Birmingham International Airport (UK)

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Birmingham International Airport
IATA: BHX - ICAO: EGBB
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Birmingham International Airport Ltd
Serves		Birmingham
Elevation AMSL		327 ft (100 m)
Coordinates		52°27′14″N, 001°44′53″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
15/33	8,546	2,605	Asphalt
06/24	4,314	1,315	Asphalt

Birmingham International Airport (IATA: BHX, ICAO: EGBB) is a major airport located 5.5 nautical miles (10.2 km) east southeast of Birmingham, in the borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England. It is the sixth busiest airport in the UK after London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester Airport, London Stansted and London Luton.

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

Contents 1 Status 2 History 3 Future 4 Airlines 5 Incidents 6 See also 7 External links 8 References

[edit] Status

The airport handles (as of 2005) nine million passengers a year. It offers domestic flights, and Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and North America.

The airport is close to the M42 motorway and A45 main road. It is also served by Birmingham International railway station on the Birmingham to London line.

[edit] History

The airport was opened at Elmdon on 8 July 1939, and was owned and operated by Birmingham City Council. During the Second World War the airport was requisitioned by the Air Ministry and was used by the RAF for military purposes. It returned to civilian use in July 1946, though still under government control.

During the post-war years, public events, such as air fairs and air races were held on the site. The City of Birmingham took over responsibility again in 1960. Ownership of the airport passed to the newly-formed West Midlands County Council in 1974.

In 1984 a new terminal was opened, able to handle three million passengers a year. A second terminal, "Eurohub", supposedly the first terminal in the world to combine domestic and international passengers, opened on 26 July 1991 (with Concorde in attendance), more than doubling the airport's capacity. The original art deco 1939 terminal and control tower are still visible, near hangars to the west of the main runway.

In 1983 the airport was privatised, although the local authorities still own a 49% share. On 1 April 1987, the ownership of the Airport transferred to Birmingham International Airport plc, a public limited company owned by the seven West Midlands district councils.

Concorde made a final visit on 20 October 2003 as part of her farewell tour.

Take Off, a sculpture by the Polish artist Walenty Pytel, stands in a roundabout on the approach road.

[edit] Future

The airport has published a master plan for its development up to 2030. 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 much opposition from environmentalists and local residents. In particular the requirement for a second parallel runway based on projected demand is vociferously disputed by opponents.

The first major element is an extension to the main runway, targeted for completion in time for the 2012 London Olympics. The extension will increase the runway length to 3000 metres, as well as including a starter strip to provide a maximum takeoff run of 3150 metres. The airport owners believe there is likely to be sufficient demand for long-range direct services operated by aircraft whose operation would be constrained by the current runway. At 2605 metres, this is short for an airport with Birmingham's passenger throughput and range of destinations, and limits aircraft to destinations on the east coast or in the mid west of North America, in the Gulf and Middle East, or on the South Asian Sub-Continent. The construction of this extension to the southern end of the main runway will require the A45 Coventry Road to be diverted into a tunnel under the extended section.

The second element will be the construction of a shorter (2000 metre) parallel runway, scheduled for 2020. The current cross runway will also be officially closed to allow for apron expansion on both sides of the main runway. Taxiways will be improved to allow for terminal expansion and to improve runway occupancy rates. One new turnoff was completed in June 2006 and has seen an improvement on traffic rates on southerly operations, where the only available option for landing traffic had been to travel to the end of the runway to turn off.

The ongoing development of Terminal 1 will see improvements made to the International Pier and a new satellite pier to the north of the terminals. The Master Plan also details the need for a third terminal, which will coincide with the opening of the second parallel runway. The planned extension to the main runway will also require a new control tower to be constructed.

A new food court has also been constructed, comprising a smart seating area, a self-service bar, a coffee bar and an American/Italian restaurant. The airport also has other food establishments, including a Burger King and a Frankie and Benny's and several cafe bars. Airside, a new Yates wine bar has recently opened. It also has a substantial airside and terminal-side shopping area, including shops such as World News, Ladbrokes bookmakers and Boots The Chemist.

[edit] Airlines

• Adria Airways (Ljubljana)
• Aer Arann (Waterford [Starts 14 May])
• Aer Lingus (Cork, Dublin)
• Air Atlanta Europe (Sharm el Sheikh)
• Air France
  • CityJet (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
• Air India (Amritsar, Delhi, Toronto-Pearson)
• Air Malta (Malta)
• Air Slovakia (Bratislava)
• Air Transat (Toronto-Pearson)
• bmi
  • bmibaby (Aberdeen, Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belfast-International, Bordeaux, Cork, Edinburgh, Faro [Starts Summer 2007], Geneva, Glasgow-International [Starts Summer 2007], Knock, Lisbon [Starts Summer 2007], Malaga, Marseille [Starts Summer 2007], Murcia [Starts Summer 2007], Nice, Palma Mallorca, Prague, Rome-Fiumicino [Starts Summer 2007])
• BritishJET (Malta)
• Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
• City Airline (Gothenburg-Landvetter)
• Continental Airlines (Newark)
• Cyprus Airways (Larnaca)
• Eastern Airways (Inverness, Isle of Man, Newcastle)
• Emirates (Dubai)
• First Choice Airways (Agadir, Alicante, Almeria, Arrecife, Bodrum, Bourgas, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Grenoble, Heraklion, Ibiza, Innsbruck, Kefalonia, Kos, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Mahon, Malaga, Monastir, Palma, Paphos, Reus, Sharm el Sheikh, Sofia, Tenerife-South, Toulouse, Varna, Zakynthos)
• Flybe (Aberdeen, Belfast-City, Bergerac, Berne, Brest, Chambery, Dubrovnik [starts 1 May 2007], Düsseldorf, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Galway, Geneva, Glasgow-International, Guernsey, Hamburg, Hanover, Isle of Man, Jersey, Milan, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Perpignan, Salzburg, Split [starts 5 May 2007], Toulouse)
• Fly Gibraltar (Gibraltar) [Starts Summer 2007]
• Kıbrıs Türk Hava Yolları (Dalaman, Ercan)
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam)
• Lufthansa (Frankfurt, Munich)
  • Eurowings (Dusseldorf)
• Mahan Airlines (Tehran-Imam Khomeini)
• Monarch Airlines (Alicante, Almeria, Faro, Ibiza [Starts Summer 2007], Lanzarote, Mahon, Malaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife-South)
• MyTravel Airways (Agadir, Alicante, Almeria, Arrecife, Bodrum, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gerona, Ibiza, Kefalonia, Kos, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Mahon, Malaga, Malta, Monastir, Palma, Reus, Rhodes, Sharm El Sheikh, Tenerife South, Zakynthos)
• Norwegian Air Shuttle (Warsaw) [Starts 17 April 2007]
• Pakistan International Airlines (Islamabad)
• Ryanair (Dublin)
• SAS (Copenhagen)
• SkyEurope (Krakow)
• Swiss International Air Lines
  • Swiss European Air Lines (Zürich)
• Thomas Cook Airlines (Alicante, Antalya, Arrecife, Bodrum, Bourgas, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gerona, Herakion, Ibiza, Izmir, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Lyon, Mahon, Malaga, Malta, Monastir, Palma, Paphos, Reus, Rhodes, Salzburg, Tenerife-South, Thessalonika, Toronto-Pearson, Zakynthos)
• Thomsonfly (Alicante, Arrecife, Bodrum, Bourgas, Cancun, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Geneva, Gerona, Goa, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kavala, Kefalonia, Kos, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Luxor, Mahon, Malaga, Malta, Monastir, Naples, Orlando-Sanford, Palma, Paphos, Puerto Plata, Pula, Reus, Salzburg, Sharm el Sheikh, Tenerife-South, Thessalonika, Turin, Verona, Zakynthos)
• Turkmenistan Airlines (Ashkhabad)
• TUIfly (Cologne/Bonn)
• Uzbekistan Airways (Tashkent)
• XL Airways (Chania, Corfu, Dalaman, Hurghada, Kalamata, Kavala, Salzburg, Santorini, Sharm el Sheikh, Skiathos, Volos)

[edit] Incidents

On the morning of 4 January 2002 a Bombardier-CL604 business jet crashed on take-off from runway 15 at Birmingham.^[1] The aircraft with registration N90AG was on lease by AGCO corporation and was carrying two company executives as well as the two pilots and an observer. After arriving from West Palm Beach 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 besides 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' judgement.

On 15 June 2006 one engine of a TNT Airways cargo 737-300 struck the ground as it made an emergency landing at Birmingham with damaged landing gear.^[2] The aircraft, registration OO-TND, had been flying from Liege in Belgium to London Stansted Airport. 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, however 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.^[3] However, the company ascribed the incident to human error and both pilots were sacked.^[4]

[edit] See also

• Transport in Birmingham

[edit] External links

• Birmingham International Airport
• Birmingham International Airport Consultative Committee

[edit] References

• United Kingdom AIP