Birmingham: Air India Flights, New Routes & Schedule Updates

[Karl C]

Good afternoon folks.
I've been considering commenting on this forum and others for several months but held back until today.
Am I missing something here as when I started spotting over 50 years ago it was about the excitement of seeing new and unusual aircraft and schemes. Going down to London, to the Midlands, Scotland plus luckily enough and never was concerned or jealous about which airlines go to which airport.
There seems to have been an increased trend on the Birmingham blog and others comments that certain airports should have the device right to be serviced by certain airlines but not others...why?
Airlines are businesses who in general will plump for the prestige slots at Heathrow then if the rest of the country are lucky they may get the scraps.
Unfortunately in our country the news outlets,government etc think that everyone wants to fly from London which isn't the case so any increased capacity or new routes outside of the South East should be seen as a positive for all the other airports rather than be turned into a childish complaint that other non London airports are out to steal operators from other regional airports.
Believe it or not there are big Indian,Pakistani,Bangladeshi,Chinese and other ethnic communities all over the UK who should have better access to direct flights so please stop quibbling and having paranoia and just enjoy our hobby.

Well said chap!! Never understood why fanboys and girls of airports three times the size (passengers) and more, try to diminish the accomplishments of airports much smaller than them. What gives? Do the followers of bigger airports do it to them, so they feel they have to pass their bad sentiment on to smaller airports 🤔
İt gets wearing seeing the same old keyboard warriors spouting the same old tripe. Takes the fun out of a hobby we've probably all had since we were kids.
Tbh all our airports need to do well, so let's all be on the same side.....the side of aviation, which we all love 🙏

 

[Coathanger16]

I would generally agree, and in particular there are certain "supporters" of certain airports that seem to very actively complain when "their" airport misses out, and feel that if airport "X" gets a route and they don't there must be some kind of vendetta against their airport.

I think ultimately however it comes down to passion. By the very nature of being on this forum, we are all very passionate about aviation and we want to see our local airports, whether current or historical, do well.

Airlines are businesses who in general will plump for the prestige slots at Heathrow then if the rest of the country are lucky they may get the scraps.

This is the only bit I would disagree with. Appreciate the "in general" prefix, however easyJet, Jet2 and TUI - three of the largest airlines in the UK - don't fly to Heathrow. They're not bothered about having that "prestige" and fly from airports where they can serve a particular market.

Additionally, whilst airlines like Emirates send the bulk of their capacity to Heathrow and London, they serve other airports in the UK because there is a market, and not as "scraps" leftover.

Different routes have different markets, and therefore airlines will treat different airports differently depending on what that market is.

Pre-covid, Ashgabat would see more passengers from Birmingham than Heathrow. Why? Because of a local Midland based market of connecting passengers.

Equally, Amritsar would see more passengers from Birmingham than Heathrow again because of the local ethnic population in the Midlands.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Good afternoon folks.
I've been considering commenting on this forum and others for several months but held back until today.
Am I missing something here as when I started spotting over 50 years ago it was about the excitement of seeing new and unusual aircraft and schemes. Going down to London, to the Midlands, Scotland plus luckily enough and never was concerned or jealous about which airlines go to which airport.
There seems to have been an increased trend on the Birmingham blog and others comments that certain airports should have the device right to be serviced by certain airlines but not others...why?
Airlines are businesses who in general will plump for the prestige slots at Heathrow then if the rest of the country are lucky they may get the scraps.
Unfortunately in our country the news outlets,government etc think that everyone wants to fly from London which isn't the case so any increased capacity or new routes outside of the South East should be seen as a positive for all the other airports rather than be turned into a childish complaint that other non London airports are out to steal operators from other regional airports.
Believe it or not there are big Indian,Pakistani,Bangladeshi,Chinese and other ethnic communities all over the UK who should have better access to direct flights so please stop quibbling and having paranoia and just enjoy our hobby.

Firstly, welcome to the forum, Nobby63.

I guess it depends on how you define 'our hobby'. My interest is as much about Birmingham airport as it is about aviation. I used to go 'spotting' (i.e. collecting aircraft registrations), but gave that up decades ago (the only registrations that I note these days, are aircraft that I fly on). I much prefer aviation photography, along with following route development and passenger number statistics (especially Birmingham)

 

[rollo]

Ref. Air India specifically amongst all the chat recently on here unless I've missed it I haven't seen any actual evidence of them switching to MAN from BHX, indeed as far as I remember the last actual thing they recently did concerning BHX was to increase their service back up to the pre covid 6 weekly.

 

[Timberwolf]

Good afternoon folks.
I've been considering commenting on this forum and others for several months but held back until today.
Am I missing something here as when I started spotting over 50 years ago it was about the excitement of seeing new and unusual aircraft and schemes. Going down to London, to the Midlands, Scotland plus luckily enough and never was concerned or jealous about which airlines go to which airport.
There seems to have been an increased trend on the Birmingham blog and others comments that certain airports should have the device right to be serviced by certain airlines but not others...why?
Airlines are businesses who in general will plump for the prestige slots at Heathrow then if the rest of the country are lucky they may get the scraps.
Unfortunately in our country the news outlets,government etc think that everyone wants to fly from London which isn't the case so any increased capacity or new routes outside of the South East should be seen as a positive for all the other airports rather than be turned into a childish complaint that other non London airports are out to steal operators from other regional airports.
Believe it or not there are big Indian,Pakistani,Bangladeshi,Chinese and other ethnic communities all over the UK who should have better access to direct flights so please stop quibbling and having paranoia and just enjoy our hobby.

I think all the different separate Airports4 threads from other airports want to support their own airport.Not wanting to lose services to other airports.
As this is a Birmingham thread I see that as fine .Just as the MAN thread and the others around the country on them do.

Banging the drum for MAN is also fine by me 😃

 

[IanFarquharson]

Ref. Air India specifically amongst all the chat recently on here unless I've missed it I haven't seen any actual evidence of them switching to MAN from BHX, indeed as far as I remember the last actual thing they recently did concerning BHX was to increase their service back up to the pre covid 6 weekly.

No one said they were ditching BHX but the Air India CEO said recently after Gatwick they see MAN as their next growth area.

 

[Timberwolf]

I think ultimately however it comes down to passion. By the very nature of being on this forum, we are all very passionate about aviation and we want to see our local airports, whether current or historical, do

Bang on Coathanger.

 

[Silvercity]

Bloody typical, operate from BHX all these years and then overnight will launch flights from MAN to DEL and BOM

You know it's going to happen , the writing is on the wall

However an article in The Times says this, I can't show the whole article as you need to be a subscriber

Air India looks to Britain with $80bn aircraft order

British airports, international businesses, tourists and the Indian diaspora are set to be beneficiaries of Air India’s record-breaking $80 billion order for 4

www.thetimes.co.uk

"The former state airline now controlled by the Tata family, whose British interests include Jaguar Land Rover and Tata steel, also confirmed flights in and out of Birmingham. Future expansion could include services at Manchester"

Easyjet and Ryanair have done this to Liverpool for years, particularly Easyjet...operate a route for say 15 years from Liverpool, suddenly its going from Manchester.

 

[IanFarquharson]

Looks like Air India will announce expansion plans very soon 🙂

 

[Coathanger16]

Looks like Air India will announce expansion plans very soon 🙂

Is that BHX, UK or generally? Or can't say yet?

 

[Kevin Farnell]

I'm hoping that as Ian has posted it in the BHX > Air India thread with a Smily face, that it's BHX related.

 

[Ray Finkle]

It's BHX related

 

[IanFarquharson]

I'm hoping that as Ian has posted it in the BHX > Air India thread with a Smily face, that it's BHX related.

Just BHX hopefully 🙂

 

[Scania1800]

Just BHX hopefully 🙂

I do expect something to do with London too.

 

[Brum X]

BOM - BHX X 3 weekly please Air India. I think we have waited long enough ????

 

[IanFarquharson]

BOM - BHX X 3 weekly please Air India. I think we have waited long enough ????

I dont think you are too far off !

 

[Brum X]

I dont think you are too far off !

I will take x 2 weekly to start with, lol

 

[Scania1800]

I will take x 2 weekly to start with, lol

Should be enough to study the demand for the route.

 

[Birmingham Aviation]

My prediction

Delhi will move from 3 weekly to 4 weekly flights
Amritsar will move from 3 weekly to 4 weekly

New introduction:
Mumbai 2 weekly

My prediction

Delhi will move from 3 weekly to 4 weekly flights
Amritsar will move from 3 weekly to 4 weekly

New introduction:
Mumbai 2 weekly

I’m guessing I’m correct Ian 😊

 

[Matt995]

they will need to get all their 787s back in service then, still have VT-ANH & VT-ANL stored!!!! 🤣