Route Development & Rumours

[Jerry]

The only Scottish flights Virgin operate are the beach routes from Glasgow.

As for Delta the only way i see them coming to BHX or any other UK regional airline is if they get a big subsidy to encourage them to.

 

[Brum X]

Virgin have stated publicly more than once over the years that BHX is not on the radar although I'm not aware of them saying so since Delta became the de facto owners so we can live in hope but unlikely I would of thought.

That doesnt mean they will never operate from BHX though. And the last time such a statement was made was a few years ago.

 

[Ryan Kirkpatrick]

That doesnt mean they will never operate from BHX though. And the last time such a statement was made was a few years ago.

The only time we will see VS is when they come to the Monarch Hanger or divert. I though I was happy to film there 747 at Belfast this year.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I was once told by a staff at the airport that Delta had a slot of BHX

I heard the same and they were hotly tipped a year or two ago.

I am still hoping that Jetblue have an interest, the A321 could be perfect for the route.

 

[Ray Finkle]

We have two new services starting tomorrow.

Our first ever flight to Kuusamo which is weekly until Feb

05:50 BY7724 Kuusamo (KAO) TUI Airways 73H

Not long after that Cluj returns this time with Wizz Air.

07:40 W63316 Cluj-Napoca (CLJ) Wizz Air 320

There is also the usual ramping up of ski services along with extra seasonal frequencies to the holiday favourites.

 

[DaveBham]

Why drive to use an airline? The nearest airline going where I want to go will be my airline of choice, in the same way a cab firm that stops outside my house will always be preferable to one that stops a mile away.

Weird that Virgin don’t want my
Money. Don’t they accept the Birmingham pound?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Why drive to use an airline? The nearest airline going where I want to go will be my airline of choice, in the same way a cab firm that stops outside my house will always be preferable to one that stops a mile away.

Totally agree

The last time that I used another UK airport was around 2003 when I had the misfortune to go through Luton. It's not until you have such experiences that you realise that, despite it's issues, BHX is a bloomin good airport. I remember the horrendous traffic on the M1 coming back and vowed only to use Birmingham from now on.

Sadly many people don't think like that and are more than happy to make long surface journeys, especially if they think they are saving a few pounds. I've known people use Emirates from Heathrow as 'the flights were cheaper', yet when fuel and car parking are factored in it actually worked out slightly more expensive than a taxi to and from Birmingham. I guess physiologically they are getting a good deal at the time of booking and probably don't register the extras, which may then be booked at a later date.

Paul Kehoe once said that they need to change human behaviour, something that is not easy to do. One thing that would help is regaining some of the missing routes (I've met several people who were regulars on United and are not happy that they now have to use LHR) and getting more choice on others. There are three families from my office going to Orlando next year and all are using LGW or MAN as they are considerably cheaper. One said that she had saved almost £1500 by using TCX from MAN over TUi from BHX, I couldn't argue with that.

 

[mullion]

I agree to an extent, say you save £2/300 pounds for a family ,cheaper from your local but if its more you have to think
about it, however other important things are days of operation or maybe airline or rail connections so its not cut and dry

 

[Jerry]

I think as well with a lot of people it's almost ingrained in them to go to the bigger airports especially if it's a long haul flight. I've known someone use Heathrow instead of KLM via AMS because it was Heathrow despite the KLM option being cheaper. In their own words they considered Heathrow a proper airport and said AMS was going in the wrong direction.

 

[Coathanger16]

Another factor to consider if frequent flyer schemes. Many years ago my dad would fly with BA from the Eurohub at BHX for business and during that time accrued a fair amount of points. Until recently my parents used an AmEx card which gave them Avios (BA frequent flyer points). As such my parents use BA whenever they can to take advantage of these points. Last year they visited Bratislava and chose to fly with BA from LHR to Vienna (BA don't fly to Bratislava) rather than fly from BHX with Ryanair direct to Bratislava (Bratislava airport is about 5 miles from the city of Bratislava, whereas Vienna airport is 25 miles - 15 min vs 40 min).

Why drive to use an airline? The nearest airline going where I want to go will be my airline of choice

Depends what you count as "the nearest airline going where I want to go". Say I wanted to go to Los Angeles. The nearest airline that flies to Los Angeles non-stop would be either TCX or VIR from Manchester or any number of airlines from Heathrow. Of course you could fly with Aer Lingus with a stop in Dublin, or Air France (CDG) or KLM (AMS), but many people prefer to take 1 flight over 2, and the length of the layover often is important. Looking at Aer Lingus in March, the outbound layover is 2 hours which is fine, but on the return leg its 4 hours. I may be alone in thinking this, but I'd much rather fly into LHR say and have a 90 minute drive back than sit in an airport for 4 hours waiting for my next flight.

I do struggle to accept though that about 2 years ago we had TWO airlines flying to NYC from BHX but now we don't have any and the only route we have to the USA sees less flights in a year than Manchester sees in a week!

 

[Ray Finkle]

What we are saying is that to capture the maximum amount of local passengers the airport need to secure reliable airlines, flying to the destinations that people want to go to at a competitive price and offering a schedule that gives people the options that they need?

Who knew that it would be so complicated

 

[mullion]

Ha Ha Ray you hit on the nail, it sems that once you get one new route others seem to get drawn in

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Why drive to use an airline? The nearest airline going where I want to go will be my airline of choice, in the same way a cab firm that stops outside my house will always be preferable to one that stops a mile away.

Weird that Virgin don’t want my
Money. Don’t they accept the Birmingham pound?

It's not always so straightforward with every traveller. If your local airport doesn't have some destinations, and many never will because they could not support them, a traveller has no choice but to use another more distant airport that does, or not travel at all.

My wife and I go to Australia most years. Our nearest airport is Bristol (20 minutes by road) that has no scheduled long-haul flights at all. We could still use BRS with, say, KLM via Amsterdam or Lufthansa code share via Frankfurt. Both those options would entail at least two en-route aircraft changes and the overall travel time would be considerably longer.

Our nearest options are Cardiff with Qatar, Birmingham with Emirates or Qatar or Heathrow with more choices of airline, timings and frequency. Journey time by car from our home on the south-eastern edge of Bristol is as follows: LHR takes about 40-45 minutes longer to reach than CWL and about 15-20 minutes longer than BHX so that is not really an issue.

In the past we've used BHX with Emirates and also LGW with Emirates several times. This year we used LHR with Emirates. Prior to booking this time we looked in detail at the options from CWL and BHX but in the end LHR gave us the best overall result, having regard to price, timings, length of en-route stopover (as short as realistically possible but giving a late afternoon/early evening arrival in Australia) and package.

Had Qatar been operating from BRS instead of CWL at the same frequency and timings I suspect we would still have used the LHR package. I try to use regional airports whenever possible and reasonable, and I nearly always use my local airport for short-haul, sometimes when it has meant travelling via a hub such as Amsterdam to reach a short-haul destination not served from BRS or not served on the day I wanted to travel.

 

[David_itl]

Can I throw this into the mix:

"Saudia is particularly looking at new destinations in the UK, where it now only serves London and Manchester, using new Airbus A321neoLRs. "


https://blueswandaily.com/saudia-to...21neolrs-and-new-narrowbody-lie-flat-product/

 

[ronnoc1k8]

Saudi should have been here years ago..

But great to see them finally take interest in more destinations of the UK.

 

[IanFarquharson]

Thanks Dave
I have sent the Saudia article to BHX who I am sure will already be all over it.
Ian

 

[Creguk]

...but now we don't have any and the only route we have to the USA sees less flights in a year than Manchester sees in a week!

This is insane! Until I just read this in writing I didn't realise!

 

[rollo]

This is insane! Until I just read this in writing I didn't realise!

You've touched a bit of a nerve there so here are a few figures for 2017 to Sanford and Orlando (MCO) combined.

Gatwick. 826,000
Manchester 528,000
Glasgow. 120,000
Birmingham 16,600. Of which seven were me and my family

Its beyond ridiculous for the biggest long haul family holiday destination.

You can probably tell it niggles me a touch.

Over the years starting in 1982 we have flown to Florida many times and always try to use BHX but three times had to use MAN useing Monarch A300, Air Uk Leisure 767 and Cal Air if anyone remembers the last one, really good flight actually on a DC10

 

[Ray Finkle]

I thought I had the 'O' word banned from the BHX forum, I must get on it

In all seriousness those numbers are disgraceful, even going 2x weekly doesn't seems like anywhere near enough

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there Ray, what do you mean the O word is banned on the forum, what is the O and what does it stand for then... AndyC