British Airways returns to Birmingham after a decade away

British Airways is to start flying from Birmingham Airport again – a decade after quitting the hub.

The airline has announced it will operate four new summer-only routes to popular European sunspots – the first BA services to use the airport since 2007.

From May, the flag-carrier will begin direct flights from Birmingham to the popular Spanish destinations of Malaga, Ibiza and Palma and to the Italian city of Florence.
 
The services will use modern 98-seat Embraer 190 jet aircraft, with the return flights operating once a week at weekends.

Attracting such a high profile operator, even on such a limited basis, is a big coup for the airport and goes some way towards making up for the loss of another flag-carrying service last month when American Airlines pulled out of the airport with the cancellation of its service to New York JFK.
 
BA quit Birmingham in 2007 when the regional airline business was sold to Flybe.
 
Since then, Vueling and Iberia Express, subsidiaries of British Airways’ parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), have started up services to Barcelona, Malaga, Alicante, Tenerife, Paris Orly and Madrid from Birmingham, while Aer Lingus has continued to operate to Dublin from Birmingham since 1984.
 
Luke Hayhoe, British Airways’ general manager commercial and customer, said: “We are very excited to be returning to Birmingham with four very popular routes. We look forward to a busy summer.”
 
David Winstanley, Chief Operating Officer for Birmingham Airport, said: “Having British Airways return to Birmingham is not only great news for the airport but also the Midlands region and we are confident this is the beginning of a long-term growth plan with the airline.”

The BA announcement coincides with a record start to the year for the airport. Last month was the busiest start to a year for the airport in terms of passenger volumes.

In total 775,176 passengers used the airport during January – a 16.1% growth year-on-year compared to the same month last year.
 
Long haul demand for seats was also very significant showing a 29.5% rate of growth. Short haul also experienced strong growth, up by 13.4% year-on-year.
 
Scheduled traffic in January accounted for 91% of the total, with charter passengers making up the remaining 9%.
 
Scheduled traffic overall grew by 17.1%, with the most significant growth on routes to Madrid (+300.6%), Sal Island (+121.8%), Berlin (85.9%), Reykjavik (+54.3%), Warsaw (+53.4%) and Malta (+50.8%).
 
Charter traffic experienced 6.9% growth and significant increases on services to Hurghada (+33.5%), Alicante (+19.9%), Montego Bay (+19.8%), Madeira (+11.2%) and Gran Canaria (+11.2%).
 

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