Route Development & Rumours

[thunderchild]

Re: Route Development

Am I right in assuming then that China Southern was the airline BHX had been in discussion with for regular flights? Interesting development; what is the purpose behind these flights? Testing the waters? Great news for BHX!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development

Am I right in assuming then that China Southern was the airline BHX had been in discussion with for regular flights?

You are correct, they initially spoke to China Southern, China Eastern, China Airlines and Hainan and have been back to China several times for further talks with China Southern. It sure is great news and I'm pleased they'll be using the A330, I'd originally heard a 787 would be used.

As an aside the BHX route development team were in Dubai the week before last for talks with Emirates, lets hope something good came out of them.

 

[thunderchild]

Re: Route Development

Well hopefully the persistence has paid off and CZ could be back next summer with scheduled flights? While PEK isn't their biggest hub they still offer a decent amount of forwarding connections within China itself and as PEK has a higher O&D than CAN I guess it makes sense. Interesting that you mention the 787 as they have four first class seats - now that would be a first! But best we don't get too ahead of ourselves. Still it's fun to speculate.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Re: Route Development

Excellent and very welcome news. I suspect that no-one is becoming carried away but it's certainly a move in the right direction - no puns intended, well not really.

 

[Brum X]

Re: Route Development

With the recent development of Charter flight to China this summer and the ongoing success of Air India and Emirates at BHX, i do really really hope that the airport development team are still talking with airlines like United and other US airlines about future expansion plans. I really hope that we could see some uplift in aircraft type for BHX-EWR for summer 2015 ??????????? I do realy think an upgrade to a 767 of any type would work during the peak summer months, maybe June-Sept, just like Air Transat do with the A310 and A330 to YYZ ????


I must admit i am a bit underwhemled by the efforts of United airlines at BHX for giving it a go, having said that United are one of our premier airlines, so thank them for that.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development

Although only United will know the exact figures judging by the prices sometimes offered I'd imagine they must be making a decent amount of money on the service as it is. Twice daily was tried and the yields unsurprisingly dropped, in time they would have built back up again but it seems United either wouldn't or couldn't wait that long, after all the much publicised high BHX charges don't exactly lend themselves favourably to such situations.

As for the future, I've offered my opinion that our proximity to the worlds busiest international airport is a big disadvantage, non more so than when it comes to the extensive US offering that LHR has. That said I still feel that one more destination should be viable but that's one for the BHX team to work on.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Re: Route Development

Hi there ray. I read this rumour on one of the forums that I was looking at. It was saying that virgin Atlantic were maybe in talks with Birmingham airport ab. out starting up some big routes out of Birmingham airport. Andy c

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development

It's been doing the rounds for a while, probably started by the visit of the Virgin brass to BHX a couple of months ago but of course airports and airlines meet all the time. If they did start I'd imagine it would be limited to Florida initially, in time I could see Barbados and maybe a seasonal weekly Vegas working but I'm not sure I'd hold my breath on this one. Virgin are scheduled to start receiving their 789's this year but I think they're destined for LHR to replace the older A343's.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Re: Route Development

Hi there ray. Even if Virgin started off just initial weekly seasonal flights to florida and Vegas and it really took. After people heard about as there alternative to traveling to either Gatwick or Heathrow. It could become very popular and the demand would be there. If people knew it was there trenches would use it. Andy c

 

[User0001]

Re: Route Development

Im really sorry Andrew and no offense intended, but the above post is very hard to understand.

It may be autocorrect on your device but its made your post not make sense.

Regards.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Re: Route Development

Hi there my apologies about my last post. What I meant was if they do decide to start initial weekly seasonal flights for both Florida and Vegas and they both take off and do become very very popular and there's a big demand as an alternative to heathrow or Gatwick. Then people will then use it. Sorry ray. Andy c

 

[CL44]

Re: Route Development

I would be more than surprised if VS did start ops from BHX. With their operations from MAN / LHR / LGW they offer alternatives to a vast majority of the Country. Yes we have seen VS into BHX on diversions but I cannot see them building up a base of operations here when the cover the three biggest other Airports in the Country. At best I can see them possibly doing what TS are doing with a once weekly flight into either LAS or MCO.

Where BHX is really struggling is their attempts to attract a Major Airline to the Far East. Now we have the runway sorted out (and I know that the Airport have been talking to other Airlines about them starting services) BHX really need to convert talks into operations and get a carrier to commit to a regular service using BHX. We have big links with China (especially with regards to the motor industry) so why not concentrate on this area to see if we can entice a carrier to commit to BHX. It is not that long ago that Air China was about the only Chinese Airline allowed to come into the UK and now there are any number arriving into LHR. All we need is for one of them to look at coming into BHX and (hopefully) the floodgates would open. We have a big advantage in that we are not slot controlled (unlike LHR) and we have the road network for either North or South bound traffic.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development

We have big links with China (especially with regards to the motor industry) so why not concentrate on this area to see if we can entice a carrier to commit to BHX.

Believe me they are trying

 

[Brum X]

Re: Route Development

And even though it has made some progress with its european network (Berlin, Stockhom and now Athens) there are still gaps to major European cities such as Madrid, Lisbon , Prague and Oslo.

Really would like an Airline like Monarch to give Madrid a try ?????

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development

I was hoping for Madrid and possibly Lisbon from Flybe. They offer MAD as a connection via CDG but at 7hr 20min outbound and 6hr 40min inbound I can't see it being popular.

 

[User0001]

Re: Route Development

Madrid seems to be a difficult route for both MAN and BHX to maintain at a decent schedule.

To think LPL has a daily link to Madrid but BHX none is just weird in my book.

Also to see Stockholm and Berlin struggling at BHX while smaller airports seem to have no trouble maintaining them shows just how select local markets can be.

 

[Brum X]

Re: Route Development

Madrid seems to be a difficult route for both MAN and BHX to maintain at a decent schedule.

To think LPL has a daily link to Madrid but BHX none is just weird in my book.

Also to see Stockholm and Berlin struggling at BHX while smaller airports seem to have no trouble maintaining them shows just how select local markets can be.

To be fair though on both Berlin and Stockholm, i put this more down to the carrier itself rather than to do with BHX, i mean i can not understand a major airline like SAS totally cancelling a flight for a few months just becouse its low season, if you want the route to be taken seriously, then you should give it 100% COMMITMENT,not just when you feel like it. Also major changes with Berlin since German wings took over, some o the timings have been just plain silly in my opinion and make no sense at all. Again showing poor loads at the moment.

 

[User0001]

Re: Route Development

To be fair though on both Berlin and Stockholm, i put this more down to the carrier itself rather than to do with BHX, i mean i can not understand a major airline like SAS totally cancelling a flight for a few months just becouse its low season, if you want the route to be taken seriously, then you should give it 100% COMMITMENT,not just when you feel like it

But then you could argue that there are plenty of seasonal routes so why can't SAS do the same? There is no point flying fresh air around when you are trying to make a profit on a whole, and if the numbers do not stack up then why operate the flights?

As for Berlin, word is that due to Brandenburg not opening on time, has lead to Lufthansa and other airlines altering their schedules. Just be thankful you kept your Lufthansa link, Easyjet at Manchester meant we lost our LH link, although easyjet do seem to be holding their own.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Re: Route Development

Madrid seems to be a difficult route for both MAN and BHX to maintain at a decent schedule.

To think LPL has a daily link to Madrid but BHX none is just weird in my book.

Bristol (easyJet) also has a 6 x weekly/no Sat (4 x weekly in the main summer holidays) service to Madrid and has done so for the past seven or eight years. In 2013 it carried 77,000 passengers. easyJet has also been flying to Berlin (SXF) for about ten years that used to be daily but nowadays is a bit less than that depending on the time of year. easyJet also flies BRS-Lisbon and it went back to all year round this winter albeit only 2 or 3 times a week.

I agree it's the carriers rather than the market at BHX that sees these gaps in the network. easyJet would certainly fly them if it had a significant presence at BHX.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development

But then you could argue that there are plenty of seasonal routes so why can't SAS do the same? There is no point flying fresh air around when you are trying to make a profit on a whole, and if the numbers do not stack up then why operate the flights?

I agree with you, Sweden pretty much shuts down for 6 weeks or so in the summer and demand falls away significantly through Dec and Jan so if stopping it for these periods is what it takes to keep the route alive then so be it. Hopefully they've settled on a timing and frequency suited to where the route is now and, if successful, it can be built upon in the future

As for Berlin then as user001 says the delayed Brandenburg opening has caused real problems. Lufthansa have traditionally got decent yields out of BHX so hopefully this is the case with Berlin despite the low loads. Either way I think we're lucky to still have both routes operating as I don't think either would have got much stick for chopping them.

I agree it's the carriers rather than the market at BHX that sees these gaps in the network. easyJet would certainly fly them if it had a significant presence at BHX.

I've said it before and I'll say it again I really think Easyjet are the missing link but it feels as if BHX are just too stubborn to strike a mutually beneficial deal.