Route Development & Rumours

[rollo]

Being well placed geographically has turned out to be a curse, rather than benefit for Birmingham.

All to true I'm afraid and don't even mention our football teams down here.

 

[Ianbutty]

Birmingham and BHXs future rests on it marketing itself as a destination for business and leisure in itself, and not as an alternate entry point or "overflow" to London.

Coathanger you are absolutely right. LHR is a national airport. MAN doing a grand job covering the North. BHX wedged. Needs to continue to focus on visitors to and from it catchment and worry not about others.

Build it and they will come the ghost whispers in Field of Dreams and had BHX had the gateway status decades ago we would have built it. What we need now if new massive investment in terminal and lounge capacity. Get the queues to a minimum and steel a match over other airports so those thinking of using bigger airports will use BHX. Then expand the network point to point but be smart. Apply the 80% rule. Go for 100% of our targets and satisfy ourself with 80% and focus our real energy on those 80%.

We need the Commonwealth Games to raise the city profile - I sadly doubt we will - or something that gets the City that gives the airport the name a worldwide profile...maybe it's sports or innovation or our wonderful arts sector. Whatever it is focus on the positives - we are amazing at doing ourselves down. Get the press on Birminghams side. Bluntly the national press thinks we are a joke. In the age of the internet it is not what is in print that matters but the headlines that go viral.

Need to all of that and they will come.

 

[Ianbutty]

Sorry for the rallying cry in my last post but I have been in a motivational course today. Back to misery tomorrow...budgeting.

 

[58terminus]

we are amazing at doing ourselves down. Get the press on Birminghams side. Bluntly the national press thinks we are a joke. In the age of the internet it is not what is in print that matters but the headlines that go viral.

I agree Ian.I am a passionate Brummie but we do seem to keep putting ourselves in the firing line.
The refuge strike,the attempts by some people to influence how some schools are run.The council equal pay fiasco
which has cost millions.Even the complete closure of the main route into the city centre is broadcast every weekend
on traffic reports nationally. There are great developments going on in the city centre which has changed beyond recognition since my youth but the rest of the city?I keep reading Birmingham is to big to be governed the way it is now.I am starting to agree. As you say we are amazing at putting ourselves down,but.
Sorry to everyone if this is the wrong topic on the wrong forum.

 

[Brum X]

Anyway Back on topic which is ROUTE DEVELOPMENT AND RUMOURS

 

[58terminus]

Anyway Back on topic which is ROUTE DEVELOPMENT AND RUMOURS

Sorry

 

[Ray Finkle]

Sorry

Feel free to continue the pro Brummy chat on the Greater Birmingham thread

 

[finchy168]

Still waiting out on this Primera announcment

 

[IanFarquharson]

Primera said they would annonouce by end of the Summer.

 

[Ray Finkle]

There seems to be quite a stalemate in Amritsar.

According to this article Qatar Airways are running full and Turkish, along with other Gulf carriers, cannot obtain the relevant permissions due the bilateral agreements. Upon request of the Indian carriers the Ministry of Civil Aviation is not ready to talk to them as they fear losing even more market share. Air India and Jet Airways are reportedly not interested in starting international routes out of ATQ, preferring passengers to use their hubs at Delhi. There looks to be continued political pressure for direct flights to London and Birmingham but it doesn't seem to be getting anywhere.

http://punjabnewsexpress.com/punjab...-flights-to-sgrdj-airport-amritsar-64432.aspx

Obviously there are two sides to every story but you have to feel slightly sorry for ATQ, although a dominant carrier(s) refusing to start regional services in favour of passengers travelling to their main hub is nothing new

 

[58terminus]

Primera said they would annonouce by end of the Summer.

Well that gives them a lot of leeway as we havn't had a summer for for some years now

 

[Deleted member 8862]

They probably mean by the end of the Scandinavian summer, which is different to ours.

 

[Frankie4]

Has anyone else heard anything more about Spicejet?
I really hope we also get Vistara Airlines

 

[Ray Finkle]

Has anyone else heard anything more about Spicejet?

Spicejet announced that they are looking at the 787-10 and the A350-1000, it sounds as if they will go for whichever manufacturer can offer the best deal.

The Spicejet Chairman said India has a potential 'tremendous' long haul market but 'you need to work out the math and bring the costs down as it's incredibly price sensitive'.

There's still no word on the two 787's which they said they wanted to lease for this winter.

Vistara should be announcing international operations shortly along with an aircraft order form both narrow and wide body planes. It's expected that international destinations across Asia will be first, Japan and Singapore have both been mentioned, with Europe to possibly follow.

Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeo said: "We are very close to finalizing our plans for international operations. Vistara will fly to places like Japan as that is a very important market. We are very excited by the aircraft order (the airline will place) to support our aggressive overseas plan. At this stage, I cannot share the aircraft type and how many wide and narrow body we will need for our plan. Or how soon will we fly abroad. We will make all these announcements very shortly."

“We will be picking flights where we have some competitive advantages,” he said. “For passengers, non-stop is always better than a one-stop. Our core target will be connecting India non-stop to various places,” Vistara chief strategy and commercial officer Sanjiv Kapoor said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...for-wide-body-planes/articleshow/60406265.cms

 

[Ray Finkle]

A bit more from Vistara.

I think either could give Air India a run for their money, the demand is certainly there.


“International ambition has always been there from day one.” Yeoh said, “If I can get a wide body, then I can go a bit further, but otherwise theoretically, with my 21st and 22nd plane, I can deploy it regionally (West Asia, South East Asia). What is my 23rd aircraft, nobody knows.”

The airline hasn’t announced its wide-body fleet plan yet and declined to elaborate on Thursday as well. Wide-body planes with two aisles are typically used for longer flights.

“We are very close. There are many exciting points (international cities) that we should be operating into. At the same time, we are also very excited about the possible orders that will be required to support aggressive plans overseas,” Yeoh said.

http://www.livemint.com/Companies/i...ane-deliveries-to-speed-up-international.html

 

[Coathanger16]

I may have missed it, but has the been any indication that either Spicejet or Vistara will serve BHX if/when they do venture into long haul?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Vistara have been rather tight lipped about potential destinations outside of Asia but appear to be close to announcing something.

Spicejet have talked about serving Europe with London, Birmingham, Paris and Zurich specifically mentioned. Recent press comments seem to suggest LGW as a potential first destination although the snippet below appeared in the media in June.

SpiceJet plans to launch low-cost long-haul service between Delhi- Birmingham from coming winter schedule.

http://www.business-standard.com/ar...-boeing-737-max-10-planes-117061900985_1.html

I think it's a case of time will tell.

 

[BHX492]

Is bmi regional still going to operate on behalf of loganair

 

[Ray Finkle]

It seems as if the 'high cost of new generation wide bodies' has put Spicejet's route to Birmingham on hold, for now at least.

The airline has previously indicated that it was looking to acquire 787s to launch services to the UK as early as the upcoming winter schedule. His latest comments appear to show that those plans are on hold for now.

Talks are happening with the manufacturers but whether they will reach a common ground remains to be seen.

He says talks with manufacturers are underway to "significantly reduce ownership costs" for new-generation aircraft.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/a...-costs-prevent-long-haul-low-cost-lau-440979/

Another article confirming that they are studying the economics of both the 787-10 and the A350-1000 before deciding. Birmingham was mentioned again although it was from his comments a few months ago.

While he did not mention any prospective routes, earlier this year, he told The Times of India that cities such as Birmingham Int'l or London held great appeal given the size of the UK-India travel market.

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/...spicejet-weighs-up-a350-b787-for-longhaul-ops

 

[Otisblue]

Considered putting this under Random thread, but you never know. I have not seen this mentioned before so apologies if it has been.

Vule Airways to Entebbe ? It was sort of buried on Page 11 of the latest Airliner World, but got home and checked out the website and it did exist !

The Press release does mention building up hubs at Stansted and Birmingham UK, although the route list only mentions Stansted, operating 777-200ER on long haul routes

Very much doubt we will ever see it !!

https://vuleairways.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Vule-Airways-Press-Pack_August-8-2017.pdf