Birmingham: TUI Airways Flights, New Routes & Base Updates

[Paulsstrange]

Brilliant news to see Bangkok and Malaysia...

 

[paul]

Agree great news

 

[nwoody2001]

So to clarify, the schedule for TUI in winter 18/19 is as follows:

Scheduled long-haul

Cancun, Mexico - 2x Weekly
Montego Bay, Jamaica - 2x Weekly
Bridgetown, Barbados - 2x Weekly
Goa, India - 1x Weekly
Bangkok, Thailand - 1x Bi-Weekly
Langkawo, Malaysia - 1x Bi-Weekly

So I make that 8x weekly flights?!

Am I missing something?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Am I missing something?

Another 2x weekly Barbados for the P&O flights making it 4x weekly overall.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Mon - Goa and Cancun
Tue - Montego Bay
Wed - Bangkok/Langkawi
Thur - Barbados
Fri - Barbados and Cancun
Sat - Barbados
Sun - Barbados

Incidentally Montego Bay is showing 3x weekly for April 2019, plenty of time for that to change.

 

[nwoody2001]

I only see one Montego Bay in the schedule above....?

So while the schedule above requires 2 based 787, it doesn't look like the above schedule fully utilises 2 aircraft?

 

[GliderPilot]

Could have one based and one shuttling between BHX and another airport, such as 3 flights for 3 days at BHX then 4 at another airport

 

[Ray Finkle]

I only see one Montego Bay in the schedule above....?

So while the schedule above requires 2 based 787, it doesn't look like the above schedule fully utilises 2 aircraft?

Montego Bay is two weekly until the end of November when it goes to weekly. It rises again in April, usually 2x weekly but 2019 is currently showing 3x weekly.

 

[Ray Finkle]

To me it looks like one based with another positioning in on Mondays and Fridays, unless there is anymore to be added which, given TUi's history, I'd say is doubtful.

 

[User001]

Well, there are 3? More B789 coming online from next year, so, there will be an increase of flights somewhere in the system.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I'd love to think that more could be on the way but it usually ends up being the opposite. This winter had Montego Bay as 2x weekly when first released but, surprise surprise, it's only operating once weekly making 8 weekly flights overall instead of 9.

In my dreams for W18/19 I'd like to see the Tue and Sat PUJ continue into winter and Phuket return on Wed/Thur, if not weekly then every two weeks rotating with somewhere such as Aruba or Cuba. That would give a nice schedule for two based aircraft with Sundays free if they felt like adding another Montego Bay.

The reality is I reckon we're more likely to see the extra Barbados being dropped and the Friday Cancun moving back to a Thursday, again making 8 weekly.

 

[hoody]

To be honest BHX - BKK is much preferable to PKT. This opens to a much wider market for all SE Asia. Flights from BKK - PKT are cheap and frequent.

 

[Ianbutty]

Tell you what, we may have lost the transatlantic for now, but that is one check of a good start from TUI to claw back some of the traffic to more exotic destinations from our sister airports both to the north and south.

They have seen the Thomas Cook model at MAN, spotted the correlation between customer origin and destination and a local airport (to those customers) with the runway length and capacity, and they are taking a very well considered risk. To be applauded. Also looks like a sensible schedulel

 

[jfy1999]

Tomorrow morning we have our first flight to Phuket.

Is it fair to say this marks the beginning of a new era for TUI at BHX?

 

[Ianbutty]

Tomorrow morning we have our first flight to Phuket.

Is it fair to say this marks the beginning of a new era for TUI at BHX?

Yes. That's one small step for the scraggly haired backpacker and one giant leap for Birmingham International Airport.

This could be out new niche. People will start to wake up when they realise that you can fly to the Far East from your local airport and maybe the domination of LHR for that market will start to lessen. Makes the runway extension even more worthwhile and when we get the Games.....

 

[User001]

The prices TUI are charging, you aren't going to get your scraggly haired backpacker on the Phuket flights.

I was looking at a Phuket holiday next winter. I looked at 2 weekly direct with TUI, and the standard price seemed to be about £4500 for our family in a decent standard of accommodation and location.

I looked on other sites, and I can get 3 nights in Singapore and then 10 nights in Phuket with flights using Singapore Airlines for about £3300 all in for similar dates.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Is it fair to say this marks the beginning of a new era for TUI at BHX?

If Phuket wasn't yet another one season wonder then I'd agree but after only 12 flights it's looking as if it was dropped before even starting. Should TUi ever decide to base a second 787 full time and give us a second Orlando at least, then I'll believe that we've turned a corner.

Phuket is good to see though, it's just a shame that there were no press releases at all advertising the route (well non that I saw).

 

[rollo]

A second Orlando Ray? You're must have started on the vino early today.

 

[thunderchild]

Izmir has gone again :-(

 

[Matt995]

Izmir has gone again :-(

replaced by an Antalya rotation instead!

TOM748/9 Antalya SAT 14:50 21:10/22:10 00:25 SUN