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Birmingham Airport Review 2009

Welcome to "BHX 2009 - The Year in Review" which brings the
"highlights" of the year at Birmingham together in photo review
.
2009 was always going to be a challenging year for the airport and
airline industry but for BHX it has also been a memorable one....
.
.... the airport celebrated its 70th anniversary and the opening of the
new International Pier in style on Wednesday 9 September 2009
with the visit of Emirates Airbus A380 A6-EDE - only the second
UK airport (after Heathrow) to handle a scheduled Airbus A380!
.
To look back at that day and the other events during the Airport's
70th year which included the 25th anniversary of the opening on
the present terminal site in 1984 please go to -
.
This was the second visit of an Airbus A380 to BHX as F-WWOW
performed a flypast a few days before on Saturday 5 September 2009
.
Other highlights of the year included -
.
New at BHX
BHX is very successful at attracting new airlines even if some of
them to not last very long! - Air Sylhet/Akal Air started a service
to Amritsar, India, via Vienna with Boeing 757-225 TF-LLY....
.
.... while Hellenic Imperial started a service to Athens and onto
Jeddah with Boeing 747-230BM SX-TIE however both operations
only lasted a few weeks
.
flybe maintenance

flybe have a maintenance base at BHX which covers their based

fleet, usually receives new DH4's on delivery from Canada and
now deals with an increasing amount of third party work. Star
visitor Virgin Nigeria Embraer 190-100IGW 5N-VNH which
came to the UK for repairs after a bird strike in Nigeria....
.
.... while it also handled a number of Dash 8Q-400's on there way
to Olympic who have leased the aircraft from flybe
.
Diversions
2009 has seen many, many diversions to BHX - while most were
aircraft of UK/European airlines some were more exotic! - the
year started off well when Air Seychelles Boeing 767-204ER
N767HS/(ex S7-EXL) diverted in due to poor weather at Kemble
which was to be its final resting place....
.
.... while Airlift International Douglas DC 8 63F 9G-RAC managed
to divert in twice in April 2009 due to poor weather at Lyneham
.
Deliveries and transit flights
Turkmenistan had no less than 5 delivery flights via BHX - VIP
Boeing 767-32KER EZ-A700 passed through in April 2009 on its way
for maintenance at Lakeland/Kelly AFB outside San Antonio, USA....
.
.... while four new Boeing 737-7GL's went the other way on delivery
.
Maldivian Air Taxi/Kenn Borek Air Twin Otter's made regular
visits to their way to/from the Maldives although these flights
look to cease in 2010 as Kenn Borek Air have recently disposed
of their interest in Maldivian Air Taxi
.
Elmdon
The Elmdon apron, on the western side of the airfield handles
business and general aviation - Airbus A318-112 CJ Elite LX-GJC
of Global Jet Luxembourg was one of the star movements....
.
.... while BHX regular Sikorsky S 92 N908W joined the
UK register as G-LAWX
.
2009 was the year "cargo" returned to BHX! - what started as a
few priority freight flights turned into a full scale airlift thanks to
the launch of the new Vauxhall Astra and the needs to get the right
parts in the right place at the right time! - no less than three
different Meridian Aviation Antonov 12's visited....
.
.... and one evening saw two CityLine Hungary Antonov 26's parked
on the Elmdon apron. On top of these freight Dornier 228's,
Friendship's, Metro's, and Saab 340's are now regular visitors
.
The cold winds of recession blew far and wide - on 8 December 2009
Coventry Airport closed resulting influx of freighters and GA aircraft
.
Military
French Air Force Airbus A340-211 F-RAJB was only the second
A340 to visit BHX when it operated a trooping flight from the USA
- two of their Airbus A310's also visited....
.
.... while there were several visits by US Army Beech RC-12K's
when they temporarily moved from Germany to Mildenhall
.
"Least we forget"
Unfortunately BHX also continued to receive regular visits of RAF
Medevac flights from Afghanistan carrying injured service personnel
on their way to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, based at
Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham
.
That completes the "highlights" of 2009 - for more information on
the above aircraft or to see photos of the many other aircraft that
visited BHX during the year just "click" the heading in the index in
the right hand column which will take you to the original postings
.
To see a larger image of any of the photos just "click" on them
.
Happy New Year!
.
Gordon Stretch