Birmingham Airport

Birmingham Airport
IATA: BHX – ICAO: EGBB
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Seven Metropolitan Boroughs of West Midlands (49%) Airport Group Investments Ltd. (48.25%) Employee Shares (2.75%)[1]
Operator	Birmingham Airport Ltd
Serves	Birmingham, United Kingdom
Location	Bickenhill, West Midlands and Birmingham, West Midlands
Hub for	Flybe[2]
Elevation AMSL	341 ft / 104 m
Coordinates	52°27′14″N 001°44′53″W / 52.45389°N 1.74806°W / 52.45389; -1.74806Coordinates: 52°27′14″N 001°44′53″W / 52.45389°N 1.74806°W / 52.45389; -1.74806
Website	birminghamairport.co.uk
Map
EGBB Location in the West Midlands
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 15/33 3,052 10,013 Asphalt
Statistics (2014)
Passengers 9,705,955 Passenger change 13-14 6.4% Aircraft Movements 97,346 Movements change 13-14 1.7%
Sources: UK AIP at NATS[3] Statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority[4]

Birmingham Airport (IATA: BHX, ICAO: EGBB), formerly Birmingham International Airport^[5] is an international airport located 5.5 nautical miles (10.2 km; 6.3 mi) east southeast of Birmingham city centre, at Bickenhill in Solihull, Birmingham, England. The airport is a base for Flybe, Monarch, Ryanair, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways.

The airport offers both domestic flights within the UK, and international flights to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, North America and the Caribbean. Passenger throughput in 2015 was about 10.2 million, making Birmingham the seventh busiest UK airport.^[4] However, the airport is the sixth in terms of international passengers.

Birmingham has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P451) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.

Location

Birmingham Airport is 5.5 NM (10.2 km; 6.3 mi) east-south-east of Birmingham city centre, in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull. It is bordered by the National Exhibition Centre to the east, Marston Green to the north, Sheldon to the west, and the village of Bickenhill to the south.

It is primarily served by the A45 main road, and is near Junction 6 of the M42 motorway. It is connected by the elevated AirRail Link with Birmingham International railway station on the West Coast Main Line.

The airport's location south-east of the city, plus the only operational runway being north-west – south-east (15/33), means that depending on wind direction, aircraft land or take-off directly over Birmingham. The relatively short north-east – south-west runway (06/24) is not operational, and has been incorporated into the taxiway for aircraft departing the end of runway 33, or gaining access to runway 15.

History

Where Birmingham Airport is now, as it was around 1921. (See^[6] for a modern map of Birmingam Airport and around.)

The Maglev rapid transport system, which operated from 1984 to 1995, was the first commercial maglev system in the world

World War II

• World War II: The airport was requisitioned by the Air Ministry and was used by the RAF and the Royal Navy as RAF Elmdon, an Elementary Flying School and a base for the Fleet Air Arm. During this time, the original grass strip was replaced by two hard runways: 06/24 at 2,469 feet (753 m) and 15/33 at 4,170 feet (1,271 m).^[7] Avro Lancaster and Stirling bombers manufactured at the Austin Aero Company's shadow factory at Cofton Hackett could not take off from the short runways at Longbridge. Instead they were transported by road, minus the wings that would be attached at Elmdon. They were test flown from the aerodrome, and once declared airworthy they were flown to their operational units.
• 8 July 1946: The aerodrome returned to civilian use, though still under government control.

1950 – 2000

During the post-war years, public events, such as air fairs and air races were held on the site. In 1961 an additional terminal building to handle international traffic was opened, called The International Building.^[8] In 1967 the main runway was extended to 7,400 feet (1.4 miles) to allow jet operations, including introducing VC-10 services to New York.

The AirRail Link joins the railway station to the airport, operated by a track and pulley system

In 1993 the Government limited public sector borrowing. This meant that the airport could only expand by using private sector finance. 51% of the local council shares were sold to restructure the airport into a private sector company, enabling a £260 million restructuring programme to begin in 1997.

2001 – 2010

• 20 October 2003: Concorde made her final visit to Birmingham Airport on as part of her farewell tour.
• June 2006: A new turnoff from the main runway was completed and saw an improvement in traffic rates on southerly operations, where the only available option for landing traffic had been to travel to the end of the runway to exit.
• July 2007: Birmingham was voted the best airport in Europe in the 5 million to 10 million passengers per year category.^[9]
• November 2007: The airport published a master plan for its development up to 2030, called "Towards 2030: Planning a Sustainable Future for Air Transport in the Midlands".^[10] This sets out details of changes to the terminals, airfield layout and off-site infrastructure. As with all large scale plans, the proposals are controversial, with opposition from environmentalists and local residents. In particular the requirement for a second parallel runway based on projected demand was disputed by opponents. Although initial plans for a second runway were scrapped, this is now firmly back on the airport's agenda ahead of the report into Britain's aviation strategy being published. Plans for a 2nd runway on the other side of the M42 and a new terminal building and business park have been published, and they could help to create around 250,000 jobs. It has been estimated that if these plans went ahead, the airport could handle around 70,000,000 passengers annually, and around 500,000 aircraft movements.
• January 2008: The shorter runway (06/24) was decommissioned. It had been used less often due to its short length, noise impact, and its inconvenient position crossing the main runway making it uneconomic to continue operation. The closure also allowed for apron expansion on both sides of the main runway. However it remains open as a taxiway and a helicopter airstrip.^[11]

Emirates brings the A380 to Birmingham to celebrate 70 years of the airport and the opening of the new international pier.

• January 2008: Plans for the extension of the airport runway and the construction of the new air traffic control tower were submitted to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council.
• June 2008: Work began on building the new three-storey International Pier. It was officially opened on 9 September 2009. As part of the airport's 70th anniversary, the airport welcomed the Airbus A380 as the first user of the pier. The special service was the first commercial A380 flight in the UK to take place outside London Heathrow Airport.

  The new pier is a three-storey construction, 240 metres long and 24 metres wide. Departing passengers will be accommodated on the top level, with arriving passengers on the middle level and office accommodation for airline and handling agents on the ground floor.

  The new facility provides air-bridged aircraft parking for seven wide-bodied aircraft and enough space to serve 13 smaller aircraft at any given time and is capable of accommodating 'next generation' environmentally-efficient wide-bodied aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and Airbus A350 as well as other larger aircraft types such as Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' and the Boeing 777 which serve the airport on a daily basis. The new pier also hosts a new lounge for business class Emirates passengers.^[12]

• March 2009: The runway extension plans were approved.^[13]

2010 – date

Thomson Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner taxiing for takeoff at Birmingham Airport

• September 2010: An announcement was made that following the merging of Terminals 1 & 2 in 2011, the airport would drop the International from its official name to become Birmingham Airport.^[14] A Midlands-based marketing agency was recruited to "create a new corporate identity that reflects Birmingham Airport's current position in the market place, as well as its future potential". Figures from Birmingham Airport show that 8 million people live within a one hour's drive of the airport, but less than 40% of them use it. It is hoped that the rebrand will make the airport "more visible to the market".^[15]
• November 2010: The new name started to be used.^[16] The new logo, interlocking circles in shades of blue, and slogan, "Hello World", were designed to reflect the airport's new positioning as a global travel hub.^[17]
• January 2011: The airport merged its two terminals into a single Terminal Building. This involved building two new floors added to the airport's terminals. The 3rd floor was built in the Millennium Link and the two terminals to accommodate the new Centralised Security Search area. A new Lower Ground Floor accommodates the new Arrivals and Meet & Greet area. There are plans to further extend both terminals, adding another Departures and Arrivals.
• 23 February 2011: It was reported that Birmingham Airport had announced the HS2 extension could be a solution to runway capacity problems in London, citing that will be quicker to get to London from Birmingham than from London Stansted once completed and claimed that the airport had capacity for nine million more passengers.^[18]
• March 2011: Construction of the runway extension and a new air traffic control tower began. The extension to the southern end of the runway originally required the A45 Coventry Road to be diverted into a tunnel under the extended section, but to cut immediate costs, it was diverted south of the runway instead.^[19]
• July 2011: Building a new control tower for the airport began, to replace the old tower which has stood at the airport since it was opened in 1939.
• March 2012: The new control tower was completed.
• 23 April 2012: An Olympic ceremony was held at the airport. The Olympic rings were unveiled on the tower and could be seen from the A45 road and the main terminal building. This was to commemorate the build-up to the London 2012 Olympic games. These rings were removed once the Olympic Games officially closed, just before 2012 Summer Paralympics began.
• Summer 2012: By now the new control tower's equipment was installed. Testing and training began.
• Late 2012: Work began on the runway extension (whose original target was in time for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics.)
• Summer 2013: The new control tower was fully operational.
• August 2013: The old carriageway of the A45 road was closed and the new carriage way was opened.^[20][21]
• May 2014: The runway was completed and the extension opened to traffic.^[22]
• 22 July 2014: The runway extension was officially opened.
• 17 December 2015: Emirates announced that they will upgrade their daily lunchtime EK39/40 flight to an Airbus A380 from the 27 March 2016.^[23]

Runway Extension

Plans for the extension of the airport runway, and the construction of the new air traffic control tower, were submitted to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council in January 2008, and approved in March 2009.^[13] The construction of the runway extension, and the new air traffic control tower, began in March 2011.

The extension to the southern end of the runway originally required the A45 Coventry Road to be diverted into a tunnel under the extended section, but to cut immediate costs, it was diverted to the south of the runway instead. In August 2013, the old carriageway of the A45 road was closed, and the new carriageway was opened.^[20][21]

Originally, the target for completion was in time for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics. However, work began in late 2012, and the runway was completed in early May 2014.^[22] The runway extension began to be used by aircraft in May 2014, and was officially opened on 22 July 2014, when China Southern Airlines operated its first charter flight between Birmingham and Beijing. This was the first aircraft that needed to make use of the new runway length.

The extension caused controversy as more than 2,000 local residents complained about the increased noise levels due to the new flight path around the airport that was required after the runway was extended.^[22]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Traffic and Statistics

Passenger numbers

Birmingham handled a record 10.2 million passengers in 2015, making Birmingham the seventh busiest UK airport.^[4]

	Number of Passengers[41]	Number of Movements[42]	Birmingham Airport Passenger Totals 1997–2015 (millions)
1997	6,025,485	79,880
1998	6,709,086	88,332
1999	7,013,913	98,749
2000	7,596,893	108,972
2001	7,808,562	111,008
2002	8,027,730	112,284
2003	9,079,172	116,040
2004	8,862,388	109,202
2005	9,381,425	112,963
2006	9,147,384	108,658
2007	9,226,340	114,679
2008	9,627,589	112,227
2009	9,102,899	101,221
2010	8,572,398	95,454
2011	8,616,296	93,145
2012	8,922,539	92,632
2013	9,120,201	95,713
2014	9,705,955	97,346
2015 (provisional)	10,180,175	TBA
Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority[4]

Route statistics

Busiest domestic and Crown dependency routes (2014)^[4]

Rank	Airport	Passengers handled	% change 2013/14
1	Edinburgh	284,021	00.0
2	Belfast-City	260,330	02.6
3	Glasgow International	229,415	012.8
4	Belfast-International	179,503	013.1
5	Aberdeen	125,059	029.2
6	Jersey	56,206	045.3
7	Isle of Man	44,341	06.4
8	Derry	42,230	019.3
9	Inverness	41,224	018.4
10	Guernsey	25,089	027.1

Busiest international routes to and from Birmingham Airport (2014)^[4]

Rank	Airport	Passengers handled	% Change 2013/14
1	Dublin	661,611	017.9
2	Dubai	527,859	05.7
3	Amsterdam	507,396	010.4
4	Paris-Charles de Gaulle	386,403	05.6
5	Frankfurt	302,968	08.1
6	Alicante	301,859	02.6
7	Tenerife South	276,432	00.4
8	Palma de Mallorca	265,025	02.3
9	Malaga	242,881	03.6
10	Lanzarote	217,921	015.9
11	Faro	203,982	015.0
12	Düsseldorf	198,477	07.4
13	Munich	176,941	01.4
14	Dalaman	166,286	01.1
15	Barcelona	140,404	015.7
16	Brussels	119,658	011.9
17	Sharm el-Sheikh	118,921	011.2
18	Istanbul	118,890	07.9
19	Fuerteventura	113,281	00.8
20	Ibiza	106,520

Accidents and incidents

• 19 January 1973 (1973-01-19) – A Vickers VC8 passenger jet G-AZLR inbound from Leeds Bradford Airport suffered a severe port undercarriage failure upon landing.^[43]
• 4 January 2002 (2002-01-04) – A Bombardier-CL604 business jet crashed on take-off from runway 15 at Birmingham.^[44] The aircraft with registration N90AG was on lease by AGCO corporation and was carrying two company executives, two pilots and an observer. After arriving from Palm Beach International Airport the previous evening, the aircraft was parked overnight at Birmingham where ice formed on the wings due to the cold weather conditions. The following morning the pilots did not request de-icing of the aircraft before their flight to Bangor Airport in Maine. The ice on the wings caused one wing to dip on take off, the aircraft inverted, crashed into grass beside the runway and caught fire. There were no survivors. Sleeping pills taken by both pilots the night before the crash are thought to have been a factor in reducing the pilots' judgment.
• 23 February 2006 (2006-02-23) – Mahan Air Airbus A310 operating a flight from Tehran, Iran, was involved in a serious incident while on approach to Birmingham International Airport. The aircraft descended to the published minimum descent altitude of 740 ft despite still being 11 nm from the runway threshold. At a point 6 nm from the runway the aircraft had descended to an altitude of 660 ft, which was 164 ft above ground level. Having noticed the descent profile, Birmingham Air traffic control issued an immediate climb instruction to the aircraft, however, the crew had already commenced a missed approach, having received a GPWS alert. The aircraft was radar vectored for a second approach during which the flight crew again initiated an early descent. On this occasion, the radar controller instructed the crew to maintain their altitude and the crew successfully completed the approach to a safe landing. The accident investigation determined that the primary cause was use of the incorrect DME for the approach, combined with a substantial breakdown in Crew Resource Management. Three safety recommendations were made.^[45]
• 15 June 2006 (2006-06-15) – A TNT Airways cargo 737-300 made an emergency landing at Birmingham with damaged landing gear.^[46] The aircraft, registration OO-TND, had been flying from Liege in Belgium to Stansted. Due to poor visibility at Stansted the flight diverted to East Midlands Airport. As the weather at East Midlands was also poor, the aircraft performed a full autopilot approach. During this approach the autopilot momentarily disengaged causing it to deviate from the course. The aircraft hit the grass to the side of the runway, which caused the right main gear to detach. The crew initiated a go-around, declared an emergency and diverted to Birmingham. After it landed on Birmingham's main runway, the airport was closed for a number of hours. The pilots were unharmed.^[47] However, the company ascribed the incident to human error and both pilots were dismissed.^[48] The official report into the accident highlighted a number of factors contributing to the accident – poor weather forecast information; a message passed from Air Traffic Control to the aircraft at an "inappropriate" time; the pilot accidentally disconnecting the autopilot when attempting to respond to the message; the pilot losing "situational awareness" and failing to abort the landing.^[49] Follow this link for a more detailed report and Official reports from the AAIB.^[50]
• 19 November 2010 (2010-11-19) – A Cessna Citation aircraft, registration G-VUEM, crashed at Birmingham Airport during final approach in thick fog. Reports from West Midlands Police were that there were two casualties, one critical. The aircraft was bringing a human liver from Belfast airport, for a transplant operation which was subsequently completed successfully.^[51] The airport reopened at around mid-day the following day.

Security incidents

• 6 June 2007 (2007-06-06) – The Tonight with Trevor McDonald programme exposed serious security flaws at Birmingham Airport over six months. Fifteen members of staff working for the security contractor "ICTS UK Ltd" were suspended and subsequently dismissed for gross misconduct.^[52] Members of security were filmed asleep on duty, reading magazines whilst operating x-ray scanners, leaving aircraft unguarded, and ignoring bags sent for extra security checks, as well as being understaffed. The security lapse was deemed so serious, that Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the US Congress Homeland Security Committee, commented on it in the United States Congress and advised that all flights to and from Birmingham Airport should cease.^[53] ICTS dismissed the members of staff shown in the programme for their actions, but still claimed that the footage had been "contrived to exaggerate and sensationalise" the issues.^[54]
• 8 June 2009 (2009-06-08) – The West Midlands Police helicopter (G-WMAO) was destroyed by arsonists,^[55] and subsequently written off.^[56] A year later, a new Eurocopter EC135 similar to G-WMAO was handed over to West Midlands Police at the Farnborough Airshow. Thousands of pounds have now been spent upgrading security surrounding the new police helicopter.^[57]
• 17 July 2014 (2014-07-17) – A member of the public got onto the airfield through a restricted area of the terminal by crawling through the opening of a baggage carousel and getting onto the airport's tarmac apron, and then got aboard a Lufthansa Embraer-195 plane.^[58]

Ground transportation

Public transport

Train

Birmingham Airport is served by Birmingham International station. The station is on the West Coast Main Line between Birmingham and London, and trains are operated by London Midland, Virgin Trains, Arriva Trains Wales and CrossCountry. Access between the railway station and the airport terminal is provided by the free AirRail Link.^[59]

Birmingham International railway station/Birmingham Interchange

Proposed High Speed Two

The proposed 'Birmingham Interchange'

As part of the proposed High Speed Two rail link, a new railway station called Birmingham Interchange would be built to serve both the airport and the National Exhibition Centre. The station would be built on the far side of the M42 motorway and connect to the airport using a "rapid transit people mover". If the project is given the go ahead, High Speed Two is currently planned for completion by 2026.^[60]

Bus and coach

National Express West Midlands operates the main bus routes calling at Birmingham Airport, those being the 900 to Birmingham city centre and Coventry, and the 966 to Erdington and Solihull. Additionally service 97A to Birmingham via Chelmsley Wood now runs to the airport 24hrs a day.^[61] Other smaller operators also call at the airport. Bus stops are situated outside Terminal One.^[62] Most buses are operated by National Express West Midlands, who do not give change when selling tickets, so foreign travellers will need to ensure they have British coins when taking a local bus.^[63]

National Express Coaches operate various long distance coaches calling at Birmingham Airport on the way to or from Birmingham Coach Station, such as the 777 and the 422.

Taxi

Black cabs are available at the taxi-rank outside the arrivals area of the terminal.

Car

Birmingham Airport is accessible from the north and south via Junction Six of the M42 motorway. From Birmingham city centre, the A45 runs directly to the airport. There are no pick-up or drop-off areas available outside the terminal.

Bicycle

The only cycle route available heads south over the A45 travelling towards Solihull. Birmingham Airport have however published "recommended routes" for cyclists.^[64] Free short term cycle parking is available close to the terminal. For longer stays, bicycles must be stored in Left Luggage for a charge.^[65]

See also

• Transport in Birmingham

References

External links

Media related to Birmingham Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Airport Consultative Committee
• Birmingham Airport companies grouped at OpenCorporates
• Opening ceremony, 1939 Pathé Newsreel