Expansion of Birmingham Airport on Government agenda

THE growth potential offered to the West Midlands by the arrival of the HS2 high speed rail link could manifest itself in the expansion of Birmingham Airport.

There is growing speculation that the Government in its deliberations on the expansion of aviation capacity in London and the South East, may recognise the case for increasing capacity at Birmingham Airport.

As such, when the Cabinet deliberates over a third runway at Heathrow or a second at Gatwick, it may also suggest that Birmingham submits a bid for a possible second runway.

The argument for the new runway is supported by the increase in rail travel between London and Birmingham expected once HS2 opens in 2026.

The Birmingham Interchange hub – effectively an HS2 station – will be open by then, which could facilitate extra passengers using Birmingham Airport.

Experts have said that potentially, passenger traffic at Birmingham Airport could double, if not grow even further as a result of the new rail link, which would effectively put it just 40 minutes’ travel time from London.

Birmingham certainly has the capacity and it already has an extended runway capable of facilitating direct flights to China and the West Coast of the United States.

Its passenger statistics also support the case for growth – the figures for September being a case in point.

The passenger volumes last month where the busiest on record and the performance marked the 19th consecutive month of growth.

In total 1,207,796 people travelled through the airport last month, up by 15.8% compared to the same month last year. This means the airport has also recorded its fifth consecutive month this year in which it has handled over a million passengers.
 
Long haul saw very significant passenger growth rates, up by 21.5%, and short haul grew by 15.1% year-on-year.
 
Paul Kehoe, CEO, Birmingham Airport, said: “This is a very healthy growth rate year on year equating to almost 165,000 more passengers being served here.  It gives us a strong start to the autumn travel period.
 
“As we approach the winter season we will commence a £100m package of terminal works to improve the customer journey in time for the busy summer 2017 period.”
 
Scheduled traffic accounted for 87% of the total passenger volume for September and saw a 27.1% growth compared to the same month last year. Charter traffic accounted for 13% of the total.
 
Middle Eastern, European, Caribbean and Asian destinations saw the greatest increase in passengers compared to the same month last year. This is due to a greater amount of airlines serving these regions from Birmingham Airport giving more destination choices and flight frequencies.   
 
Scheduled destinations with significant year-on-year passenger growth were Madrid (+309.3%), Budapest (+179.2%) and Warsaw (+137.2%).
 
Charter destinations with significant growth were Fuerteventura (+89.4%), Skiathos (+80.5%), Gerona (+80.1%), Tenerife South (+53.6%) and Alicante (+38.1%).

The only blip for the airport in recent months has been the decision by American Airlines to withdraw its service to New York JFK from January.