Birmingham: TUI Airways Flights, New Routes & Base Updates

[Ray Finkle]

Great to see. 🙂 Some semblance of an industry slowly coming back.

Most definitely, it's excellent (given the circumstances) to have 27 routes back by the first week in Sept with a further 12 returning over the winter.

The only one missing is Podgorica but this looks as though it's been dropped completely by TUi so not just at BHX.

 

[smithy108]

Update on the TUI re-start of summer schedule

TUI Airways UK July/August 2020 operations as of 28JUN20
Posted 30 June 2020 12:40

TUI Airways UK from July 2020 plans to resume scheduled passenger operation, initially operating from Birmingham, London Gatwick and Manchester on 11JUL20. Other bases will be resumed during summer schedule, including Dublin from 23JUL20, Bristol and Glasgow from 25JUL20, and following from 01AUG20: Bournemouth, Cardiff, Doncaster/Sheffield, East Midlands, Exeter, London Stansted, Newcastle.

For July 2020, the airline schedules 293 flights in total, based on 28JUN20 OAG schedules (9210 flights as of 08MAR20). The following only focuses on planned operation for July and August 2020. Additional frequencies and routes to be resumed on/after 29AUG20 is excluded in this list. Additional changes remainly likely.

Birmingham – Alicante eff 25JUL20 1 weekly
Birmingham – Bourgas eff 27JUL20 1 weekly
Birmingham – Corfu eff 17JUL20 1 weekly (2 weekly from 03AUG20)
Birmingham – Faro eff 02AUG20 1 weekly
Birmingham – Fuerteventura eff 01AUG20 1 weekly
Birmingham – Gran Canaria/Las Palmas eff 27JUL20 1 weekly (2 weekly from 27AUG20)
Birmingham – Ibiza eff 17JUL20 1 weekly (2 weekly from 03AUG20)
Birmingham – Irakleion eff 12JUL20 1 weekly (2 weekly from 06AUG20)
Birmingham – Kefallinia eff 06AUG20 1 weekly
Birmingham – Kos eff 11JUL20 1 weekly (3 weekly from 01AUG20)
Birmingham – Lanzarote eff 16JUL20 1 weekly
Birmingham – Larnaca eff 02AUG20 2 weekly
Birmingham – Mahon eff 01AUG20 1 weekly (2 weekly from 12AUG20)
Birmingham – Malaga eff 26JUL20 1 weekly
Birmingham – Palma Mallorca eff 11JUL20 2 weekly (3 weekly from 31JUL20, 4 weekly from 08AUG20, 5 weekly from 23AUG20)
Birmingham – Paphos eff 01AUG20 2 weekly (3 weekly from 13AUG20)
Birmingham – Reus eff 04AUG20 1 weekly
Birmingham – Rhodes eff 15JUL20 1 weekly (2 weekly from 25JUL20, 3 weekly from 07AUG20)
Birmingham – Skiathos eff 07AUG20 1 weekly
Birmingham – Tenerife South eff 17JUL20 1 weekly (3 weekly from 28JUL20)
Birmingham – Thessaloniki eff 03AUG20 1 weekly
Birmingham – Zakynthos eff 26JUL20 1 weekly (2 weekly from 04AUG20, 3 weekly from 14AUG20)

 

[IanFarquharson]

Good to see TUI back in the air today and a respectable load

 

[Seasider]

Not as many flights and most people want a holiday so there should be good loads and hopefully good yield for the airline.

 

[jfy1999]

Cancun is increasing back to 3 per week for summer 2021 after reducing to 2pw for the rest of this summer, giving us a total 10 long haul flights per week.

Cancun and Orlando - 3pw
Montego Bay and Punta Cana - 2pw

 

[Wrightfly73]

A welcome increase!

Good to see TUi continuing to show confidence at Birmingham, clearly there must be a strong demand for it's long haul services.

Hopefully TUi may be in a position to add some new long haul destinations to it's BHX network in the near future.

 

[Coathanger16]

Good if it is due to strong demand, but I wonder how much is displaced demand from people not wanting to go to the USA?

 

[Wrightfly73]

As we are talking pre covid then I'd imagine not a lot as people could still travel with ease and free of covid concerns to the USA then.

Don't forget that there is a large Caribbean community in Birmingham which provide constant VFR traffic on the Montego Bay & Bridgetown routes plus you have both customers cruising or staying in resort at these destinations.

Cancun has always been a strong route from Birmingham so it is unsurprising that it has been increased.

As we don't have London Airways or Virgin at Birmingham they have the market all to themselves.

 

[JENNYJET]

I agree that TUI has a strong base at Birmingham but where is that killer route that drives customers to BHX? With a marquee route, there would be no need for London Virgin or fickle American operators to bung up the ramps!

 

[Brum X]

As we are talking pre covid then I'd imagine not a lot as people could still travel with ease and free of covid concerns to the USA then.

Don't forget that there is a large Caribbean community in Birmingham which provide constant VFR traffic on the Montego Bay & Bridgetown routes plus you have both customers cruising or staying in resort at these destinations.

Cancun has always been a strong route from Birmingham so it is unsurprising that it has been increased.

As we don't have London Airways or Virgin at Birmingham they have the market all to themselves.

I mentioned some years ago that I thought Birmingham could sustain regular scheduled flights to popular Caribbean routes due to VFR traffic. Does Air Jamaica still exist or something similar ? 🤔

 

[JENNYJET]

I believe Air Caraibes are the regional long haul operators with regular services to the French Departments and territories of the Caribbean from Orly. I may, of course, be totally incorrect.

 

[Wrightfly73]

Not good news that TUi has suspended all it's flights to Spain. I can understand TUis reasons as they are offering only quarantine free holidays. I do feel that maybe the UK government has overreacted by enforcing a quarantine as the increase in Spain is localised within Catalonia and is being managed by the Spanish authorities.

Hopefully TUi will continue to increase flights to other destinations like Greece & Italy which have low cases of covid.

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

 

[HPsauce]

The increasing cases are spread across Spain according to BBC News channel. Catalonia is certainly the worst at the moment. Interestingly our cases are increasing too according to the latest figures and have been for several days. The rollercoaster ride continues but no fun for those that took the plunge and booked thinking things were easing down.

 

[Matt995]

TUI update:-

Due to travel advice change against all but essential travel to mainland Spain TUI UK have taken the decision to cancel all holidays to mainland Spain up to and including Sunday 9 August 2020.

We know that some customers still wish to go on holiday to the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands and are happy to quarantine on return, so flights to the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands from Monday 27 July will continue as planned.

We will be proactively contacting all customers with bookings up to and including 9 August to either arrange a full refund or the option to rebook their holiday with a booking incentive.

All customers currently on holiday can continue to enjoy their holiday and will return on their intended flight home.

 

[JENNYJET]

That is clear enough but my concern is the enforcement of quarantine conditions once returned to UK. My suggestion to government is to drop any talk of quarantine and allow common sense to prevail and ask people to be sensible and the world can move on.

 

[LichfieldBlue]

Trouble is you just can’t rely on common sense, as this is a largely an Asymptomatic disease how would that work?

 

[JENNYJET]

Keep distancing, stay home where possible and adopt the new way of living. It is obviously easy for me to say as it is enforced upon me due to ongoing illness, I soon got accustomed and it has advantages for me.

Behavioural change and an adjustment of mindset and dare I say, attitudes is necessary otherwise this virus shall defeat us all. The choice is with us all.

 

[Coathanger16]

I'm afraid common sense just isn't good enough in this day and age.

2 weeks ago I went to Tescos and hardly anyone was wearing a face covering, there was no attempt to limit the number of people in store and as such it was impossible to maintain social distancing. I was therefore fully supportive when the government announced that wearing a face covering in shops would become mandatory. I was pleased going to Tesco on Friday to see most if not all people were wearing a face covering.

Conclusion?

By themselves the general public don't generally have the common sense required, however given advice/rules they'll readily oblige.

Localised quarantine depending on what region you have come back from (remember before lockdown it was only specific areas of Northern Italy, then the entire Lombardy region, and finally the whole of Italy that had to quarantine on arrival in the UK) would be a far better approach than just blanket country wide quarantines.

Temperature scans and targeting testing on arrival would negate much of the need for a quarantine.

 

[JENNYJET]

I can agree with that Coathanger. The biggest problem is with human nature and the desire to defend personal freedoms. I have an exemption from wearing a mask due to ongoing medical problems but I choose to wear a mask for the benefit of others, this is my interpretation of personal freedoms.

The exemption document can be found on GOV.UK (Coronavirus)

 

[mullion]

The only thing is both of those only show current situation not what happens a couple of days later when the virus starts to show and the mask only
helps to reduce passing it on to someone else but still a very good idea as long as you follow the rules i:e only wear mask for max 2 hours, if you touch change for clean mask and dispose of mask in proper way etc etc always cover nose and mouth, where I work we have to change after 40 minutes or earlier if mask is touched, gloves are a waste of time as they spread virus