Birmingham: Ryanair Route Flights, New Routes & Base Updates

[IanFarquharson]

Ryanair have these little spats all the time !
They carry over 12,000 pax most days from BHX, so there is no way they would pull out.
Just would never happen.

 

[Aviador]

Anyone know how Ryanair are doing.I believe that they have increased the check in hours to 3 hours because of security queues at peak times

Could they threaten to pull from bhx?

I think you need a bit of insight here to understand the situation better. Noise restrictions at airports like Birmingham, mean aircraft are parked at the gates overnight. The second daytime operations resume at 06:00 AM, airlines must launch a massive "first wave" of departures to keep their tight, multi leg daily schedules from cascading into delays later in the day.

Because so many flights are scheduled to depart in that exact 06:00 AM to 08:30 AM window, thousands of passengers hit the check-in desks and security lanes simultaneously.

By extending the check-in desk opening to three hours early and pushing the closing cutoff back to 60 minutes, Ryanair and the airport handlers can flatten the peak demand curve to prevents a massive, unmanageable surge at the bag drop desks 80 minutes before a block of flights depart.

While Ryanair frames the adjustment around helping passengers clear longer security lines, the underlying reality is that those security lines are frequently at their absolute worst during that intense, post night flying restrictions morning departure wave.

Ryanair also do this at other airports with restricted night flying operations. Other airlines introduced twilight bag-drop primarily for the same reason.

 

[Birmingham Aviation]

I think you need a bit of insight here to understand the situation better. Noise restrictions at airports like Birmingham, mean aircraft are parked at the gates overnight. The second daytime operations resume at 06:00 AM, airlines must launch a massive "first wave" of departures to keep their tight, multi leg daily schedules from cascading into delays later in the day.

Because so many flights are scheduled to depart in that exact 06:00 AM to 08:30 AM window, thousands of passengers hit the check-in desks and security lanes simultaneously.

By extending the check-in desk opening to three hours early and pushing the closing cutoff back to 60 minutes, Ryanair and the airport handlers can flatten the peak demand curve to prevents a massive, unmanageable surge at the bag drop desks 80 minutes before a block of flights depart.

While Ryanair frames the adjustment around helping passengers clear longer security lines, the underlying reality is that those security lines are frequently at their absolute worst during that intense, post night flying restrictions morning departure wave.

Ryanair also do this at other airports with restricted night flying operations. Other airlines introduced twilight bag-drop primarily for the same reason.

Do you agree with Matt the way he literally snapped at me

 

[Danny]

Do you agree with Matt the way he literally snapped at me

This has been dealt with by Ray Finkle earlier in the thread and effort has been made to move the conversation on from the subject and draw a line under it.

 

[Aviador]

Do you agree with Matt the way he literally snapped at me

The discussion definitely got a bit heated over the last few posts, and it’s easy for tones to misinterpret or feel sharp when passion takes over.

As admin, I’m not here to referee personal interactions or take sides. My priority is making sure the thread stays a constructive space for debate rather than personal arguments.

I appreciate both points of view on the actual subject matter, so let's draw a line under the friction here, drop the personal focus, and get back to the core topic.

 

[BLB777]

I think you need a bit of insight here to understand the situation better. Noise restrictions at airports like Birmingham, mean aircraft are parked at the gates overnight. The second daytime operations resume at 06:00 AM, airlines must launch a massive "first wave" of departures to keep their tight, multi leg daily schedules from cascading into delays later in the day.

Because so many flights are scheduled to depart in that exact 06:00 AM to 08:30 AM window, thousands of passengers hit the check-in desks and security lanes simultaneously.

By extending the check-in desk opening to three hours early and pushing the closing cutoff back to 60 minutes, Ryanair and the airport handlers can flatten the peak demand curve to prevents a massive, unmanageable surge at the bag drop desks 80 minutes before a block of flights depart.

While Ryanair frames the adjustment around helping passengers clear longer security lines, the underlying reality is that those security lines are frequently at their absolute worst during that intense, post night flying restrictions morning departure wave.

Ryanair also do this at other airports with restricted night flying operations. Other airlines introduced twilight bag-drop primarily for the same reason.

That's not the reason as to why they are opening check in early

 

[Aviador]

That's not the reason as to why they are opening check in early

It isn't 100% the reason but it explains a little as to how the airport got to this point.

The early 3 hour desk opening and the security smoothing aren't separate issues.The airport literally forced the desk extension because of the security crisis. Because BHX has struggled so heavily with peak-time queueing, the airport operators actively pushed Swissport (who handle Ryanair) to open those desks earlier. It wasn’t a proactive customer service choice by Ryanair; it was a structural necessity to stop thousands of passengers with checked bags from getting stuck landside and causing a dangerous logjam in the terminal before they could even reach the security.

The limited night flying curfew, while not as extreme as at some other airports does limit the number of pre 06:00 departures which is how this ties in with my earlier post.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

That's not the reason as to why they are opening check in early

However @Aviador is correct. Thousands of people flood through the security system & airport complex almost at the same time for that first wave.

As he has correctly pointed out that 1st wave is a priority for any airline and any handler. The impact a couple flights leaving behind schedule due to the airport facilities not being correct / slow boarding & handling can have an impact that is - quite literally - impossible to recover from. All it takes is a delay to the flight plan and a nasty take off slot allocated by our good friends in Euro Control and the recovery will take all day or recovery will be minimal. The knock on effect of this is felt system wide. Again a list as long as my arm will be impacted and I'm happy to provide this as there is a lot that members won't think of.

Unless you have worked inside the airport complex, within an ground handling agent, or for an airline the complexities of getting aircraft off the ground on time is very much often miss understood and a lot of the "quiet" "un noticed" things that happen to get missed.

It will be BHX airport management that collaboratively with Ryanair, Swissport, Security teams and probably other airlines (Jet2/ EasyJet) have come up with this solution.

Earlier points allude to will this mean Ryanair pulling out? No - Ryanair will never give up on a large base such as Birmingham - not with Jet2 and easyJet having stronghold over the midlands area.

But does this mean expansion of based aircraft will be limited? There is a possibility yes. But flip reverse it could it also mean Birmingham airport themselves encourage more away based flying for a number of seasons for Ryanair? Likely yes. Birmingham still win they just put the passengers into a different departure bracket - an easier departure bracket for the infrastructure to deal with.

As for earlier posts. I do think members need to remember that there is a passion amongst us all. Questions that seem slightly over the top need simply explaining. Or debate encouraged.

We are a text based forum so hearing someone's tone is the hardest thing ever. Something meant as sarcastic can often come across as nasty simply because you can't hear the sarcastic tone nor can you see that persons body language.

 

[BLB777]

I mean Ryanair pulling would be a massive blow, but it's not impossible, if they aren't happy and it's effecting their services enough and making them loose money then they will simply go and invest elsewhere.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

What members also need to remember is that customers associate any bad experience with the airline they are booking with.

All be it the airport also gets the blame but ultimately it's the airline. If someone has an horrific experience from Birmingham with Ryanair they may not book Ryanair or from Birmingham.

However saying this - ultimately the customer is fickle.

 

[Aviador]

thickle

Was that intentional 🤔 🤣

 

[IanFarquharson]

The majority of Ryanair flights leave on time. they will leave pax behind if turn up to gate late.
They had a spat about BHX being undersatffed but again this is not BHX but the outsourced companies.
But they will probaly see this as good advertising knowing how Ryanair think.
Rest assured they are going nowhere !

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

Was that intentional 🤔 🤣

hehe 😉

 

[BLB777]

The majority of Ryanair flights leave on time. they will leave pax behind if turn up to gate late.
They had a spat about BHX being undersatffed but again this is not BHX but the outsourced companies.
But they will probaly see this as good advertising knowing how Ryanair think.
Rest assured they are going nowhere !

Let's see, but I certianly wouldn't be approaching this subject with so much confident

 

[Aviador]

Personally I would view it as the airlines and business partners working together to ensure things go as smoothly as possible.

 

[nwoody2001]

Let's see, but I certianly wouldn't be approaching this subject with so much confident

Anyone would think BHX was the only airport Ryanair operates out of. Have you seen the news….

Tenerife, Majorca and Alicante warning as Ryanair names '7 worst airports' for delays | Travel News | Travel | Express.co.uk

Ryanair has warned that the hubs are 'not ready' to handle this summer's passengers.

www.express.co.uk

If Ryanair pulled out of every airport who had delays, Ryanair wouldn’t have anywhere to fly to other than some fields in the middle of no-where. BHX didn’t even make the top of Ryanair’s naughty list and i don’t see any suggestions Ryanair are pulling out of them.

Ryanair has not suggested or stated anywhere their intention to pull out of BHX, and the fact RYR have added 5x routes 38x additional weekly flights AND and additional aircraft at BHX As part of their summer season this year at BHX, it seems they have a pretty good relationship with BHX.

Bar one forum poster here who seems to suggest every airline is about to pull out of BHX at any time, I’ve not seen anything meaningful to provoke the random paranoia in this chat!

 

[rollo]

Further to the points re check in times just had quick look at the live situation at BHX on one of the busiest days of the year.

There are 26 flights scheduled for departure between 6-7am and 1 arrival which is Qatar. The live security wait time at 5am was 4-19 minutes as shown on Qsensor. No information available on the situation at the check in desks but I would expect from past experience really busy especially with Jet2 who are efficient and TUI who are less so when it comes to check in.

As this is the Ryanair thread better mention them,they have 4 departures 😃

 

[Jon Dempsey]

Further to the points re check in times just had quick look at the live situation at BHX on one of the busiest days of the year.

There are 26 flights scheduled for departure between 6-7am and 1 arrival which is Qatar. The live security wait time at 5am was 4-19 minutes as shown on Qsensor. No information available on the situation at the check in desks but I would expect from past experience really busy especially with Jet2 who are efficient and TUI who are less so when it comes to check in.

As this is the Ryanair thread better mention them,they have 4 departures 😃

Trouble sleeping, Rollo? 😉

 

[rollo]

Trouble sleeping, Rollo? 😉

Too flipping 🔥

 

[thunderchild]

Sorry, but this is just getting tiresome.