Birmingham Airport faces closure threat

I noticed a copy of the Birmingham Mail in Morrisons this afternoon. "Holiday Chaos" was the headline with the distinct impression that summer holidays might be ruined for some. It's all about Birmingham Airport being forced to close completely if angry firefighters opposing changes to their pensions take industrial action.

About 55 fire service workers based at the airport are fighting planned changes to their final salary scheme which they say could cut their pensions by up to 30 per cent. So strike action may be taken.

Personally I think it's a bit rough for them to get their pension contracts re-arranged when the bankers got given tidy sums to carry on with their "work". But that's life. It's not a fair world. I wonder if we have the gumption to change it.

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Incident shuts Birmingham Airport

All flights at Birmingham Airport have been suspended and the runway closed following an incident on the site, the airport said. Apparently a small aircarft crashed on the runway with possible casualties.

BHX site.

Birmingham Airport not fully used by Midlanders

It's a crazy world. The West Midlands has a perfectly good airport at Birmingham, yet of the 8 million people living within one hour’s drive of it, less than 40% currently use Birmingham. They would prefer to fight their way down to Heathrow or tootle up to Manchester or wherever. No wonder the Heathrow lobby has so much up its sleeve.

One of the problems is a throwback to the seventies and the way the charter holiday business treats Gatwick as THE airport and stuffs the rest with grossly distorting flight supplements. They've got a hackneyed explanation about planes, fuel and the rest, but it is mostly just spivvy talk for getting in extra revenue.

Birmingham Airport can get you to anywhere in the world. In fact, what Heathrow does, Birmingham can do as well. So, ok, not so many direct routes, but then if you live close to BHX why would you want to trek down to Heathrow? The extra hassle, money and time just make it all a total waste of time. We are supposed to be trying to unclog our roads, yet there are still many willing to chase a cheap ticket costing half as much as it does to get to the check-in desk. It's all crazy. Local airports should be the first priority for local people.

Jo Lloyd, Birmingham Airport’s Head of Brand, says, "We need to make ourselves more visible to this market." Meaning the local 8 million Midlanders. Well, I hope I've done my bit. By the way, just as a declaration, I've got no interest in the airport other than to see it prosper as an amenity for us in this part of the world (that is, the Brummie Hinterland).

Here's a comparison to make a point. Birmingham to Atlanta cost around £375 currently, give or take, with either Delta, Air France or KLM via Paris or Amsterdam. Heathrow offers a direct route and costs around £345 currently. So the difference is £30! Great - try getting to the check-in at Heathrow for that amount. I suppose, though, that if it's a group of four or more it just might swing it, but what a hassle. No wonder these airline programmes can get so many grumpy participants.

Heathrow third runway opponents win court challenge

Campaigners have won a High Court battle over plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport. Councils, residents and green groups had said the government's approval of the runway was flawed by "conspicuously unfair" public consultations. All this has been couched in terms of the green agenda.

Lord Adonis said, "A new runway at Heathrow will help secure jobs and underpin economic growth as we come out of recession. It is also entirely compatible with our carbon reduction target, as demonstrated in the recent report by the Committee on Climate Change." He always sounds like a pained angel, completely at odds with the argument.

A third runway is neither needed or desired. This is some fictitious fact dreamt up by Gordon Brown as some panacea for our problems. It is also a desire by British Airways to have folk flock down to London in order to use Terminal 5. Anyone living near a regional airport can come and go as they please. Birmingham has flights to all parts of the globe. But many in the West Midlands have been duped into thinking that London is the gateway to Paradise, so they endure the travails of train travel and the sweaty tube.

Madness is all around us. Boris Johnson thinks it a great idea to dump Heathrow and build a brand new airport in the Thames Estuary (or beside it, to be more factual). Such nonsense I thought had passed with the last century.

Birmingham Airport needs £25 million to expand its runway in order to have flights to Los Angeles, Beijing and other far flung parts. It will create jobs for a genuine service. The Heathrow business will be an expensive elephant on the runway. I think anyone north of Watford should give this project a wide berth.

Birmingham Airport greets big plane

Birmingham Airport is celebrating 70 years in the aviation business. Starting out as Elmdon Airport, it has grown to be a entry and exit point for many of Midlanders and their friends, relations and business partners. Today the world's largest commercial airliner is set to touch down at BHX. It will be a momentous occasion, not least for those on board. With a relatively short runway, stomachs could feel they were going in their own direction!

It will be the first time an Airbus A380 has landed in passenger service anywhere in the UK, other than London's Heathrow Airport. Emirates is certainly offering us an opprtunity to see the world. Only recently I spoke to an Australian who thought it so much better to be able to fly into Birmingham rather than be offloaded at Heathrow. Word gets around, if slowly, and has reached her travel agent in Sydney. But if he hadn't known, then she wouldn't have known. The more people know, the less likely BAA's expansion fantasies at Heathrow will materialise into fact.

I welcome this landing as it proves to us that London is necessarily the centre of the aviation universe!

Birmingham and the bmibaby blues

Birmingham Airport has made much of vast numbers of passengers wanting to go on flights all around the world. That is the reason for their desire to expand. Sometimetimes I think the management can only see as far as the end of the not yet extended runway. Yes, we in the area have a lot to thank them for, but are we being taken for a ride?

bmibaby is not so sure that passenger numbers stack up. They say that on five routes they have seen a weakening of consumer demand. So you can't blame them for not wanting to fly empty planes. The airline is not a charity. And think of the unnecessary fuel wastage and pollution if they did.

However, the airport is still hoping to have planes on these routes. It's a kind of "management with rosy specs on" which has got us where we are. Birmingham Airport has responded by suggesting that they are trying to reinstate the routes, although they recognise the economic downturn has meant challenging times are ahead.

The truth is that these 30 million passengers are never going to materialise because people will not take the trips required to sustain the numbers, fuel costs will always be a concern, and the green issues will not go away.

We need to get away from pie in the sky economics and management dreams and provide the flying public with truthful information about what will be best for all of us.

Terrorist Watch in Warwickshire

Our local paper, the Solihull Times, reports that the police have visited people in Hampton-in Arden to explain how members of the public could help the authorities prevent terrorist-related incidents. If there's anyone willing, they register with the Community Engagement Register, detailing all their personal information. Then they go out looking for, with their "eyes and ears", "cars parked up, people hanging about, disturbed earth in fields, things put as possible markers".

The two police officers who came to the village were from the Manpads Neighbour Policing Team at Birmingham Airport. They seem to think that somebody may want to take a potshot at planes from a field with a rocket launcher. I see their reasoning, but it's all a bit far-fetched. This just tells me that I need to question their thinking.

I cannot imagine for one minute any Al Queda operative "hanging about" Hampton let alone plodding around a wet field. It is so bizarre. A suicide attack on the airport -YES. This sort of caper -NO!

All that will happen is that visitors to the village will get to know that snoopers exist. I doubt very much if anyone from an ethnic minority will go within a mile of the place. It's 1984 stuff and not very much to do with security or sanity!