly. NOW COMMENCED – STILL BEING PHASED IN

Ryanair – Increase in services for winter 16/17 will see a 45% increase in flights compared to winter 15/16, this being on average 19 extra weekly return flights. Highlights include new flights for the winter season to Madrid 4 weekly, and Murcia, Verona and Vilnius all 2 weekly each. There will be 2 extra weekly flights to Barcelona, and 1 extra weekly flight each to Las Palmas, Malaga,Malta and Tenerife South.

SAS Scandinavian – Copenhagen will increase with 4 extra flights per week ( Mon,Tues,Thurs,Fri) operating late evening using a CRJ 900.NOW COMMENCED.

Thomas Cook Airlines – Flights to Tunisia have all been cancelled, with flights to Turkey and Egypt reduced (UK wide). Extra flights to other EU holiday destinations will take over those slots for summer 2016.

Thomas Cook Airlines – Will a base a second Airbus A321 at Birmingham for Winter with an extra 6 to 7 weekly flights including extra flights to Gambia and the Canary Islands.

Thomson Airways – Capacity will increase for summer 2016 with a 6th short haul aircraft based. The base will see 3 x 757 200 and 3 x 737 800. Flights to Tunisia have all been cancelled, with flights to Turkey and Egypt also reduced (UK wide). Extra flights to other EU holiday destinations will take over those slots.

Turkish Airlines – Flights to Istanbul are to increase from 12 weekly to 14 weekly using Boeing 737 800 aircraft, from May.

VLM – 3 times weekly F50 Antwerp route will cease from March 9th 2016 due very low loads/yields. NOW CEASED.

Vueling – Barcelona will be increased by 1 or 2 flights per week for summer 2016 up from 4 or 5 flights to 5 or 6 flights a week respectively, and daily in August. Commences from April. NOW COMMENCED

Wizzair – The Budapest route will increase from 2 to 3 weekly from March. NOW COMMENCED

Wizzair – The Warsaw route will increase from 2 to 3 weekly from April

Wizzair – Budapest and Warsaw will both upgrade to the A321, Budapest from November and Warsaw from September.

Wizzair – Sofia will be upgraded to the A321 from February 2017.




New routes/airlines for 2016 !:

Blue Air – 2 weekly service to Bucharest using Boeing 737 400 – starts March.NOW COMMENCED.
Czech Airlines – 5 weekly service to Prague using Airbus A319 – starts April

Flybe – 6 weekly service to Knock starting March. NOW COMMENCED.(This route will also continue through winter 16/17).

Flybe – 4 weekly Rennes, 5 weekly Nantes and 2 weekly Limoges all start in May, all mostly using Dash 8 – 400.

Flybe – New 7 weekly service to Luxembourg along with a new 12 weekly service to Rotterdam both start early September, all mostly using Dash 8 – 400.

Iberia Express – 4 weekly service to Madrid using Airbus A320 – starts March.NOW COMMENCED.

Monarch Airlines – 4 weekly Lisbon service, a new route for BHX will commence from June. In addition also from June, a new 3 weekly Madrid service will commence.

Qatar Airways – 8 weekly (daily/twice Saturdays) service to Doha using Boeing 787 800 dreamliner. Starts March.NOW COMMENCED.

Ryanair – Madrid 4 weekly (starts April), Verona 2 weekly (starts April), Vilnius 2 weekly (starts March), and Corfu 2 weekly (starts April). Flights of course all on Boeing 737 800. NOW COMMENCED – STILL BEING PHASED IN

Ryanair – Sofia 3 weekly from end October (start of winter 16/17 season)

Thomson Airways – New routes for Summer 2016 will see flights to Punta Cana, and Izmir Adnan, and will both operate once weekly. Starts May.

Vueling – 3 weekly Alicante service, plus a 2 weekly Tenerife South service using Airbus A320 aircraft – both start June.

Wizzair – Wroclaw 2 weekly and Sofia 2 weekly both to start in March , all Airbus A320. NOW COMMENCED.

Wizzair – 2 weekly to Bucharest will begin in May. This will take Wizz up to 14 flights a week !

 

[Ray Finkle]

Thanks very much for the list.

It's a great round up of what is to come

 

[elmdon74]

Hi all.For my own use I have compiled a BHX timetable to plan the best times to visit during the summer using all the recent posts on the list(thanks to all who sent in info).It excludes the regular daily visitors EI,AF,LH,KL etc but thought
it may be useful for members if anyone wishes to use it.Any corrections/additions welcomed.Hope the Vueling is correct as they seem to change week to week.Regards,simon.

View attachment 3144

 

[Paulsstrange]

Thanks Simon. Is Air Malta twice weekly i thought this had reverted to just the Friday ?

Cheers
Paul

 

[elmdon74]

Info taken from another BHX spotting group so may not be correct! Regards,simon.

 

[Ray Finkle]

W16/17 so far

Wizz Air - New winter routes to Sofia (2x weekly), Bucharest (2x weekly) and Wroclaw (2x weekly). Budapest and Warsaw see extra frequencies both +1 weekly. Budapest, Warsaw and Sofia all upgraded to A321.

Blue Air - Bucharest (+1x weekly)

Iberia - New winter route to Madrid (remains 4x weekly).

Monarch - New winter route to Lisbon (3x weekly).

Norwegian - Gran Canaria (+1 weekly).

Ryanair - New routes to Sofia (2x weekly) and Warsaw (3x weekly). New winter routes to Madrid (4x weekly), Verona (2x weekly), Murcia (2x weekly) and Vilnius (2x weekly). Fuerteventura +1, Gran Canaria +1, Malaga +1, Malta +1, Tenerife +2, Barcelona +2.

Flybe - New routes to Rotterdam (12x weekly) and Luxembourg (daily). New winter routes to Nantes (3x weekly), Knock (4x weekly). Increases to Berlin, Hanover, Milan, Stuttgart, Amsterdam and Jersey.

Thomson - New routes to Punta Cana and Dubai Al Maktoum both weekly. Winter sees 9x weekly long haul flights.

Thomas Cook - Extra based A321 with new routes to Hurghada (weekly) and Las Palmas (weekly). Increases to Lanzarote (+1 weekly), Banjul (+1 weekly) and Tenerife (+3 weekly).

Vueling - New routes to Tenerife (2x weekly) and Malaga (2x weekly). New winter route to Alicante (3x weekly).

 

[thunderchild]

Do Icelandir increase or is it just extra flights during the school holidays? I've lost track a bit with them.