Daily Direct Link from BHX to the US

[IanFarquharson]

United ceased BHX operations in 2017, as did American. The B787 entered service in 2012 with United airlines and with American, a little later.

AA ORD finished in 2002 !

 

[Kevin Farnell]

AA ORD finished in 2002 !

Yes, but not AA's final route from BHX as they operated to JFK with B757's until 2017.

 

[route66]

AA ORD finished in 2002 !

Ended almost immediately after 9/11.

 

[IanFarquharson]

Yes, but not AA's final route from BHX as they operated to JFK with B757's until 2017.

Sorry Kevin

I had forgot about that, it only lasted 2 years.

 

[Timberwolf]

Ended almost immediately after 9/11.

I think BHX best chance across to the USA may be Jet 2 in the future.

Their A321NEOs will be able to take 230 passengers to New York both ways.

These would be leisure only but summer high season and winter shopping trips may be back in favour if the pound can climb back towards 1.40 by the time. BHX gets delivery of them .One can hope..

 

[DarloPlaneBoy]

I think the reason we won't see any American Legacy Carriers at the moment ie a American, Delta or United is because I learnt something in the UK we get Holidays and you can book it In America they have something like 4 days to book and therefore unless they don't work or are there own boss's they can't fly abroad. My dad told me most of the people who were on BA flight from JFK to LHR were mostly British people I know there was some Americans on there as a US Girls soccer team who were annoying my parents in the waiting area as they were loud were travelling on the flight during the flight you didn't notice them. But Back to Birmingham most Americans would see London as England most Americans would go to Paris, Madrid, Rome, London, Dublin. To Americans London is like New York to us. Many Americans don't know about Birmingham or they do but don't know it ay just Birmingham. In Birmingham you can see the Commonwealth Games infrastructure, Chinatown, Bullring and many Pubs and Clubs where Music was created. You also have near to Birmingham Coventry with two Cathedrals and the scene of two tone music plus it was City of Culture. Then Looking at Warwickshire you have the birthplace of Shakespeare Stratford Upon Avon and Warwick Castle plus the birthplace of Rugby. You have the Lickley hills and I think Clent Hills. Staffordshire for the Staffordshire Hoard, Pottery and more. Plus UOB has the Clock Tower that JRR Tolkien based I think Sourton Tower On. Then not forgetting the Black Country the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, We built Titanic's anchor the only part that worked. We have Slade and Battered Chips plus the Black Country Muesum, Birmingham has the Christmas Markets then in the greater Midlands you have Cannock Chase, Ironbridge and the famous Funnel things I think in Stourbridge you also have Dudley Castle, Dudley Zoo. But unless American actually look they won't know. There is a channel on YouTube an American Couple called Magic Geekdom who have visited all of England and I think may be moving here and they know there's more to England than London. But to many Americans. London may be all they can do and maybe they just don't know what this part of the country had to offer. I get adverts on YouTube to visit Saudi Arabia, Australia, Croatia, Turkey, Portugal and Newfoundland in Canada but do they get visit the Midlands I doubt it.

 

[DarloPlaneBoy]

Yes, but not AA's final route from BHX as they operated to JFK with B757's until 2017.

American don't have any 787's based out of New York they have 777's as there long haul fleet out of JFK

 

[Coathanger16]

I think BHX best chance across to the USA may be Jet 2 in the future.

Their A321NEOs will be able to take 230 passengers to New York both ways.

These would be leisure only but summer high season and winter shopping trips may be back in favour if the pound can climb back towards 1.40 by the time. BHX gets delivery of them .One can hope..

I'm not sure that the regular A321NEO has the range to fly transatlantic once you take account of the extra regulatory fuel a flight has to carry (reserves, diversion fuel, etc).

Certainly no operator at the moment flies the regular version TATL, only the LR, and most of them are equipped with some kind of business class thereby reducing the total passenger count to well below 200.

Of the current 7 airlines operating the LR, only 2 have more than 200 seats onboard, with Arkia - an Israeli airline based in Tel Aviv - equipping their LRs with 220 seats. The longest flight I can find them operating is Tel Aviv to the Seychelles, which is about 500 miles shorter than Birmingham to New York.

I would however agree that BHX's best chance of a regular US route (besides TUI) lies with the A321NEO family, albeit the LR or XLR version not the regular one.

 

[David_itl]

Per https://aviatorinsider.com/airplane-brands/airbus-a321/ the range of a "normal" A321neo is "...3100 nautical miles. The baseline A321neo improved this to 3650 nm thanks to the new, more efficient engines"

The great circle map shows EWR-BHX as just under 3000nm so roughly it looks like there's an hour leeway for headwinds.
Jetblue's 160 seat A321NEO which apparently turn up at LGW have a range of around 3500nm. according to some websites I've seen - I have a feeling that if they were to try the likes of BHX/GLA/MAN then they would tend to use them given the less premium cabin compared to the "Mint" A321LR versions

 

[Seasider]

Wouldn't they want the revenue from the "mint class" to make it pay?

 

[Timberwolf]

I'm not sure that the regular A321NEO has the range to fly transatlantic once you take account of the extra regulatory fuel a flight has to carry (reserves, diversion fuel, etc

It does just about have the range 4000 mile's and I think New York is 3300nm from BHX, so should even do it against the wind.

I think Jet Blue changed from a 321LR to a standard 321N for a while out of Gatwick however with less seats to fill that a Jet 2 321.Back to an LR I think how.

American Airlines have 321NLRXs on order which with greater range and less seats could do it easily yet not sure they will return ro BHX, but you never know

Wouldn't they want the revenue from the "mint class" to make it pay

Probably top heavy premium seat wise for BHX model.

114 economy seats
22 Mint business class
02 Mint business studios.

 

[LichfieldBlue]

I don’t post on here a lot but have a love of aviation since childhood watching 1-11’s from home in Bordesley Green, was it on the flight path in the 70’s and 80’s? Anyway back to the subject I travel to the states 2-3 times a year for leisure and having flown both AA and Continental/United from BHX would love to see a return. I’ve read an article that Breeze are looking at transatlantic flights with A220’s is that feasible and if so is BHX a possibility?

 

[Timberwolf]

I’ve read an article that Breeze are looking at transatlantic flights with A220’s is that feasible and if so is BHX a possibility

It is feasible in good weather conditions on an A220-300 but even tighter than a A321N.

Also factor in Breeze offer a premium heavy cabin on them, 90 economy and 36 upper class in a 3-2 and up front 2-2 layout currently

 

[KARFA]

Feasible in an A220 means possible mostly, but for the many days where you get significant headwinds you are topping up in Gander or Halifax so operationally it will screw everything up.

Narrow body wise, the LR or XLR is the only real choice for reliability - unless you are doing some kind of low density all business config.

 

[Ianbutty]

Whatever the plane may be, an airline needs to step forward and fly one. At the moment go onto flightradar and see how many fly across the Atlantic from Heathrow or Amsterdam and what market is left. And the transatlantic carriers either do not give to cahoots how people get to the major gateways. Post Covid the heavy number of scheduled services has not come back to Manchester even, so realistically what chance for BHX.

I will never forget talking to someone on a flight to Boston. I asked about where in Boston he was from. I am not. I live I Hartford and my sister is coming to collect me. For them travelling 100 miles from an airport is nothing. So a trip from London to the delights if Greater Brum, is nothing.

Love to see Chicago, New York and Philly on the timetable, but I cannot see it happening.

 

[Timberwolf]

Whatever the plane may be, an airline needs to step forward and fly one. At the moment go onto flightradar and see how many fly across the Atlantic from Heathrow or Amsterdam and what market is left. And the transatlantic carriers either do not give to cahoots how people get to the major gateways. Post Covid the heavy number of scheduled services has not come back to Manchester even, so realistically what chance for BHX.

I will never forget talking to someone on a flight to Boston. I asked about where in Boston he was from. I am not. I live I Hartford and my sister is coming to collect me. For them travelling 100 miles from an airport is nothing. So a trip from London to the delights if Greater Brum, is nothing.

Love to see Chicago, New York and Philly on the timetable, but I cannot see it happening.

The bottom line is that we are too close to Heathrow, and to an extent Manchester.
Every effort from Birmingham to New York has failed.
Twice from BOAC with VC-10s, pulled loss making.
American Airlines United/Continental longest service pulled.
British Airways with B767s then 757s failed.
Primera..say no more !
On paper an American Airline A321LR which they have on order, very fuel efficient, ideal choice of plane depending on number of business seats.
However with that historic failure record over the years, hardly a good CV to interest airlines..

 

[rollo]

Couldn't agree more, can also add the one summer season wonder by U.S. Airways to Philadelphia.

 

[Aviador]

The bottom line is that we are too close to Heathrow, and to an extent Manchester.
Every effort from Birmingham to New York has failed.
Twice from BOAC with VC-10s, pulled loss making.
American Airlines United/Continental longest service pulled.
British Airways with B767s then 757s failed.
Primera..say no more !
On paper an American Airline A321LR which they have on order, very fuel efficient, ideal choice of plane depending on number of business seats.
However with that historic failure record over the years, hardly a good CV to interest airlines..

It is always the dream for any UK airport not currently offering flights to the States but in all honestly, other than pride how important is it really?

We can all assume the reason why airlines avoid Birmingham {and many other airports), but really how important is it to have flights to the States? I don't believe it is the pull of London or the passenger drain to Manchester. It is simply because the demand simply isn't there. If there was a demand airlines would come.

For the time being airlines serving the US have consolidated their ops from mostly London, Manchester and Edinburgh. The distance between Manchester and London and Edinburgh is almost equidistant for a reason.

#BHX
#FlightsToTheUS

 

[Coathanger16]

Every effort from Birmingham to New York has failed.

I wouldn't say 20+ years of Continental/United was a failure. Given that United left within a year or two of American also launching flights to NYC, along with the fact that they have since left MAN as well suggests a wider cause rather than a specific BHX related issue.

Two airlines flying to NYC was always going to be too much for BHX.

If there was a demand airlines would come.

Just because an airline doesn't fly a particular route doesn't mean there isn't demand or even sufficient demand to sustain a route. That applies to all routes from all airports, not just NYC/USA.

Airlines have a finite fleet and crew resource. They will prioritise routes that make the most profit for them. Given its close proximity, Birmingham and the Midlands can be served through Heathrow, freeing up aircraft to fly to destinations that cannot be served any other way. For example, United now fly to Tenerife and Palma, destinations that aren't covered by another airport United flew to before.

In recent years that is what United's focus has been in Europe - not so much bringing Europeans to the US, but bringing Americans to popular European tourist destinations: Tenerife, Palma, Dubrovnik, Malaga, Naples and Ponta Delgada have all launched in the last few years.

When the XLRs start arriving, they will likely initially at least be used to offer better frequencies on routes currently served by the B757, before moving into new markets.

I would agree that having a route to NYC or the US is largely more about pride and status from regional UK airports these days. A daily A321LR/XLR with a business class product would only provide c. 100,000 seats a year, or less than 1% of BHX's passenger throughput, so will hardly revolutionise the airport. Saudia's service to Jeddah will offer more seats and frankly is more significant as it's a new market to BHX and the Midlands. I'd much rather get the likes of Mumbai into BHX's network than NYC.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

I don't believe it is the pull of London or the passenger drain to Manchester. It is simply because the demand simply isn't there. If there was a demand airlines would come.

There is no doubt that there is a demand from people of the Midlands to travel to the US. The Midlands has a population of around 6 million (a little higher than Scotland), of which around 3 million are in the West Midlands. The problem is, that those passengers needs are being provided for at airports other than BHX. The main benefactor, being LHR, where simply by numbers of departures, the airlines can offer lower fares than they can from BHX and also greater flexibility for business passengers (and above), who can change their departure at short notice with no financial penalties.
Airlines will always be happy to have passengers travel to them, rather than have to set up another operation at another airport. I think that the best thing for BHX currently, would be for Play to start services (or, better still for Icelandair to return), with their good connections to the US.