Ryanair announces Szczecin!
Ryanair continues to expand at Birmingham after announcing yet a further new route today... this time flying to Szczecin (the capital of Pomerania) - in Poland. Flights will operate twice weekly starting from the 28th October 2008. This is Ryanair's 6th Polish destination from Birmingham.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 17/07/08


Easyjet's winter update
Easyjet this week has formally launched their Winter 2008/2009 programme from Birmingham. Geneva flights will continue to operate 3 times weekly until the start of the main ski season when the frequency increases to double daily on 4 days of the week (Fri, Sat, Sun & Mon). A single daily rotation will operate on other days.

Along with Geneva, we also see the return of flights to Grenoble operating twice weekly from Saturday 13th December 2008. View the latest Winter schedules below:

Easyjet - Geneva schedules (until 13th Dec):
EZS1495/1496 Arr 10:55 - Dep 11:25 - Tue, Thur & Sat only.

Easyjet - Geneva schedules (from 15th Dec):
EZS1491/1492 Arr 07:50 - Dep 08:20 - Sunday only.
EZS1495/1496 Arr 10:25 - Dep 10:55 - Saturday only.
EZS1495/1496 Arr 10:55 - Dep 11:25 - Mon-Fri.
EZS1497/1498 Arr 15:00 - Dep 15:30 - Sunday only.
EZS1495/1496 Arr 15:50 - Dep 16:20 - Mon-Fri.
EZS1497/1498 Arr 18:25 - Dep 18:55 - Saturday only.

Easyjet - Grenoble schedules (from 13th Dec):
EZY8504/8505 Arr 17:55 - Dep 18:25 - Saturday only.
EZY8502/8503 Arr 11:10 - Dep 11:40 - Sunday only.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 19/07/08


Bye bye SkyEurope & Norwegian!
SkyEurope announced yesterday that due to its rival - Ryanair, the airline will be ceasing its 4 times weekly service to Bratislava at the end of September 2008 with the last flight operating on the 28th September. Bratislava is one (of many) routes now operated by Ryanair, the first casualty of the new Ryanair base!

And if that wasn't all.... Norwegian Air Shuttle have today announced that they will be ceasing its 3 times weekly service to Warsaw. This time, Norwegian is blaming competition from bmibaby and also after recent talks about entering a 'strategic co-operation' with Sterling. Norwegian will operate its last flight on 31st August 2008.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 17/07/08


bmibaby's winter update
bmibaby have now released their Winter 2008/2009 timetable from Birmingham which sees many routes being cut. Flights to Bordeaux, Lisbon, Madrid, Marseille and Rome appear to be missing, whilst services to both Barcelona and Nice will be taking a break until February 2009. Similar reductions are also being made at other UK bases.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 17/07/08


SAS aircraft return...
SAS. Scandinavian Airlines have again made changes to their Copenhagen service, this time with the return of their own aircraft to Birmingham after operating for several months with Air Baltic on the evening service. SAS have now scheduled an MD-87 (expect MD-81/82 examples) on their evening services with Atlantic Airways continuing to operate the morning service on their behalf with Avro RJ-85's/BAe 146-200's



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 17/07/08


Ryanair moves in & announces more routes!
On Tuesday 17th June, Ryanair moved in with their first (of two) based aircraft and are now serving up to 22 routes from the airport! Ryanair was not only celebrating the opening of their 25th base at Birmingham but also celebrating yet more new routes! A further 10 new routes on top of the recently announced Frankfurt Hahn have been announced... Alicante, Derry, Frankfurt (Hahn), Fuerteventura, Katowice, Kaunas (Lithuania), Krakow, Malaga, Murcia, Palma (and just announced today) Prague - are all set to start from the 26th October 2008 with flights bookable now. Ryanair continue to upload their winter timetable so keep an eye on this page!

The airline states, "By 2012, Ryanair will have aircraft based in Birmingham, which will deliver 5M passengers p. a. sustaining 5,000 jobs. This will equate to £400 M visitor spend for the West Midlands".

Frankfurt-Hahn schedules:
FR9871/9872 Arr 11:00 - Dep 11:25 - Mon, Wed, Fri & Sun.

There will be (so far) 33 routes operating from the Winter 2008/2009 timetable. Keeping you all up-to-date, the following routes commenced this week (from 17th June)... Barcelona, Biarritz, Billund, Bologna, Bratislava, Bydgoszcz, Dinard, Gdansk, Marseille, Olbia, Oslo, Perpignan, Pisa, Poitiers, Porto, Stockholm, Trieste, Reus, Rzeszow & Trapani (Sicily). These ofcourse operating along side Dublin & Shannon.

All flights now operate from Terminal 2 (T2).



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 20/06/08


Easyjet adjustments
Due to the combination of the credit crunch and the high price of fuel, Easyjet will be making a few "seasonal" adjustments from Birmingham. Saturday rotations will end on the 2nd August 2008, along with Tuesday & Thursday rotations between 7th August - 16th September 2008 inclusive.

All flights continue to operate with Easyjet Switzerland A319's.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 20/06/08


Terminal changes
From Wednesday 4th June 2008, some airlines will be moving terminals. Ryanair will be moving down to Terminal 2 in time for their big launch with 20 new routes, at the same time both Eastern Airways & Swiss European will be moving back up to Terminal 1. With Swiss European being a 'Star Alliance' member, they will be able to offer a much better service operating along side their alliance partners, Lufthansa & Scandinavian (SAS).



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 29/05/08


Summer I.T Charter update
This Summer 2008 season see's a number of foreign charter airlines operating throughout the week. I have listed and uploaded the flight schedules below for the interesting movements which includes Air Bee (with MD-82's) AMC Airlines
(with 737-800W's) and Koral Blue Airlines (with A320's). Check out the 'interesting movements' page for more...

Air Bee (from 25th May):
OB8302/8303 Arr 08:10 - Dep 09:00 - Sun.

AMC Airlines (from 11th May):
AMV7228/7229 Arr 14:15 - Dep 15:15 - Sun.

Koral Blue (from 1st May):
KBR4488/4489 Arr 12:10 - Dep 13:00 - Thur.
KBR5486/5487 Arr 12:35 - Dep 13:25 - Fri.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 03/05/08


Loganair to Birmingham (update)
After 45 years since the airline started operations at Dundee City Airport, Loganair (now a flybe franchise carrier) have re-introduced services from the airport and have announced new services to Birmingham (along with Belfast City). Flights from Birmingham start on 21st May 2008 and will operate 3 times daily (weekdays) with 1 flight on Sunday evenings with Loganair Saab 340's. The schedules are now posted below...

New schedules(from 21st May 2008):
BE6970/6971 Arr 08:25 - Dep 08:55 - Mon-Fri.
BE6974/6975 Arr 15:25 - Dep 15:55 - Mon-Fri.
BE6976/6977 Arr 19:35 - Dep 20:05 - Mon-Fri & Sun.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 21/03/08


Lufthansa to Hamburg changes
Lufthansa announced on the 21st January 2008 that they will be launching a new destination from Birmingham to Hamburg. Flights were to start on the 31st March 2008 but due to an aircraft shortage this service is now planned to start on the 5th May 2008 with revised mid-morning schedules (view schedules below). The service will still operate daily except Sunday with CRJ-100/200's of Lufthansa CityLine. Lufthansa will now be serving 4 destinations within Germany from Birmingham from Summer 2008 with services to Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf and now Hamburg. Aircraft equipment will continue to vary on all services.

Revised Hamburg schedules:
LH4928/4929 Arr 11:00 - Dep 11:30 - Daily except Sun.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 21/03/08


Swiss to use Helvetic
From the 1st April 2008, Helvetic Airways will be taking over from Flightline on Swiss European's morning and evening rotations using Fokker 100's with the lunchtime service continuing to be operated by Swiss RJ-100's. A simular operation is currently being operated from Manchester. View the revised summer schedules below.

In the meantime, morning and evening flights will continue to be operated by Flightline with BAe 146-200's.

Summer 2008 schedules (from 1st April):
LX421/422 Arr 08:05 - Dep 08:40 - Daily - Operated by Helvetic.
LX423/424 Arr 13:05 - Dep 13:35 - Daily - Operated by Swiss RJ-100.
LX425/426 Arr 18:05 - Dep 18:40 - Daily - Operated by Helvetic.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 17/02/08


Proposed Runway Extension
Birmingham International Airport today submitted a planning application to Solihill Metropolitan Borough Council for the proposed extension to the existing Main Runway 15/33. The current length of the Main Runway (15/33) restricts the range of destinations, markets and routes which can be served directly from the Airport. It is therefore proposed to extend the length of the Main Runway by approximately 405 metres (together with a 150 metre starter extension) to create a total runway length of approximately 3,004 metres.

If work goes a head, it will take place at the south-east end of the Main Runway (in Solihull) and will involve alterations to the A45 Coventry Road with the carriage-way being tunnelled under the runway. The application also includes a new Air Traffic Control tower, revisions to the existing fuel farm, a new exit taxiway, the treatment of 'obstacles' and the diversion of services and watercourses.

Solihull Council now have 16 weeks from today (7th January 2008) to consider the planning application. For more information on this story, check out the official Birmingham Airport website page by clicking here.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________posted 07/01/08