Passenger numbers back on upwards trajectory at Birmingham Airport

Birmingham Airport has its sights set beyond the Brexit horizon as continued growth in passenger numbers puts early momentum into its masterplan project.

Major work is due to start in weeks on its T18 project- named because it will create a terminal that can handle 18m passengers a year, compared with its previous annual high of 13m that was achieved in 2017.

5.9m passengers used the airport in the first six months of 2019, up 3% on a year earlier although still slightly behind 2017. Passenger growth has been boosted by strong performances from a number of operators, including Emirates, Wizz Air, Jet2, Ryanair and Qatar.

Birmingham Airport’s chief executive Nick Barton, who joined in January, said: “There’s quite a lot going on although all of the work is behind the scenes.

“There will be significant additional baggage handling, and additional lounge space, retail and restaurants.

“It will start materially in the next few weeks and the plan is to get it substantially completed by a year in September.”

Birmingham Airport chief executive Nick Barton

Barton also doesn’t expect passengers to see any disruption from the UK’s impedending departure from the European Union.

An agreement was put in place ahead of the original March deadline that meant all of the rules and recognitions would have stayed in place for a transition period and the industry expects that accord to be extended.

“A disrupted aviation market is not in anyone’s interest,” said Barton.

“We have done our assessments and our biggest focus for extra effort is in cargo.

“A passenger is unlikely to see any difference, irrespective of how Brexit happens.”

So far the airport is not seeing any changes in demand ahead of October 31 although operators are facing pressures. Last week Ryanair announced it now expected to need 600 fewer staff next summer than it had previously forecast, while overnight details have emerged about two strikes planned by its pilots in a dispute over pay.

“Summer is pretty much where we want to be,” he said. “There’s no obvious sense of caution.

“We are not seeing it play out at an airport level, but the airlines are having to fight for every seat they sell.”

The impact of the intense competition, and the low margins, was felt across UK airports in autumn 2017 when Monarch collapsed.

Barton added: “The Airport did really well in the two years since Monarch. It was a very significant loss to the airport and the team – before I joined – did really well to replace it with very good operators.

“We have ended up with an airport that has recovered the losses, which is also an indication of the resilience of the region.”

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