Route Development & Rumours

[IanFarquharson]

Yes BHX always attend these and have a lot of success as a result

https://www.routesonline.com/events/193/world-routes-2018/

In Guanghzou !

 

[Ianbutty]

While perusing the RoutesOnline website this morning I saw an advert for BHX at World Routes 2018 - in case anyone is going, BHX are at stall HNS-311 and are serving curry dishes

Is the curry a hint in the region they are trying to attract more routes to?

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Is the curry a hint in the region they are trying to attract more routes to?

I believe that the curry has become a tradition on the BHX stand at RoutesOnline over the past few years.
Possibly trying to show one of Birmingham's attractions, but also a good way to get delegates to visit the stand.

Kevin

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Looking at the Birmingham Airport profile on the RoutesOnline website, I notice that the Head of Communications is Justine Howl

Kevin

 

[58terminus]

I believe that the curry has become a tradition on the BHX stand at RoutesOnline over the past few years.
Possibly trying to show one of Birmingham's attractions, but also a good way to get delegates to visit the stand.

Or just curry lovers.Have they done any analysis on the relationship between portions served and the airline the reps
represent. If they have a lot of reps from say the USA or the Far East maybe a change of menu is required.

 

[EGCC_MAN]

Now here's one to conjure with.

If EZY pick up Lisbon from Manchester will TAP consider re-locating to BHX?

The TAP MAN-LIS schedule operates 13 departures weekly (S18 numbers). Ryanair also operates six weekly flights. The EasyJet proposal adds three departures per week to the total. So your premise implies that three new weekly flights will displace thirteen existing ones. No doubt TAP will adjust frequency if they deem it necessary, but they've coped well with the challenge of Ryanair so far. I doubt that they'll run from EasyJet. They appear to have no problem attracting bums-on-seats, though of course none of us have access to essential yield data.

 

[rollo]

If TAP were ever to come ro BHX I dont think MAN would be much or even any sort of factor in their thinking as the schedule shown in EGGC-MAN,s post shows a schedule to suit most people unlike Easyjets at 3 weekly although they could of course increase it in future.

 

[EGCC_MAN]

Rollo has it right. When an airline such as TAP withdraws capacity from a route, they look to redeploy the assets (aircraft) on the most profitable unserved (or under-served) opportunity networkwide within the capabilities of the type. They would make this choice from across Europe, and serving a destination geographically close to the city they've just withdrawn from isn't part of the thought-process. If BHX does attract TAP, it will be because the numbers projected for that route in isolation offer a decent business case. It won't matter how the how spare aircraft came to be available.

 

[hay677]

Looking at the Birmingham Airport profile on the RoutesOnline website, I notice that the Head of Communications is Justine Howl

Tom Screem (sorry, Screen) and Justine Howl should certainly make sure BHX are heard.

 

[IanFarquharson]

As far as I know TAP has never been on the radar for BHX, they have always said London & Manchester is all they are interested in, but I totally agree BHX-LIS would be great for them.

 

[Paulsstrange]

As far as I know TAP has never been on the radar for BHX, they have always said London & Manchester is all they are interested in, but I totally agree BHX-LIS would be great for them.

I agree Ian. If Jet 2 or no other are to take the route on we should be chasing TAP. Plus they have good connections to South America.....

 

[richard winterbourn]

As someone who travels frequently to Brasil i believe TAP would be a perfect fit for BHX. I currently travel via AMS but there are other opportunities via FRA, PARIS or MADRID. The advantage of travelling via LIS is that the flight time from there is approx 90 minutes shorter from the alternatives.

Often when booking in at BHX with KLM on the 7am flight i have asked how people have onward bookings to Rio and generally it is six or seven. Not a lot maybe, but when you consider how many others might be heading to Sao Paulo and other South American destinations and transitting via AMS and other EU hubs then the number could be quite impressive.

Clearly AMS, FRA and PARIS benefit by drawing in pax from BHX to world-wide destinations, it is a shame that LIS does not do likewise. Because, in addition to South America, TAP have excellent services to some African countries as well as to the Far East and Macau.

 

[Silvercity]

As someone who travels frequently to Brasil i believe TAP would be a perfect fit for BHX. I currently travel via AMS but there are other opportunities via FRA, PARIS or MADRID. The advantage of travelling via LIS is that the flight time from there is approx 90 minutes shorter from the alternatives.

Often when booking in at BHX with KLM on the 7am flight i have asked how people have onward bookings to Rio and generally it is six or seven. Not a lot maybe, but when you consider how many others might be heading to Sao Paulo and other South American destinations and transitting via AMS and other EU hubs then the number could be quite impressive.

Clearly AMS, FRA and PARIS benefit by drawing in pax from BHX to world-wide destinations, it is a shame that LIS does not do likewise. Because, in addition to South America, TAP have excellent services to some African countries as well as to the Far East and Macau.

Lisbon is also a very easy airport to transfer through.

 

[Brum X]

As far as I know TAP has never been on the radar for BHX, they have always said London & Manchester is all they are interested in, but I totally agree BHX-LIS would be great for them.

But when did TAP say that, it doesnt mean TAP will NEVER be interested in BHX. Aviation changes with the wind and BHX followers should know that.

I am however quietly confident that TAP will make an appearance at BHX one day.

 

[Deleted member 8862]

Surely you mean a TAP re-appearance at BHX, they used to serve Faro on an IT basis.

 

[richard winterbourn]

If i remember rightly that was under the guise of Air Atlantis? Travelled with them a few times and always had a nice Portuguese liquor before take-off. Oh, happy days....

 

[Jerry]

But when did TAP say that, it doesnt mean TAP will NEVER be interested in BHX. Aviation changes with the wind and BHX followers should know that.

I am however quietly confident that TAP will make an appearance at BHX one day.

Never say never! A few years ago people would've laughed if you said Qatar Airways and Iberia Express would be flying from Cardiff! TAP to BHX could happen one day.

 

[Deleted member 8862]

It was in TAP, Air Portugal using a mix of 707's and 727's, Air Atlantis came somewhat later.

Sorry i do forget that i am probably twice or even three times older than some on here...

 

[Ray Finkle]

While perusing the RoutesOnline website this morning I saw an advert for BHX at World Routes 2018 - in case anyone is going, BHX are at stall HNS-311 and are serving curry dishes

The Birmingham Airport curries have become legend at the Routes Conferences

 

[Ray Finkle]

Going back to the article with comments from Tom Screen.

Air Baltic - 'We're talking to them.' Not quite as concrete as Air Arabia are to be announced soon but things must be looking positive for them to be mentioned.

JetBlue - It says that talks have been held about transatlantic ambitions and I suspect these may have been mentioned to show that they are working to reinstate services after the Primera shambles. The fact that talks have been held and he is confident enough to mention them must show that so far things are positive?

Hong Kong - Cathay are in talks and 2020/21 has been rumoured as a potential start date. Obviously this could move closer or further away but things look to be moving in the right direction.

Mumbai - There was a rumour a few months ago that this was coming sooner rather than later. Obviously nothing has happened yet and Mr Screen mentions talks with the Indian loco's looking to start services to Europe. Lets hope that all those journeys to India finally pay off.

Beijing - No idea on this one. After the Beijing Capital debacle I'm not sure whether any airline under the HNA umbrella would be interested and Hainan probably have the country covered for their Caissa tourists. With their sheer amount of connections Air China would be the big prize but could it be an outsider such as Sichuan Airlines who have A330's and 14 A359's on order? Currently their only Euro route is Chengdu to Prague and Zurich. It would be interesting to know who the target is.

Jet2, TUi, Thomas Cook and Ryanair all adding routes (not a direct quote) - I think Thomas Cook 2019 is similar in capacity to 2018 but there have been rumours of another aircraft coming in. There are several routes served by other carriers that they could probably safely add capacity on, Preveza has just the Flybe charter now that Monarch are gone and Mykonos would be a nice addition. TUi have added capacity and I've heard it suggested that schedules are under review. Hopefully if any changes are made they will be for the better, Venice is still low with only 2x weekly Jet2 compared to 5x weekly Monarch. Jet2 were looking to add two more routes from Birmingham for next year but they obviously haven't happened. Hopefully we'll see them both in 2020 unless things change in the next couple of months. Finally Ryanair. This year has been down with the 5th based peak summer aircraft not appearing and away based flights falling well short. Palma has also been dropped for winter. With plenty of markets wide open for them to get into this is a great opportunity for Ryanair to add some serious capacity for S19, I'm not going to hold my breath though.

“There’s a hell of a lot of capacity that will be coming back,” - Interesting comment and the word 'will' could imply that it's yet to be seen publicly?

Mr Kehoe was a guy who made bold statements and got Birmingham Airport into the spotlight at a time when it was most definitely needed. The downside is that there were one or two occasions when hopes were possibly raised prematurely only for disappointment to follow. Hopefully Tom Screen will follow a more measured approach and drop the little snippets when appropriate to get the airport some exposure but at the same time not make promises that they cannot keep and falsely raise expectations.

We shall see.