Route Development & Rumours

[Jerry]

Also Kiev warzone I think.

Kiev isn't a warzone.

 

[mullion]

I use business figures not head counts but it was in jest

 

[hay677]

I use business figures not head counts but it was in jest

So was my comment - I come originally from the Leeds area so Bham vs Man doesn't really excite me too much

 

[DarloPlaneBoy]

Thought the russians were still in Urkraine

 

[oriona300]

The Russians weren't anywhere near Kiev they just annexed the Crimean Peninsula cos of the black sea naval base at Sevastopol

 

[Ray Finkle]

We don't do BHX vs MAN (or anywhere else for that matter) on here although there are plenty of forums that do and people are welcome to go and use them.

I'll leave the posts as they are now but anything further on the subject will get deleted.

 

[Ianbutty]

I assume the company has gone bust. Their website is not working for me. A shame as Iraq and its people need connections like this. Ebril and others cities are recovering from something we cannot imagine. Hopefully sales have shown that there is a market.

 

[Brum X]

We don't do BHX vs MAN (or anywhere else for that matter) on here although there are plenty of forums that do and people are welcome to go and use them.

I'll leave the posts as they are now but anything further on the subject will get deleted.

Back to Finnair and it doesnt look like they are coming in S19

 

[Ray Finkle]

Back to Finnair and it doesnt look like they are coming in S19

The latest release is very leisure orientated and although Bologna is Apr - Oct, Bordeaux is May - Sept and Porto only end Jun until mid August.

I'm not holding out much hope for BHX but it would definitely be a different type of market?

 

[BHX492]

I assume the company has gone bust. Their website is not working for me. A shame as Iraq and its people need connections like this. Ebril and others cities are recovering from something we cannot imagine. Hopefully sales have shown that there is a market.

But then on there Facebook they saying there going to announce some new routes

 

[rutamkrd]

Ebil hasn’t been touched in any significant way as the Kirdish authority has maintained control and law and order for years.

The Ukrainian east of the Donetsk river Is most certainly war zone . The facist murderers of Putin have devastated the area , Oh and it remains among very limited zones where civil over flights are closed down.

Don’t want another Malaysian style tragic incident do we.

Hell even during the deepest wars in Afghanistan and Iraq overflights weren’t stoped !

And although avoided today the airspace in southern Syria is safer !

 

[David_itl]

et's be honest know one wants to fly to Bahgdad it's a war zone so that was there downfall.

The target market for these routes are not going to your traditional passengers. It's mostly those who have sought refuge here and still have ties back in Iraq (principally Kurdistan). There's going to be little mainstream advertising but travel agents who are situated where pockets of refugees live will have heard of these routes and so word of mouth is the main way for advertising. There's no reason why a weekly service to the region would not be a success - Iraqi Airways are averaging around 110 passngers per flight from MAN. Maybe BHX needs them to operate this route rather than an airline that took a while to get set up.

 

[mullion]

Many of the passengers at Manchester work in the security industry and pay a lot of money to travel

 

[Ray Finkle]

Some words from the master plan.

Scheduled and long-haul carriers make up 30% of our business
and are key to providing global connectivity for our region.
Birmingham currently serves over 490 destinations either direct
or on a one-stop basis through hubs in Europe and the Middle
East. The increase in hub traffic to India, China and South East
Asia over the last three years underpins our aspiration to
develop new connections to cities such as Mumbai and Hong
Kong. Connectivity to North America is also important, through
hubs such as Dublin, Madrid, Amsterdam and Paris, or
potentially direct from Birmingham with an existing scheduled
carrier or one of the emerging low-cost long-haul operators.

Over the next 15 years, we will continue to broaden our route
network with unserved hub markets in Europe, such as Riga,
Helsinki and Lisbon. The transatlantic market, so long considered
to be mature, is now evolving with new low-cost long-haul
carriers. Birmingham Airport’s strategy clearly prioritises the
development of such services to meet demand from across
our region, offering new affordable and convenient routes to
passengers who currently are forced to travel longer distances
to fly from other airports.

 

[jfy1999]

Riga, Helsinki and Lisbon

The way they have specifically named those destinations makes me hopeful they are actually making progress with the relevant airlines.

Wasn't there also a mention of possible transatlantic services from "an existing airline"? Could they be referring to TCX? Or could the delay in releasing the draft mean they had been referring to Norwegian and forgot to edit the draft after Norwegian left? (which might be a possibility as there is at least one other snippet of outdated/inaccurate information - the claim we have "50 airlines to 150+ destinations" - might have been accurate last year but right now we're struggling to scrape 30 airlines...)

 

[Brum X]

However they are hoping to secure links to Riga, Lisbon and Helsinki in the next 15 years.

 

[Ray Finkle]

The fact that they suggest North American access via other hubs with a 'possibility' of something direct suggests to me that there is nothing on the horizon.

From previous articles and the mention above of new loco long haul, it seems as if all hope rests with JetBlue who haven't even committed to long haul yet

 

[Ray Finkle]

However they are hoping to secure links to Riga, Lisbon and Helsinki in the next 15 years.

I think 15 years is about the same amount of time that Finnair seem to have been rumoured

 

[Brum X]

I think 15 years is about the same amount of time that Finnair seem to have been rumoured

Not looking good then.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there Ray and all, after reading the airports new revised masterplan, what can I say, well, what hassed up document it is, firstly the previous one on for a projection of 30 million plus by 2030, and now the new revised version is for 18 million by BT 2030, all I can say what a total and complete ***Please Read Forum Terms of Service*** up by the bhx management team. Just goes to show you that none of the management team have any idea at all, just pluck another number out the sky. The same management team that's losing airlines as quick as they arrive..AndyC