Birmingham: Air India Flights, New Routes & Schedule Updates

Karl C said:

Hey fella,

This is a great group and your negativity, in whatever form it comes, isn't helpful either. It's plainly obvious you're not pro BHX, so why on earth do you post your negativity towards Birmingham on a Birmingham site?
You couldn't wait to be proved right about Air India leaving by slighting what Ian had said. Ian is a valued member of this group and having a pop at him won't do you any favours. Aren't you pro Manchester? They have plenty on their group you can chat about......

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Cheers for your concern Karl, but I think I'll post wherever i want to thanks. But I'll remember your comments and respectfully ignore them

BLB777 said:

Cheers for your concern Karl, but I think I'll post wherever i want to thanks. But I'll remember your comments and respectfully ignore them

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Me too. But expect blowback from your negativity. No respect given

Karl C said:

Me too. But expect blowback from your negativity. No respect given

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Calm down man!

Karl C said:

Me too, but expect blowback from your negativity; no respect is given.

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If I may draw your attention to the PIA thread, you will see a good example of my "negativity" where I comment on the likely return of PIA, also using data to back up the likelihood of the service returning this winter. 🙃

Let’s leave it there please folks.

More seriously, there are many pressures on AI right now.

Poor inflight service on their old fleet that has been serving the BHX route, fuel prices shooting up, Pakistan airspace closed.

Worth noting that ATQ-BHX is still on sale….for now.

From what I've read elsewhere Amritsa is bookable through winter Wed-Fri-Sun with return flights same day. Also suggested passengers were transferred to the BHX route following cancellation of the Gatwick service.

Hanging on by a thread maybe and at least Egypt Air start later this month he says looking for a silver lining.

Air India also axe Amritsar with the last flight being 6th November

Means Air India will be exiting bhx

Flights only bookable via business though on sale after the 6th November

Last four AI flights full outbound !

Is that because Gatwick pax bought up to BHX
Book Flights

mullion said:

Is that because Gatwick pax bought up to BHX
Book Flights
Flight tracking software

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No, because LGW has ended yet.

IanFarquharson said:

Last four AI flights full outbound !

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AI aren't exiting because of poor loads.

They are exiting because the routes are not viable at the moment.

Loads were atrocious, less than 40% LF some days, however over the past few weeks most flights have been going out full.

Just for context here are CAA stats for the last available month (August)

Assuming:
- 3 weekly return flights for both ATQ and DEL
- all 77W ops with 344 seat configuration

gives us 8256 available seats on each route over the course of 28 days in the month. The load factors would be as follows:

ATQ - 3778 pax / 8256 seats = 45.7%
DEL - 5484 pax / 8256 seats = 66.4%

If flights had been on the 788 (with the densest configuration of 259 seats) the total available seats over 28 days would have been 6216.

ATQ - 3778 pax / 6216 seats = 60.7%
DEL - 5484 pax / 6216 seats = 88.2%

The actual LFs will be lower as I haven’t accounted for 31 days in the month.

These numbers were actually an improvement over the previous few months.

This shows that AI’s decision to switch from the 788 to the 77W may well have been the final nail in the coffin. I don’t know to what degree this was avoidable - the cause of the tragedy in Ahmedabad is still under investigation, and the 788 refurbishment programme is taking much longer than expected, but it’s clear the 77W was way too much plane for BHX regardless of all the other geopolitical issues.

Looking at alternatives on BHX-DEL, it looks like Lufthansa, Turkish, emirates and Qatar will be the winners. Egyptair offer similar travel times but dont look as good on price. Pegasus look great on price but will require self transfers.

It’s a major disappointment, of course, but on the other hand, the rumours of PIA returning show that if an airline and airport have a good long standing relationship, then a route suspension doesn’t have to be permanent.

We can only hope that all the geopolitical nonsense resolves itself eventually and AI gets its fleet sorted out. Then, maybe, BHX and AI will be ready to resume discussions.