Route Development & Rumours

[JENNYJET]

Bring it on, Moscow will enhance the boards and add to Eastern European network. Might give the others a kick up the rump!

 

[finchy168]

If only this was BHX so frustrating.

British Airways starting 11 routes from Southampton Airport!

Avios seats bookable today, hopefully

www.headforpoints.com

 

[nwoody2001]

To be clear, it was never going to be BHX and this is a great match for SOU. Hell, even MAN/STN have lost their BACF routes to accommodate this!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Would have loved a weekly Mykonos, possibly Limoges too seeing as our French network has all but gone.

I'm not convinced about the rest though, look at Berlin, one flight there on a Sun and one flight back on a Fri. No good for BHX as ideally a route like this should be 5-6x weekly.

I know that I sound like a very boring broken record but we need easyjet!

 

[Kevin Farnell]

look at Berlin, one flight there on a Sun and one flight back on a Fri.

From memory, when Lufthansa first introduced a Berlin service it did phenomenally well. They then started messing around with the timings and it was all downhill from there.

Kevin

 

[JENNYJET]

What about the 'Phoenix ' Flybe, apparently licences have been sought to resume a flying programme?

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there all, I would like to be provide wrong for next 2021 and 2022, but the way Birmingham Airport heading with missing routes, I can't see Birmingham Airport achieving 13 million plus passengers next year at all, I think Birmingham Airport will struggle to get back to some kind of normal, because if it decides to put its fees up on airlines, then airlines will start and think hard, then make their decision, but I hope I am prove wrong ...AndyC

 

[IanFarquharson]

Hi there all, I would like to be provide wrong for next 2021 and 2022, but the way Birmingham Airport heading with missing routes, I can't see Birmingham Airport achieving 13 million plus passengers next year at all, I think Birmingham Airport will struggle to get back to some kind of normal, because if it decides to put its fees up on airlines, then airlines will start and think hard, then make their decision, but I hope I am prove wrong ...AndyC

BHX wont hit 13m again for a log time, I estimate BHX to be under 5m in 2021

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there Ian and how are you, coping ok, so how far now further down the list will you think Birmingham Airport will be by the end of the year, at the the bottom or what, 5 million was less than East Midlands and Glasgow wasn't it..AndyC

 

[JENNYJET]

I think perhaps BHX should forget about setting target millions and instead set about making the airport the best it can be whilst it is quiet and passenger disruption is minimal. When everything works and passenger feedback is positive it may attract attention in the right places and grow airline business.

 

[HPsauce]

If Ian's forecast is reasonably accurate, East Midlands will probably handle around 2.5 million in 2021 and Glasgow 4 million. This all depends on so many factors though. All airports have been hit hard and will be cautious with spending large amounts of money until things steady down.

 

[Ray Finkle]

From memory, when Lufthansa first introduced a Berlin service it did phenomenally well. They then started messing around with the timings and it was all downhill from there.

Kevin

...and the new Birmingham to Berlin route, which started in June, has surpassed all expectations.

I appreciate that it was a few years ago but that was a quote from the Lufthansa Director of UK and Ireland. If memory serves they were due to upgrade Berlin from an A319 to an A320 before it got pulled. Berlin has easyjet's second biggest base so I wonder if something could be done with them?

Whilst on the subject of Germany what are the odds of Eurowings bringing back Hamburg?

 

[IanFarquharson]

Hi there Ian and how are you, coping ok, so how far now further down the list will you think Birmingham Airport will be by the end of the year, at the the bottom or what, 5 million was less than East Midlands and Glasgow wasn't it..AndyC

Andy - yes I am keeping well, I hope you are ?
I dont think BHX will loose its ranking as all airports will be well down in 2021, maybe only 40% of their 2019 pax totals.
So Manchester maybe 12-15million etc.
Ian

 

[jfy1999]

...and the new Birmingham to Berlin route, which started in June, has surpassed all expectations.

I appreciate that it was a few years ago but that was a quote from the Lufthansa Director of UK and Ireland. If memory serves they were due to upgrade Berlin from an A319 to an A320 before it got pulled. Berlin has easyjet's second biggest base so I wonder if something could be done with them?

Whilst on the subject of Germany what are the odds of Eurowings bringing back Hamburg?

The ACL report shows it as a “cancelled” route but it has not operated since 2017, so perhaps they applied for it and then cancelled the request?

I lost hope when they scrapped the Dash 8s to be honest - would have been the perfect sized aircraft and they struggled to fill the Airbuses if I recall correctly.

 

[David_itl]

With the revelation that AA is pulling MAN, I reckon we can say the only time BHX will get a main network carrier serving them is when hell freezes over. There has to be a charm offensive with Jetblue to start flights and go in with the premise that it is far better to be the only ship in town rather than the 5th or 6th as would be the case in London. The only importance of feed will the on the US side of the route but JFK in particular should be a sufficiently large enough market to be sustained without the need for onward connections.

 

[IanFarquharson]

With the revelation that AA is pulling MAN, I reckon we can say the only time BHX will get a main network carrier serving them is when hell freezes over. There has to be a charm offensive with Jetblue to start flights and go in with the premise that it is far better to be the only ship in town rather than the 5th or 6th as would be the case in London. The only importance of feed will the on the US side of the route but JFK in particular should be a sufficiently large enough market to be sustained without the need for onward connections.

Dave - totally agree the chance of BHX getting a flight to the USA is the short term is zero

I do think the only remote chance is Jetblue as the future in my opinion is the 321 'LCC' operators, BHX will be talking to them as will a lot of other airports but again I am sure BHX is well down their priority list.
Primera was perfect for BHX but that ship sailed a while ago !

 

[Jerry]

I think BHX best bet will be Aer lingus UK. Jetblue will follow the US mainline crowd.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

It would be good to get Icelandair back. They offer good onward connections to several US cities.
They did however clear off in a hurry, for which I can only think they had some major disagreement with BHX.

Kevin

 

[Seasider]

I think BHX best bet will be Aer lingus UK. Jetblue will follow the US mainline crowd.

If Aer Lingus is setting up at MAN, I doubt they would offer BHX as that would dilute the traffic from there.

 

[JENNYJET]

Maybe it may take an Exotic to start a service to BHX and then expand to USA on a triangular. Suggestions include S7, Air Baltic, the return of Uzbekistan, time to forget the main US operators. However, Eastern has resurrected so could perhaps open Mia-BHX offering connections to NYC and the other cities in NE. Tis the season for wishful thinking!