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Birmingham Airport to invest £500 million to grow passengers to 18 million by 2033
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  • The draft Master Plan outlines ambitious plans to grow by 40% to 18 million passengers per year by 2033.
  • Birmingham Airport is opening its plans to the public from today with an extensive consultation that will run to the end of January to seek views from local communities and stakeholders
  • The Plan reaffirms the Airport’s commitment to serve the region and its communities, increasing its contribution to the local economy from £1.5 billion to a forecast £2.1 billion a year and 34,000 jobs in 2033.
  • An investment of around £500m will increase capacity and vastly improve the passenger experience, to make Birmingham one of Europe’s leading regional airports.
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Birmingham Airport has today (Tuesday 6th November 2018) launched its draft Master Plan, titled,‘The Midlands Gateway to the World’. The Plan sets out in detail how the Airport will make a self-financed new investment of £500 million over the life of the plan to improve, modernise and extend facilities that will deliver increased capacity for our airline customers and enhance the passenger experience.

The draft Master Plan further reinforces the integral part the Airport plays as a catalyst for growth across the Midlands and in the UK’s economic prosperity. It outlines the Airport’s role in driving future economic benefit to the region which will increase by 42%, totalling £2.1 billion a year and 34,000 jobs by 2033.

A greater choice of flights and destinations, alongside improved regional connectivity and a direct link to HS2, are vital to the continued growth of the region’s thriving economy. The global markets to which the Airport connects help to drive international trade, investment, employment, inbound tourism and the success of the region’s many universities.

The Airport will continue to improve air links for people in the region, providing more flights to cultural hubs, business centres and a greater choice of outbound holiday destinations. It will continue to expand the existing wide range of short-haul and long-haul scheduled and charter services and destinations, with both full-service and low-cost airlines.

Building on existing commitments to sustainability and community support, the draft Master Plan demonstrates how growth to become one of Europe’s leading regional airports will be balanced with a responsibility to the environment and the people who live and work in the Airport’s vicinity.

This ambitious yet sustainable plan is focussed on addressing the key constraints to more rapid growth. This will involve a major expansion of the terminal facilities, the construction of additional new aircraft stands and working with national agencies and regional partners to deliver improved public and road transport surface access for passengers.

All of the forecast demand growth is fully achievable on the existing single runway which has the physical capacity to handle 25 to 30 million passenger movements a year. The draft Master Plan also follows recently restated Government policy of making the best use of the UK’s existing runways.

Simon Richards, Acting Managing Director, Birmingham Airport, said:

“Birmingham Airport is already the preferred national and international aviation hub for the Midlands and our ambition is to build on this to become one of Europe’s leading regional airports, acting as a key economic accelerator, delivering great service to passengers, and helping to showcase the region.

“Over the next 15 years, we will expand and significantly improve the Airport to maximise our potential as a single runway airport by investing £500 million. Our plans take account of our forecast growth and will increase operational efficiency for our airlines and partners and improve the experience for our passengers.”


Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, said:

“Birmingham Airport is a key part of an economy that is growing faster than anywhere else in the UK and it is important we invest and grow this asset to ensure it keeps being a driver of prosperity.

“These bold plans will not only see a huge investment by the airport but commit to using the existing single runway to drive this growth. For my part, I will work with the airport and key partners like HS2 and the NEC Group to ensure we deliver the world-class facility our region and country deserves.”


Neil Rami, Chief Executive, West Midlands Growth Company, said:

“The West Midlands has firmly established itself as the UK’s driver of growth, fostering centres of excellence in business and leading the country’s traditional sectors – such as manufacturing and engineering.

“The region lies on the cusp of a period of great economic growth, supported by major infrastructure projects such as HS2, that will help attract more people and investment than ever before. To realise this potential, we are committed to working with our partners at Birmingham Airport to showcase the region to the world.”


Birmingham Airport details in the Plan its commitment to working closely with partners across the region, playing its part in driving growth. The Plan highlights how important factors such as public transport and highways improvements are to ensure the Airport is able to reach its potential.

Alongside the draft Master Plan, the Airport will be consulting on a new draft Surface Access Strategy. This will outline how it will meet growth requirements and targets, as well as continuing to work in collaboration with transport bodies and operators.

The launch of this draft Master Plan triggers the start of a 12-week public consultation for stakeholders to feed back their views on the Airport’s Plans. A number of public exhibitions will take place throughout the West Midlands from the 12th November to the 22nd January 2019. The consultation period will end on the 31st January at 23:59.

Full details of the plan and how to feedback can be found at www.bhxmasterplan.co.uk
 
This quote from another forum might have captured the thinking behind the relocation of the people mover. I don't have data on the number of passengers departing BHX by rail after arriving on a flight versus those arriving. However, I still think this could be managed without removing the existing AirRail.

See, I don't think it's UK departures that will benefit from HS2. Unless you live close enough to Euston or OOC the time benefit is marginal or non-existent. Furthermore how many people use the train to get to a departure airport anyway? Unless there's a much better way to manage luggage like a pre-departure pick-up service or luggage check at the station, it's a massive hassle.

For me HS2 makes BHX a far more marketable point of arrival if you're coming to London precisely because the train takes you straight into central London just as well and just as quickly or faster than the London airports. So far me it's demand coming FROM N. America and other long-haul markets (China specifically) that might finally give the airport the boost, especially if the region does a better job of marketing itself as a destination in it's own right.

The question is, will the airlines play ball? And is the BHX management actually looking to market BHX in this way?
 
HS2 makes BHX a far more marketable point of arrival if you're coming to London precisely because the train takes you straight into central London just as well and just as quickly or faster than the London airports

Hmm, I'm not convinced personally. Sure it might be quicker than LGW, STN & LTN, but LHR has the Heathrow Express (15 minutes to Central London) and soon will have Crossrail (~30 mins). Considering how many services to N.America LHR currently has, I can't see BHX+HS2 convincing many passengers to switch considering it would be no quicker than using LHR.

In terms of the link itself, who's paying for it? If the whole link (HS2 - NEC - BHX) is being paid for by HS2, it would be worth having a new link and closing the old/outdated current AirLink.

I think the only people that HS2 could attract to use BHX, is those that live close to either Crewe or the stations on the eastern branch of phase 2 (Totton, Sheffield, Leeds) that are flying long haul, more so to those destinations that aren't served by MAN (e.g. Delhi, Amritsar, Ashgabat). A quick look at google maps suggests a car journey from Leeds to MAN would take between 1hr and 1hr30. The journey on HS2 from Leeds to Birmingham Interchange would be around 40 minutes. Of course if HS3 is built that would be lost.
 
This to me is ill thought out. For example, adding a carousel, presumably in t1 and then bussing t2 arrivals into t1 immigration.
What will they then do, bus them back to t2 baggage reclaim.

I fear the city’s motto has long since been changed to “Backward”.
 
I think the proposals are good. I understand the frustration regarding the passenger predictions but they are just that, nothing is set in stone as things do change. I do feel expectations are far too high with airport development and growth at most UK airports.
 
Part of the problem is that it seems an awful lot of money to spend without seeing something tangible as a result. Improving passenger experience does not require that level of spending. MAN spending twice as much and you can see exactly what is being done regarding terminal capacity, airfield usage and passenger experiences.

Outside of London, we shouldn't be expecting airports to project wild forecasts e.g. 30 million for BHX by 2035. But you do want them have greater faith that the greater efficency of modern aircraft allied to "natural growth" of passengers making their way from 1 airport to another via any means would result in a new set of viable routes.
 
Part of the problem is that it seems an awful lot of money to spend without seeing something tangible as a result.

Most definitely.

The passenger forecasts are one thing but this plan proposes spending £500 million without any expansion of the buildings or the airfield. It is effectively just a hugely expensive makeover with a little bit of reshuffling. I think the summer of 2017 highlighted the desperate need for more terminal space and I really thought that it would have been the number one priority.

nwoody made an excellent point elsewhere in that they have detailed a 'high growth' plan but there are no visuals anywhere to show exactly what that is. The key comments are that they'd have to buy council land to do it and that there would be a very expensive rerouting of the road network. If they had included actual plans and drawings for the high growth scenario it would have at least shown some intent but this kind of gives the impression that there is no will to go beyond the current, very small, boundaries.

From reading comments it appears that even the most optimistic of BHX followers are disappointed with this so I hope that as many people as possible will take the time to make their feelings known.
 
This is also interesting posted on another forum by our very own nwoody Re: EDI masterplan and i must admit (After my initial rage) puts things into context i suppose.

Considering EDI are already about 1 million pax above BHX its actually a very similar passenger forcast give or take a million or two million passengers and when you think EDI is a major tourist capital city which is attracting the prestige routes at the moment, i feel abit better now after digesting this recent news. :unsure:

Pax forecast are as follows:

2017 = 12.5m
2020 = 14.3m (+1.8m)
2025 = 16.6m (+4.1m)
2030 = 19.2m (+6.7m)
2035 = 22.3m (+9.8m)


https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/.../11/Edinburgh_Airport_Masterplan_15112016.pdf

Info provided by nwoody (y)
 
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Gentlemen, and other interested parties, please direct any formal responses to the Mayor in addition to the relevant authority. It may assist you and any objection, if the language is tempered and if any evidence offered is backed up.

Mr. Mayor. Andy Street is a strong weapon but he needs something to deploy and he may be seeking re-election.
 
Hi there all, after looking at the so called bhx master plan for 18 million passengers by 2033, doesn't really fill me with any great confidence at all. So does bhx management only hoping to get 18 million passengers by 2033, well I'm very disappointed in their forward planning. By only planning for 18 million passengers by 2033, do they realise what a massive own goal and shot themselves in the foot. To only plan for 18 million passengers by 2033, is what I call a failed attempt. That means that bhx management is quite happy to let every thing just tick on gradually, so averaging two or three hundred thousand passengers a year till 2033, they will then announce that they have reached their target of 18 million passengers. So the next master plan will probably be for 20 - 25 million passengers by 2045...So at present bhx are happy to come up with miniature Master plans, that will not really affect anything at all... AndyC
 
Hi there all, after looking at the so called bhx master plan for 18 million passengers by 2033, doesn't really fill me with any great confidence at all. So does bhx management only hoping to get 18 million passengers by 2033, well I'm very disappointed in their forward planning. By only planning for 18 million passengers by 2033, do they realise what a massive own goal and shot themselves in the foot. To only plan for 18 million passengers by 2033, is what I call a failed attempt. That means that bhx management is quite happy to let every thing just tick on gradually, so averaging two or three hundred thousand passengers a year till 2033, they will then announce that they have reached their target of 18 million passengers. So the next master plan will probably be for 20 - 25 million passengers by 2045...So at present bhx are happy to come up with miniature Master plans, that will not really affect anything at all... AndyC

Make your feelings known by using one of the contact methods above.

If enough people make the same point then maybe they will listen.
 
Hi there Rob c DSA, yes, you couldn't be more correct, the airport management at bhx has always been short sighted when it comes to forward thinking. While airports like Manchester, Stanstead have been allowed to expand and grow with their management future planning, where as birmingham airports management have just Sat and watch those airports move forward extend runways agreed deals with airlines, expand to where they are now, where as bhx management and planners have just Sat there watching, then watching, then thought, oh, that's too expensive for us and too ambitious, we'll just stick with a more simpler plan and stuck to it, that's where birmingham airport is at present, so unless the new chief executive can wrip up those plans and move forward, then bhx is going nowhere and every other airport will pass birmingham and leave it behind, so now is the time for Mr Nick Barton to start and do the same thing for birmingham airport what he did for Luton and Stanstead and move the airport forward and not backwards... AndyC
 
Hi there brumx, the only airports in the UK that I have visited are Heathrow, Gatwick and Birmingham, which is within half an hour from where I live in Warwickshire.. AndyC
 

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