May 2010 passenger figures

Birmingham International Airport handled 788,799 passengers
during May 2010 - a fall of 5.2% on the previous year
.
May was a very mixed month - on the downside the Volcanic
Ash Cloud returned - several times! -with airspace closures in
Ireland, Scotland and Spain effecting BHX flights before the
airport suffered its own short overnight closure
.
On the upside the IPEX show at the NEC resulted in some high
loads on the business routes - and plenty of interesting aircraft!!
.
Paul Kehoe, Birmingham Airport's Chief Executive Officer,
commented: "The last few months have been incredibly tough
for the industry as the full impacts of the volcanic ash become
clear. While we saw limited ash disruption in May, we are mindful
that airlines are concentrating on core operations and as such many
are continuing to consolidate their business"
.
"Despite a 5.2% decrease in passenger numbers compared to the
same month last year, the recent announcement that plans for
expansion at Heathrow and Stansted will not now progress, allied
with the fact that we are the only major UK airport with
permitted development, means that we can gearup for a bright
future. While it may be some time before we see the plans for
High-Speed rail come to fruition, we firmly believe that
Birmingham is increasingly being viewed as a national strategic
asset and part of the solution to the over-heated south east."
.
During May significant growth was achieved on
scheduled flights to destinations such as -
Arrecife (+123.4%), Ibiza (+101.7%), Hamburg (+65.3%)
Gothenburg (+51.1%),Stuttgart (+50.8%), Tenerife (+50.7%)
Ashkhabad (+50.5%), Bydgoszcz (+42.7%), Gerona (+42.6%)
Munich (+35.3%),Istanbul (+30.4%), Faro (+29.5%)
Copenhagen (+29.4%), Zurich (+28.7%), Lyon (+26.7%)
Bergerac (+25%), Dubai (+24.3%), Dusseldorf (+24.3%)
Trieste (+21.4%), Frankfurt (+20.9%), Bratislava (+18.2%)
Milan (+18%), New York (+17.1%), Hannover (+16%)
Amsterdam (+15.5%), Cork (+15.1%), Brussels (14.7%)
Nice (+13.9%), Oporto (+12.9%), Paris (+12.6%) and Kaunas (+11.5%)
.
Charter traffic which experienced growth included -
Mexico (+267.4%), Bulgaria (+42.5%), Dominican Republic (+42.5%)
Turkey (+14.6%) and Egypt (+9%)
.
Scheduled traffic accounted for 75.2% of the total
passenger traffic in May whilst charter passengers
made up the remaining 24.8%
.
Friday 18 June 2010