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Monday 30 September 2013 - Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS EI-EXF flying with "U NEVR BEAT D IRISH" titles

Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS EI-EXF operated their morning service to Dublin - the aircraft
wears additional "U NEVR BEAT D IRISH!" titles on its underside that were added for
the "Flightfest" flypast over Dublin city centre on Sunday 15 September 2013

AlbaStar Boeing 737-4K5 EC-LTG positioned in from Milan Malpensa to operate the Monarch service to Palma

Aer Lingus Regional/Aer Arann ATR 42-300 EI-CPT operated their flight to Knock

KLM cityhopper Fokker 70 PH-KZW operated their lunchtime service to Amsterdam

Flightline Merlin IVA EC-JCV was an afternoon arrival operating a freight charter

Businesswings Cessna 208 Caravan I D-FALK also visited with an urgent consignment of freight

Learjet 45 D-CNMB and....

Citation XLS OE-GGP were both day stopping visitors to the Elmdon apron

Saturday 28 September 2013

Air Blue Airbus A340-313X AP-EDF was an evening arrival operating their inaugural flight from Islamabad
More photos and a full report later

Wednesday 25 September 2013

RAF VC10 K3 ZA147 performed a "touch and go" at Birmingham Airport just after 1535 as
it operated its final flight from RAF Brize Norton to Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire - this 
was the last flight of a VC10 a type that had first flown on 29 June 1962 Photo: Mike Hollick
Full photo report later

flybe announces a new four times a week service from Birmingham to Ireland West Airport Knock

flybe, Europe’s largest independent regional airline, has announced it is to
operate a new four times a week Dash 8 service between Birmingham and
Ireland West Airport Knock from Sunday 27 October 2013

Commenting on the announcement, Head of Public Relations Niall Duffy said,
"flybe is absolutely delighted to launch this new route to Ireland West Airport
Knock at the start of the 2013/14 winter season. Given that we are already
the biggest airline at Birmingham Airport, when we learnt of the opportunity
to offer the route it was an obvious and natural extension to our network.
We look forward to welcoming thousands of new passengers onto the service"
 
William Pearson, Aviation Development Director for Birmingham Airport,
added: "As the Midlands is home to many thousands of Irish descendants,
we’re sure that this news from flybe will be welcomed by those wanting to
visit friends and relatives and do business both in the Midlands and the west
and north west of Ireland. The service will also help promote tourism and
business in both regions and encourage further connections via Birmingham
Airport to many other destinations"
 
This expansion of flybe services out of the Midlands’ airport reinforces its
commitment to the region with the airline being the largest scheduled
airline at Birmingham Airport when measured by the number of aircraft
movements. This latest route to Knock increases the airline’s already
extensive list of 23 destinations available from Birmingham that, with
a choice of up to 636 flights a week, includes those to Belfast City,
Dusseldorf, the Channel Islands, Paris Charles de Gaulle, regional France,
Scotland and popular ski destinations in winter
 
flybe schedule from Birmingham to Ireland West Airport Knock
from Sunday 27 October 2013

Flights depart Birmingham for Ireland West Airport Knock at -

1100 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
1225 on Sunday

Flights arrive at Birmingham from Ireland West Airport Knock

1415 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
1540 on Sunday

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Final RAF VC10 flight and fly past at Birmingham Airport‏ is on Wednesday 25 September 2013

After 50 years of service the Royal Air Force is withdrawing its last two VC10 K3s
from service on Friday 20 September 2013 - the aircraft will conduct their final
air-to-air refuelling sortie during the morning and then carry out fly pasts at various
locations around the UK including Birmingham Airport

                         VC10 K3 ZA147 is planned to perform a fly past at Birmingham Airport
at circa 1335 on Friday 20 September 2013 - please see below for the
full schedules for the day

One of the VC10s is then planned to ferry from RAF Brize Norton to 
Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire on Wednesday 25 September 2013 
- it is planned to perform a fly past at Birmingham Airport between 
1045-1115 on that date before it lands at Bruntingthorpe for the final time



All times are local and subject to change!!



 VC10 - The Final Chapter - update from the Royal Air Force
  
As the meritous, 50 year, service of the RAF VC-10 draws to a close,
the last two aircraft (ZA147 and ZA150) will conduct their final air-to-air
refuelling sortie, then diverge to carry out fly pasts of various locations
around the UK, on Friday 20th September 2013.
  
The aircraft are expected to fly according to the following schedule:
  
ZA147 –
12.20 – Newcastle
12.40 – Warton
13.05 – RAF Conninsby (VC10 will be accompanied by a GR4)
13.15 – RAF Marham (VC10 will be accompanied by a GR4)
13.35 – Birmingham
  
ZA150 –
12.35 – RAF Lossiemouth (VC10 will be accompanied by a GR4)
12.55 - RAF Leuchars (VC10 will be accompanied by a Typhoon)
13.15 – Prestwick
  
Both aircraft are expected to return to Brize Norton by 13.45 for
a final fly past at 14.00.
  
All times are local, and subject to change, based on the conditions
of the day and aircraft availability - also see -






Thursday 19 September 2013

Monday 23 September 2013 - Blue1 Boeing 717-2CM OH-BLI operates morning SAS service to Copenhagen

Blue1 Boeing 717-2CM OH-BLI operated the morning SAS service to Copenhagen....

.... Blue1 which is based at Helsinki, Finland, and is part of the SAS Group is being integrated into their
wider network and will be operating this service on behalf of SAS on a regular basis from January 2014

While BHX has seen many Turkmenistan Boeing 717s on delivery flights over the years
this was the first time a Boeing 717 had visited on a passenger flight

bmi regional Embraer 145EP G-RJXI operated their service to Toulouse
- the aircraft had previous been in "Star Alliance" colours

AlbaStar Boeing 737-408 EC-LAV positioned in from Milan Malpensa to operate
the afternoon Monarch service to Palma - its first visit to BHX

Air India Boeing 787-8 VT-ANN operated their flight from Amritsar via Delhi
- its first visit and the 8th Air India "dreamliner" to have now visited BHX

Falcon 50EX F-HAPM was a morning visitor to the Elmdon apron.... Photo: Mike Hollick

MyJet Cessna 510 Mustang I-STCC also made a morning visit while....

Marshall of Cambridge Citation Bravo G-FIRM was an afternoon departure
to see more photos "click" here to go to the homepage

The BHX Blog

Saturday 21 September 2013 - Dyson Agusta AW139 G-DCOI makes evening visit to the Elmdon apron

Agusta AW139 G-DCOI made a brief evening visit to the Elmdon apron - it is operated on behalf of Dyson
and the registration is based on the original vacuum cleaner the company produced - the DC-01

Gama Aviation Hawker 800XP G-CDLT made a brief lunchtime visit

Balkan Holidays/BH Air Airbus A320-212 LZ-BHC operated their weekly flight from Bourgas

West Air Europe/Atlantic Airlines BAe ATP SE-KXP positioned in from Guernsey
to operate the newspaper flight to the Isle of Man on Sunday morning

Friday 20 September 2013 - RAF VC10 K3 ZA147 performs fly past at Birmingham Airport

RAF VC10 K3 ZA147 performed a fly past at Birmingham Airport just after 1335....

.... as the Royal Air Force withdrew their last two VC10s from front line service Photo: Mike Hollick

.... this was marked by a final flying tour of the UK - details here Photo: Mark Presswood

.... with BHX having had a long association with the RAF VC10 because of the medevac flights
that arrive at the airport with patients on their way to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine
at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham

.... while it was a grey afternoon the VC10 did climb away into the sun!
A RAF VC10 will make a final fly past at Birmingham Airport on its way to
Bruntingthorpe on Wednesday 25 September 2013 - more information here

More photos later

Tuesday 17 September 2013 - RAF Sentinel R1 ZJ693 makes low approach and go around to Runway 15

RAF Sentinel R1 ZJ693 made a low approach and go around to Runway 15....

.... on a very wet afternoon before continuing onto its base at RAF Waddington

Turkish Boeing 737-9F2ER TC-JYH operated their afternoon service to Istanbul

SAS MD 82 OY-KHN operated their morning service to Copenhagen - SAS will be withdrawing
their MD 82s from service at the end of October 2013 with currently only one further visit of this
type of aircraft planned to BHX on the evening of Monday 7 October 2013 - subject to change!

Birmingham Airport celebrates as the passenger numbers in the last year reach nine million

Passengers Andrea Buchner and Jonathan Gumz were presented with a celebratory bottle of champagne
by Birmingham Airport CEO, Paul Kehoe, for being the 9 millionth passengers to pass through the Airport;
they were flying with Air France to Paris CDG and onward to Chicago
 Birmingham Airport is celebrating another major milestone, as passenger
numbers for the last year reach nine million

Over the past 12 months, nine million people chose to fly from Birmingham, taking
advantage of the Airport’s world-class facilities and its growing network of flights

The nine million milestone was achieved after the Airport enjoyed the second
busiest month in its history during August. The Airport handled over one million
passengers last month, a 2% increase compared to the same period last year

August also saw the Airport record its busiest day of the year so far, as
36,781 people passed through the terminal on Friday 23 August 2013

Paul Kehoe, Chief Executive of Birmingham Airport, said: "These passenger
figures clearly demonstrate there is strong demand for flights from Birmingham.
We’ve seen a period of sustained growth throughout the past 12 months,
welcoming nine million passengers to the Airport"

"We’ve also enjoyed a strong summer performance too, recording the second
busiest month in our history, as passengers enjoy the benefits of our state-of
-the-art facilities and expanding network of flights. These growing passenger
figures, coupled with the extension of our runway, which is due to be complete
in spring 2014, certainly provides encouraging signs for the future" 
      
Passenger numbers at the Airport have been given a significant boost
thanks to the introduction of new airlines including Air India, who recently
began operating flights four times weekly to Delhi and Amritsar, using the
Boeing 787-8 "dreamliner" aircraft in August

The continued expansion of other airlines including Monarch and Aer Lingus
has also been a key factor in attracting new passengers to Birmingham.
Turkish Airlines increased its daily flight programme from seven to ten
flights a week to Istanbul back in April, providing onward connections to
221 destinations worldwide

Between September 2012 and August 2013, popular destinations for passengers
flying from Birmingham included Amsterdam, Paris and New York. However,
Dublin proved to be most popular, for those visiting friends and relatives,
closely followed by Dubai, for onward connections to the Far East and Australia
    
Wednesday 18 September 2013

Monday 16 September 2013 - Ukraine Air Alliance Antonov An 12BK UR-DWF is an afternoon arrival

Ukraine Air Alliance Antonov An 12BK UR-DWF was an afternoon arrival....

.... from Geneva operating a freight charter
More photos later!!

August 2013 passengers at Birmingham Airport

 Birmingham Airport handled 1,049,878 passengers during August 2013 
- an increase of 1.8% on the previous year

Another excellent result - and the second highest monthly total in the
Airport's history - August 2008 at 1,080,278 still holds the record for 
monthly passengers numbers at BHX

While the percentage increase may not seem high it follows the 9.1% increase
achieved in August 2012 when bmibaby - who closed down in September 2012 -
still had four Boeing 737's based while Monarch had added two leased Boeing
737's to operate similar routes for the peak season so there was a one off benefit
in last year's numbers that has now been successfully retained in the current year

August of course saw the start of the new 4 times weekly Air India Boeing 787-8
"dreamliner" service from Amritsar and Delhi and this has got off to an encouraging
start while Emirates, who have many onward connecting services to India and East
Asia achieved an increase of 15.4% despite the added competition in this market

The Turkish Airlines service to Istanbul that has recently increased to 10 flights
weekly was up 26.0%, Dublin was up 11.4% benefiting from the additional
Aer Lingus flights while Monarch continued to consolidated their leading
position in the leisure market from Birmingham Airport

During August significant growth was achieved 
on scheduled flights to destinations such as - 
Barcelona 80.0%, Waterford 71.6%,  Stuttgart 55.4%,
Guernsey 42.9%, Brest 26.1%, Istanbul 26.0%,
Londonderry 20.7%, Amsterdam 19.7% and Dubai 15.4%

Charter traffic which experience growth included -
Malta 132.4%, Austria 75.2% and Croatia 46.7%

Scheduled traffic accounted for 75.4% of the total passenger traffic
in August whilst charter passengers made up the remaining 24.6%
    
Monday 16 September 2013

Sunday 15 September 2013 - Titan Boeing 737-3L9QC G-ZAPW flying for Monarch

Titan Boeing 737-3L9QC G-ZAPW was a late afternoon arrival when
it positioned in from Stansted to operate the Monarch flight to Nice

Citation XLS G-OMEA made a brief visit to the Elmdon apron on a very wet day

Saturday 14 September 2013 - Ryanair Learjet 45 M-ABEU is a morning visitor

Ryanair Learjet 45 M-ABEU was a morning visitor from/to Stansted
with an engineer/spare parts to attend to a "tech" Boeing 737

Aer Arann/Aer Lingus Regional ATR 72-600 EI-FAV operated their
morning flight from Dublin - its first visit to BHX

Agusta A-109SP GrandNew G-MAOL was a visitor to the Elmdon apron bringing in
Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley for his teams match against Aston Villa while....

Loganair Dornier 328-110 G-BWIR was an evening departure taking the team home
to Newcastle - they won....