Birmingham: New Route Development & Rumours

[Ray Finkle]

A bit of Googling suggests that they have taken, or are due to take, three ex Egyptair A340-200's.

Egypt isn't exactly in great shape at the moment so unless they have some specific charter work would A340's be suitable?

 

[jfy1999]

They look like they would probably serve Cairo or Luxor although Luxor has been suspended by a few airlines due to the unrest in that part of Egypt.

One wonders whether this is just another paper airline that doesn't materialise into anything. Speaking of which, anyone heard from Africaada? 😆

 

[Ray Finkle]

According to their Twitter they are still planning Autumn 2015.

Apparently HH Prince Ebrahim met 'with one of Africa's leading flight Crew training institutes' to provide 'uptimum customer service'.

https://twitter.com/flyafricaada/with_replies

 

[Ash]

While we're on the topic of start-up carriers, I wonder if BHX are talking to these guys:

http://www.routesonline.com/news/29/bre ... n-economy/

This particular quote from the article caught my eye:

No decision has yet been made on the airline’s base, although this is likely to be at one of the London airports - albeit not Heathrow - with other UK points served through ‘W-patterns’. It hopes to launch operations from late 2016, although this could realistically slip into 2017.

Looks like BHX could feature in their plans on a LON-ZYL-BHX-ZYL-LON routing or something similar. One to keep an eye out for but early days yet.

Looks more likely than Africaada anyway!

 

[Ray Finkle]

If done properly that cold have massive potential. I think there is more capacity needed between BHX and Pakistan and they could probably do very well from BHX and MAN to Bangladesh.

One to keep an eye on.

 

[Brum X]

Apparently the Egyptian charter airline will do MAN/BHX-JED for Hajj purposes.



Ooooooh maybe we will be seeing another A340 at BHX very soon :hatsoff:

 

[Ray Finkle]

I read that too and there is certainly the market there. I can remember Saudi using their 747's back in the day.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I also forgot to mention that Will Pearson flew to India yesterday, there are pictures on Twitter on board one of the AI Dreamliners.

Business or pleasure, who knows?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Has anyone else heard a rumour that Air India may have become a little upset with BHX because there is a possibility that there could be a new entrant into the BHX - India market soon?

It's quite a wild one and I personally I don't think there is anything in it but if you've heard similar you'll know what I'm talking about.

 

[Brum X]

Has anyone else heard a rumour that Air India may have become a little upset with BHX because there is a possibility that there could be a new entrant into the BHX - India market soon?

It's quite a wild one and I personally I don't think there is anything in it but if you've heard similar you'll know what I'm talking about.

Now that is a bit naughty Ray if you dont mind me saying. Giving us this rumour and not giving us any more info about it. I dont now what you are talking about ????

 

[jfy1999]

I haven't heard any such rumour but the fact that this coincides with Mr Pearson's visit to Delhi has just made me sit up a little.
Jet Airways are the only other Indian airline I can think of, but maybe a non-Indian carrier is interested.

 

[Brum X]

I haven't heard any such rumour but the fact that this coincides with Mr Pearson's visit to Delhi has just made me sit up a little.
Jet Airways are the only other Indian airline I can think of, but maybe a non-Indian carrier is interested.

Yeah could be Virgin or BA. Dont think so


Or Qatar as they offer good connections to India ?????

 

[jfy1999]

Apparently the Egyptian charter airline will do MAN/BHX-JED for Hajj purposes.



Ooooooh maybe we will be seeing another A340 at BHX very soon :hatsoff:

Any more whispers regarding this?

 

[Ray Finkle]

I think we'll hear more closer to Hajj which a quick Google tells me is towards the end of September. If that is what they do actually have planned.

Brum X check your pm's.

 

[thunderchild]

Didn't Air India get a bit cheesed off when Biman started sniffing around?

 

[nwoody2001]

well I have certainly not heard any such rumour, and given the hard work and effort put in by BHX to get AI onboard then I would be shocked if BHX would do anything that would compromise that relationship. as ive said before, I would have assumed that future growth in the india market would have come from future expansion from AI, as Jet Airways have always been routed to MAN and there are no other direct competitors to talk about...

Qatar do indeed have good connectivity to India (I used Qatar to fly from MAN-DEL in 2011 but that was before the AI route) but then again, emirates isn't far behind in terms of connections and AI and Emirates have always co-existed at BHX with no issues....

... though without knowing the rumour, its hard to say!

 

[thunderchild]

I'm probably putting two and two together and coming up with seven but we're not talking about TAP are we as they've applied to serve DEL and BOM via another point - I can't see that much demand exists between India and Portugal and going via BHX would be a detour but Ray did say it was a wild one!

 

[nwoody2001]

that would indeed be a wild card, but whilst id love a connection with Lisbon, especially with TAP, I wouldn't want it to come at the cost of the AI link... especially as they would have little market presence in the region,

 

[Ray Finkle]

Okay but please remember that I am only the messenger. This is pure hearsay and should remain so until such time as we hear something official.

It was Air Asia doing KUL-DEL-BHX.

Normally I'd have filed something like this under 'spotters fantasy' but BHX were close to securing this route back around 2007 which made me ask if anyone else had heard something similar.

 

[thunderchild]

Hmmmmm, not one I would have thought of to be honest although it does make a bit of sense. I thought they were re-launching STN?