[rashman]

Does anyone have any insights into when Qatar will reinstate its flights to Birmingham, UK. Emirates only has a 777 which is nothing compared to the A380 in London and manchester and I am not sure why BHX doesnt seem to get any good options compared to Manchester.

[ViajeroUK]

After BA withdrew all of their services from BHX (2006/2007?)I asked a similar question and was told “because it’s too close to London”.

The withdrawal seemed to happen suddenly, I had flown with them to Athens, three days later arrived at the terminal for my return flight to discover that it was cancelled, and was given a choice of connecting flights to get me home. BA used to have their own terminal at BHX dubbed Eurohub.

[TominScotland]

If I remember correctly, ViajeroUK, BA services from BHX were operated by a franchise, Maersk and it was they who pulled the plug rather than BA?

[esselle]

I think it is simply a question of how commercially valuable a carrier thinks a particular routing will be. If they thought opening a new service from BHX would be, then, subject to slot availability, they would set about gong through the approvals process.

[AMcWhirter]

Before Maersk there was another called Duo. It ceased services in May 2004.

If it’s any consolation BHX is served by Emirates.

Pity Welsh travellers who lost Qatar at the start of the pandemic and this Doha=based airline shows no sign of restarting CWL flights despite the original subsidy paid to Qatar Airways by the Welsh government.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44810051

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red_robbo, Mark

[ASK1945]

[quote quote=1292327]I think it is simply a question of how commercially valuable a carrier thinks a particular routing will be[/quote]

Absolutely.

Manchester Airport is the only major international airport in a catchment area extending north to the Scottish Border, south to Stoke-on-Trent, East beyond Leeds and west to the sea. Yes, there are Leeds-Bradford and Liverpool single runway airports, but they don’t routinely serve long distance flights. What population does that cover – maybe 20+ million.

Conversely, single runway BHX has a much smaller catchment area – many of whom are south of Birmingham anyway and might find LHR easier to get to.

Mind you, from what I have read here and elsewhere, the authorities running Manchester Airport are doing their best to kill off their advantage.

[Midlands Traveller]

I think Duo came from the original Maersk operation. They were great in my opinion for the year or so that they operated.

BHX is my home airport and the lack of direct business routes, particularly outside Europe is constantly frustrating. To be fair it is relatively close to London. But weirdly it is closer in travel terms to the centre of London than to LHR. Great pain in the rump to have to go into the city and change train stations to go back in the direction you came. Which is why I drive to LHR.

BHX is of course perfectly situated for a main airport to serve the majority of England….

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Poshgirl58

[stevescoots]

with the lack of a decent long haul airport in the east Mids BHX is perfect. much quicker for me to get to from Lincs than LHR or MAN. NWI East mids and STN dont fly any of the routes i fly either

[AMcWhirter]

BHX claims HS2 will attract Londoners.

https://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/hs2-connects-birmingham-airport-to-central-london-in-37-minutes-making-it-a-local-option-for-millions-more-people/

But equally it will enable travellers from the West Midlands area to more easily reach LHR.

There will be a hub station at Old Oak Common from where trains will run to LHR.

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Poshgirl58, red_robbo

[Midlands Traveller]

Thanks for the link Alex.

Interesting to note that both central London and Manchester are expected to be 37 minutes away by train. Should indeed make BHX a very feasible option for travellers from both regions. But difficult to capitalise on that I guess without the airline/destinations to support it.

Writing this from BHX. Thank goodness I don’t rely on the train, would not have been possible to get here today from what I understand. But that is a whole other conversation.

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Poshgirl58, AMcWhirter

[rashman]

All this is great but does anyone from BHX know the status of Emirates, Qatar, Cathay or American airlines etc that are planning to offer services from BHX???? That is more interesting if someone could provide us an update

[AMcWhirter]

These decisions would be taken at HQ level. Would anyone in the BHX area know more ?

All I say is that EK was enterprising in restarting BHX after the pandemic.

AA axed BHX well before March 2020.

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/american-airlines-pulling-out-birmingham-11865597

Would CX even be considering BHX at the present time ?

Maybe Hans Airways will be next to operate ex-BHX.

UK-India carrier Hans Airways performs proving and familiarisation flights

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Poshgirl58

[AMcWhirter]

[quote quote=1288054]Emirates only has a 777 which is nothing compared to the A380 in London and manchester and I am not sure why BHX doesnt seem to get any good options compared to Manchester.[/quote]

I have some good news.

Emirates will restart A380 operations to BHX effective July 1.

Its super jumbo will operate flights EK39 and EK40.

Bookings for these A380 services are now possible.

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Poshgirl58, Travelling4Fun, stevescoots

[Poshgirl58]

There seems to be some confusion over Emirates reinstating A380 on EK39/40 from 1 July.

It appeared on their website as bookable, only to disappear a few days later. Another forum (not noted for its accuracy!) has reported that it’s a technical glitch as someone had contacted the airline. The response received was yes, the A380 is returning to BHX. I’ve done a couple of flight searches for earlier dates, all still showing B777.

Fingers crossed yet again!!

[AMcWhirter]

[postquote quote=1335063]

Thanks for this information Poshgirl58.

Before I would post any comment here I would check the accuracy of the information and certainly when I did check for Jlu 2023 Emirates.com was displaying the A380.

Let us hope it is a technical glitch.

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Poshgirl58

[Author]

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