Route Development & Rumours

Ray Finkle said:

Time then to move on to May



Flybe start their usual charters to Kefalonia, Preveza and Salzburg and BACF start their flights.

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Plus Flybe to Verona on Saturdays

Also, Cityjet to Innsbruck on Saturdays starting late May with new times

12:10/13:10

Finnair have reverted back to the E190 for their MAN flights, rather than the planned A319, which could have meant Finnair starting BHX. A couple of weeks back I posted that BHX showed as a 'Finnair destination' in the search engine, not sure if this change back to an E190 means BHX may be postponed or that it may be offered with the Airbus planned for MAN on a lower frequency?

ethanegcc said:

Finnair have reverted back to the E190 for their MAN flights, rather than the planned A319, which could have meant Finnair starting BHX. A couple of weeks back I posted that BHX showed as a 'Finnair destination' in the search engine, not sure if this change back to an E190 means BHX is postponed again?

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They do have a codeshare with Flybe via AMS and CDG for BHX. CWL is on Finnair's drop down as well.

Jerry said:

They do have a codeshare with Flybe via AMS and CDG for BHX. CWL is on Finnair's drop down as well.

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Yes, I know, but the major difference is that Cardiff is just a oneworld destination, whereas BHX is showing as a Finnair destination, as MAN, EDI and LHR are (airports that have AY services):
View attachment 5084

ethanegcc said:

Yes, I know, but the major difference is that Cardiff is just a oneworld destination, whereas BHX is showing as a Finnair destination, as MAN, EDI and LHR are (airports that have AY services):
View attachment 5084

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I didn't know that! I wonder why the difference?

ethanegcc said:

Finnair have reverted back to the E190 for their MAN flights, rather than the planned A319, which could have meant Finnair starting BHX. A couple of weeks back I posted that BHX showed as a 'Finnair destination' in the search engine, not sure if this change back to an E190 means BHX is postponed again?

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BHX Postponed again, It was never confirmed.

Brum X said:

BHX Postponed again, It was never confirmed.

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I realise this, but MAN was meant to go A319 for S17, and then for W17, and it was widely speculated that BHX would receive the freed up Embraer 190, however both of these changes have been reversed. Hopefully BHX will receive a Finnair service soon, as it is something that would work really well for the West Midlands.

How do you line the 319 is not starting BHX

IanFarquharson said:

How do you line the 319 is not starting BHX

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Don't quite get your question? Is it supposed to be 'how do you know the 319 is not starting BHX?'

If it is, I don't! It may well be on a similar basis to Edinburgh, where an airbus aircraft operates on a lower frequency, and MAN keeps the double-daily E190. However, all I am saying is that the E190 was widely speculated to be freed up to offer BHX and that has been reversed. Whether this is a decision that the 319 could operate BHX on a lower frequency, I don't know for certain.

@Jerry as for your question above about the difference in the search engine, I think it is that as Finnair is a oneworld member, you can book oneworld tickets on their website. Therefore airports like LBA/CWL/NCL are in their search engine, but with a oneworld label, inferring that they are served by oneworld carriers but not Finnair. However, MAN, EDI and LHR have Finnair labels (like what has appeared on BHX) to denote that Finnair operate with their own metal to that airport.

ethanegcc said:

Don't quite get your question? Is it supposed to be 'how do you know the 319 is not starting BHX?'

If it is, I don't! It may well be on a similar basis to Edinburgh, where an airbus aircraft operates on a lower frequency, and MAN keeps the double-daily E190. However, all I am saying is that the E190 was widely speculated to be freed up to offer BHX and that has been reversed. Whether this is a decision that the 319 could operate BHX on a lower frequency, I don't know for certain.

@Jerry as for your question above about the difference in the search engine, I think it is that as Finnair is a oneworld member, you can book oneworld tickets on their website. Therefore airports like LBA/CWL/NCL are in their search engine, but with a oneworld label, inferring that they are served by oneworld carriers but not Finnair. However, MAN, EDI and LHR have Finnair labels (like what has appeared on BHX) to denote that Finnair operate with their own metal to that airport.

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Finnair must have a codeshare with Flybe as it is via AMS and then Finnair AMS-HEL

Brum X said:

Finnair must have a codeshare with Flybe as it is via AMS and then Finnair AMS-HE

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Yes they do. It's also available via CDG.

Vistara have been in talks with the Punjab Chief Minister about the potential of connecting the region to more cities and more countries. They are specifically looking at Chandigarh to Singapore at the moment but if things work out there could be potential for the future, if they are prepared to look outside of the London market that is.

Here's is to hoping Vistara Airlines start flights to Europe and choose Birmingham as one of its many choices.
I would love to see them try and do a ATQ-BHX-YYZ

Would be an good position to link into JV partner SQ's network, it's right on the great circle route to Singapore.

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=bhx-atq-sin

Maybe could just about be done on an A321LR?

BMIR are looking at starting Derry from both Birmingham and Bristol. It would be nice to see it back.

Ray Finkle said:

BMIR are looking at starting Derry from both Birmingham and Bristol. It would be nice to see it back.

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Would that be a PSO route like their London one?

Singapore are targeting Scoot at locations where there is demand but low yield, I think the first route was Athens. Also they don't connect to other flights you have to self connect in Singapore. There are lots of low cost connections there though.

I think if they offered flights to the UK it's more likely - initially - to be somewhere like Stansted, or even Gatwick, but who knows.

I'm not sure if that service would necessarily compete for the full service passengers tho fly Emirates.

SQ and CX are both getting new planes delivered gradually, and they are opening more routes to "secondary" locations in Europe.

I wonder how far down the list BHX is here or if this extra capacity could move us up a bit.

David_itl said:

The problem of getting CX or SQ into BHX in the short-term is the lack of spare aircraft for both airlines.

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Yes TM3, both airlines are currently receiving A350s (13 each to date) but these seem earmarked for replacement of older 'thirstier' planes. Whenever new fleet announcements are made there rarely seems clear information on whether the fleet size will increase or not and the strong hint is that usually new orders are to allow 1:1 replacements of older aircraft types. However with trained crew on an outgoing type, one use of those planes before selling would be to test out potential new routes over a few months if they haven't ordered enough jets for overall expansion. Otherwise they need to lease a plane and surely that would be for a longer time than perhaps they would wish to test if a route were to fail, so using the outgoing fleet might be reasonable. It's probably a large chicken and egg story however of 'What if we bought an extra jet and didn't have a route for it?' compounded by the difficulty of finding delivery slots for new widebodies needed - which seems to be a small number of years at present. Flexibility is therefore lost. So, I'm probably talking myself (if I were an airline executive) into a decision of using outgoing planes as test vehicles for new routes with a view to securing a lease deal for a fuel efficient plane as soon as possible if figures were profitable. Any views?