can we move away from the political and talk about the airline and route???
politics will always be involved in these sort of things, especially when it comes to china. When our charters were launched, ever though they were 3 rtn flights, look at how many politicians turned up to announce the route!
when it comes to the flights themselves, I do sort of think this has been blown out of all proportion and would just like to re-iterate a few points which I think are valid which I think people need to remember:
a) BHX can NEVER have direct scheduled flights to China without changes to the bilateral agreements. These are public documents in the public domain. We know 2 years ago MAN was added to these and we also know that BHX was not. Consequently, this really shouldn’t be a shock to people that MAN has got such flights before BHX.
b) It’s safe to assume that since the bilateral agreements were signed, MAN have been talking to airlines arranging this route(s). I dare say these routes have been negotiated over the last months, if not years. THIS DECISION HAS NOT HAPPENED OVER NIGHT! Consequently, I don’t see why this should have an impact on our Charter flights, surely they are 2 very different things. If BHX were in talks with Hainan before these announcements, I suspect they will continue. Yes the charters could be added to the Manchester route, but equally they could also have been added to the London routes. As the tours go to London, Manchester and Birmingham, what has changed? There has always been another point of entry into the country but they chose BHX. Has anything changed?
c) This is the first scheduled flight to china to a regional airport. This IS a risk. It is in every regional airports interest for this to work. Yes it’s frustrating and yes I wish it was BHX and not MAN, but if this fails in MAN, it won’t be coming to BHX. All you need to do is look at Emirates as a casing point. If this is a success, expansion will happen, and hopefully it wil happen at our countries other growing regional airports. What BHX now needs to do is keep its charters, keep its great economic links with China and make sure it’s in the perfect position to be added to the bilaterals when they are next reviewed!
Having scheduled links to China would be great, but so long as we keep our charters AND they continue to grow and be a success, I am happy. The reality is that BHX has more important things it needs to focus on. It has seen a great year of growth for BHX but it can’t take its eye off the ball! Airlines are attracted to growing airports, so we need to make sure that the momentum we have gained over the last 12 months continues over the coming years!
