Route Development & Rumours

[Brum X]

SUMMER 2015 update

From another forum:

Denim Air are showing a based F100 at weekends, currently with slots to Innsbruck on Saturdays for Inghams

08:00/18:25 DNM7001/7004 23MAY-26SEP

The aircraft operates a 'W' pattern through Manchester. Estonian are showing on the Saturday Salzburg service

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

I'm not going to revive the Qatar thread until there is something with a bit more substance but a poster on another forum has suggested BHX is well on Qatar's radar and only the lack of aircraft is stopping them. They also suggest it was marginal between BHX and EDI and they are told BHX will be announced in 2015.

Obviously it's just a post on an internet forum so could be total garbage, but, wouldn't that be great

 

[Brum X]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

Yeah i saw that too, well now that all of our 2014 wishlist has been done, we need to start talking about New airlines and New Routes to be announced in 2015 and i think Qatar is a perfect choice to start. Also TAP, ive seen on another forum that they are probably gonna expand MAN flights, would love them to start up at BHX next year too.

My wishlist for 2015 is

Qatar

TAP

and



Some USA flights to places like MCO and Las Vegas.

 

[User0001]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

I don't buy that Qatar is short of aircraft.

Miami has just been increased to daily, Manchester to 2 daily, Edinburgh to daily, Heathrow to 7 daily and apparently Gatwick coming back with daily flights.

That's not an airline short of aircraft to me.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

I'd say it was specifically referring to the 787 delays, Qatar have made no secret of their annoyance.

Miami is served by a 77L, the extra MAN flights are A330, any opportunity for extra LHR frequencies will be taken and London is a bigger priority than Birmingham (LGW). From what I gather it was a close run between EDI and BHX for that 787, it seems EDI were able to sweeten the deal and despite a load factor of 50-60% have managed to make it daily. I think that pushed BHX down the new destinations with a 787 list, how far down remains to be seen but with 46 more on order I think it's only a matter of time.

 

[thunderchild]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

Qatar are subsidised by EDI so that was the deal breaker; BHX don't cut those kind of deals so will just have to wait their turn.

The quesion I'd like to ask is with all these new route announcements and expansion is why now? After a significant period of relatively little happening what has caused this sudden rush?

 

[User0001]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

I stand by my comments that if true, aircraft shortages are a poor excuse for not starting BHX.

If the flight desperatly needs a B787, existing routes can be shuffled to free a B787 up.

As well as the routes I mentioned earlier, Madrid, Barcelona, Stockholm and Copenhagen too have been increased.

That is not the action of a carrier short of aircraft. A BHX route could very, very easliy been accomodated in that lot if Qatar were serious about their intentions.

 

[Brum X]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

I don't buy that Qatar is short of aircraft.

Miami has just been increased to daily, Manchester to 2 daily, Edinburgh to daily, Heathrow to 7 daily and apparently Gatwick coming back with daily flights.

That's not an airline short of aircraft to me.

Miami will not increase though until November 2015, that is quite a wait ??????


They could still start up at BHX within 11 months.

 

[User0001]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

And there lies the rub BrumX,

They have planned an increase for 11 months time and increased several other routes quite substantially to boot, but apparently no aircraft to start BHX?

I fear that, if the poster was true that Qatar are using the excuse 'short of aircraft' to start BHX, then, BHX are being fobbed off.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Re: CAA Provisional Statistics Update

Hi there ray and all, i think now for this year alone, birmingham needs to simply get 300,000 thousands passengrs morey this year then it will have hit its target of 10,000,000. But to do this continously year in year out, it needs to reduce its landing fees for aircraft and passengers, once it does this, then it should hopefully start attracting those badly needed airlines that it needs, and when you get kehoe stating that only 40% of the west midlandlanders fly from there airport, then you'll know why, because not enough choice for pasengers to fly from there own airport and that's why they have to fly off from heathrow ,gatwick,manchester, stanstead, east midlands, and so that's where your other 40 0r 50% of west midlanders fly from, because those airlines like Jet2, easyjet, BA,Virgin, air canada, south african airways, aeroflot, these airlines mentioned would increase passengers numbers hugely, only if keogh would just reduce those high langing fees, and then he made a statement which i caught in the daily telegraph in july 2012 saying that in 20 to 30 years time, birmingham will be able to compete with heathrow, when i read this article, nearly fell off my seat in laughter, does he realise what hes saying, in the next 20 to 30 years time at its current rate of passengers increase birmingham will be lucky to handle 15 million rather than 70 million that hes predicting....andyc

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: CAA Provisional Statistics Update

I believe the biggest mistake BHX ever made was desperately clinging on to BA then failing the embrace the rise of the LOCO's, most importantly the big two of Easyjet and Ryanair, I think it's something they are still trying to recover from to this day. Airports such as Luton and Bristol have established bases that are easily accessible for most travellers from Greater Birmingham and with destinations available that aren't from BHX combined with cheaper prices people are prepared to travel. For example going to Lisbon in May with Easyjet from Bristol comes in at £152.98 for the basic fare, the same dates with LH from BHX come in at £274.83 and takes between 8 and 10 hours. For a family of four that's over £400 more expensive to travel from BHX. There is also the fact that we have the worlds busiest international airport just over an hour away and many people still automatically think of LHR when booking flights, especially long haul.

I think 2015 is going to be a crucial year with some golden opportunities that BHX have to make work. If American do well and can coexist with United again then there is potential for growth in the future and possibly the return of ORD one day, if BHX want an A380 then it has to be proven that EK can sell the First Class seats out of BHX. The crucial one for me though is Norwegian, from what I hear there could be big expansion in the future with the possibility of a base along with 2 or 3 long haul destinations but this will only happen if they think money can be made at BHX and the new routes perform well, they have to be supported.

It's going to be an interesting 18 months.

 

[Brum X]

American Airlines Versus United Airlines

Yeah i agree with all your points.

On another subject, i was making a genuine enquiry last night for prices for flights from BHX to Miami for departing 31st August 2015 and returning 10th September 2015. If i go then i will definately fly from BHX and will be between AA or United. Cheapest flight from BHX with AA was £659 rtn and the cheapest from United was £706 rtn so at the moment AA will get my business. What i found interesting though was that the AA search engine was saying that i could upgrade to Business class which was over £2000 and that on my date only 1 seat was remaining ????

Now is this just marketing or is Business class really nearly full ??????

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

I've just looked at those dates on the AA website and there are business class seats remaining on the BHX-JFK leg and the JFK-MIA leg so the website was most likely telling you there is only one seat left at that particular price.

 

[Brum X]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

I've just looked at those dates on the AA website and there are business class seats remaining on the BHX-JFK leg and the JFK-MIA leg so the website was most likely telling you there is only one seat left at that particular price.

Not that i will be going business class, unless i win the lottery, LOL

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

Keep buying those tickets you never know

Are you thinking of a stop over in NY or just connecting straight through to Miami?

 

[Ash]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

Interestingly the BHX-JFK continues as AA 131 to MIA on the same flight number, so technically it can be said BHX will have a direct MIA service, however tenuous or misleading to the average person this definition of "direct" is.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

Interestingly the BHX-JFK continues as AA 131 to MIA on the same flight number, so technically it can be said BHX will have a direct MIA service, however tenuous or misleading to the average person this definition of "direct" is.

That reminds me of the old Continental Airlines flight that used to arrive at EWR from LAX with the same plane then operating the BHX flight. Although they were completely different flights I seem to remember Teletext Arrivals (remember them?) actually listed the arrival as Los Angeles via New York for a short time. It was the same with the old American Airlines flight that Teletext again showed as Detroit via Chicago for a while.

 

[Brum X]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

Keep buying those tickets you never know

Are you thinking of a stop over in NY or just connecting straight through to Miami?

Dunno mate, i was thinking of maybe x2 nights in New York, but i have already been to New York so maybe this time i will just connect and watch all the BIG planes for a couple of hours.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

Going back to what Ash posted about AA131 continuing on to Miami, the BHX website destinations map now has MIA down as a direct flight

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Route Development & Airport Rumours

Seeing as we haven't had any rumours for a while I heard three yesterday. It's only hearsay and there's nothing at all official so make of them what you will.

-Qatar will announce BHX this year for a 2016 start (haven't we been here before several times?).

-Now the terminal works are nearing completion Air India will start adding routes from BOM as more 787's are delivered. The first wave of expansion will include Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo and others I can't remember but after that BHX is being looked at for a possible 3x weekly flight.

-Norwegian are looking at operating BHX-MCO in summer 2016 with a Gatwick based 787.