Hassaan
Well-Known Member
- Jan 10, 2011
- 738
- 28
Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours
Charter flights are better than nothing but are they really ready to commit to regular flights to China without having started flights at even Manchester yet? A once-weekly flight would have probably been ideal to start things off but that'll probably come about if the charter flights are successful. United have been here for nearly 17 years and have stuck with BHX so that's one positive - they did a second daily flight for a while in the noughties but that didn't last very long. I doubt they'll expand much out of BHX at any point in the future destination wise as EWR seems to be their hub. Aircraft wise, I think yields rather than load factors have prevented them from doing any sort of upgrade in the past few years. Same with Emirates. PIA could have capitalised on Airblue's loss by immediately offering a LHE flight but I don't think they'll be doing that at any point in the future - they'll probably be sticking with 3/4 times a week for now. Air Transat are the only carrier offering YYZ flights as opposed to a good 3/4 different carriers operating flights to YYZ throughout the noughties. Monarch are probably likely to expand at some point. As for Easyjet, it's a shame they don't intend to operate out of BHX to MAD as that's massively underserved.
What with this deal having fallen though, I'm beginning to doubt if we will ever see them on the apron.
"Take it one step at a time" must be the words going through Kehoe's head. I'm not sure they asked. They made one formal announcement (I think it was, at least) in 2012 in about July but absolutely no update since then.
Maybe, just maybe, the idea of the runway extension opening may give them a kick up the backside? Well, maybe for the long haulers, but not so much for the smaller ones as they seem to have devoted all their attention to that whereas they should really be splitting it.
I don't really know what's to come. It doesn't look that promising apart from a few bright spots. My general thinking is that I don't think BHX would be allowed (or are likely) to operate a prestigious new long haul service or an expansion for an existing service, before the likes of LHR/MAN/LGW. I don't know why but I just think it's unlikely.
It can handle 17 million passengers per annum - why isn't it doing it? It's about 6 million short than what it can actually handle and surely this isn't really the case for most other UK airports? This is Birmingham we're talking about - it should be able to compete with the big boys by now but it hasn't got the shot. No wonder it doesn't seem so inspiring for travellers and instead they choose to drive 80 miles to Manchester, or to London.Ray Finkle said:
Charter flights are better than nothing but are they really ready to commit to regular flights to China without having started flights at even Manchester yet? A once-weekly flight would have probably been ideal to start things off but that'll probably come about if the charter flights are successful. United have been here for nearly 17 years and have stuck with BHX so that's one positive - they did a second daily flight for a while in the noughties but that didn't last very long. I doubt they'll expand much out of BHX at any point in the future destination wise as EWR seems to be their hub. Aircraft wise, I think yields rather than load factors have prevented them from doing any sort of upgrade in the past few years. Same with Emirates. PIA could have capitalised on Airblue's loss by immediately offering a LHE flight but I don't think they'll be doing that at any point in the future - they'll probably be sticking with 3/4 times a week for now. Air Transat are the only carrier offering YYZ flights as opposed to a good 3/4 different carriers operating flights to YYZ throughout the noughties. Monarch are probably likely to expand at some point. As for Easyjet, it's a shame they don't intend to operate out of BHX to MAD as that's massively underserved.
What with this deal having fallen though, I'm beginning to doubt if we will ever see them on the apron.
BHX is apparently Flybe's biggest base which is something positive. Air India will probably expand at some point considering how things are going - wouldn't be surprised to see it become daily. Turkish are doing fine - apart from more weekly flights I don't see how they can expand. I don't think TK intend to operate their bigger aircraft into BHX any time soon.
Surely a route to Madrid can't have been that hard to secure? I can understand India, China, New York etc, but Madrid? Same goes for the others on that list too.
Of course other airports have four or five. Manchester for example have Thomson, Thomas Cook, Virgin & Monarch all operating flights to Orlando. Obviously the airport doesn't seem to have struck a good enough deal with airlines in that respect. Nothing else has changed since 2012. One flight a week to Montego Bay and one to Toronto - it begs the question - can more flights per week even be sustained!?
"Take it one step at a time" must be the words going through Kehoe's head. I'm not sure they asked. They made one formal announcement (I think it was, at least) in 2012 in about July but absolutely no update since then.
Maybe, just maybe, the idea of the runway extension opening may give them a kick up the backside? Well, maybe for the long haulers, but not so much for the smaller ones as they seem to have devoted all their attention to that whereas they should really be splitting it.
I don't really know what's to come. It doesn't look that promising apart from a few bright spots. My general thinking is that I don't think BHX would be allowed (or are likely) to operate a prestigious new long haul service or an expansion for an existing service, before the likes of LHR/MAN/LGW. I don't know why but I just think it's unlikely.
