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Welcome to "BHX 2013 - The Year in Review" which brings the highlights
of the year at Birmingham Airport together in a photo review
2013 has been another year of significant change both in the air and on the ground at BHX - a new era arrived in the form of the first visit of a Boeing 787
"dreamliner" when Air India operated the inaugural flight of their new 4 times
weekly service from Amritsar via Delhi on Thursday 1 August 2013
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| .... while a chapter of UK aviation history came to the end when the last VC10 in RAF service made a touch and go on Wednesday 25 September 2013 during its final flight from RAF Brize Norton to Bruntingthorpe via BHX prior to scrapping |
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| Indeed 2013 was "the year of the VC10" with 4 different aircraft visiting a total of 6 times to either perform a touch and go - twice - or a flypast - 4 times - Monday 18 March 2013 - VC10 K3 ZA149 - flypast on way to Bruntingthorpe Wednesday 20 March 2013 - VC10 K3 ZA148 - flypast as part of training flight Friday 5 April 2013 - VC10 C1K XR808 - touch and go as part of training flight Monday 29 July 2013 - VC10 C1K XR808 - flypast on way to Bruntingthorpe Friday 20 September 2013 - VC10 K3 ZA147 - flypast as part of final UK tour Wednesday 25 September 2013 - VC10 K3 ZA147 - touch and go on way to Bruntingthorpe - three of the aircraft where on their final flights en route to Bruntingthorpe with the visit of ZA147 on Wednesday 25 September 2013 the last ever flight of a VC10 |
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| There was also change on the ground - after 74 years of service from the Elmdon building Air Traffic Control went "live" in the new Tower on Wednesday 17 April 2013 |
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| Another era ended when SAS operated their final planned MD 82 service to Copenhagen on Monday 7 October 2013 - it did return twice again on late aircraft changes - before the MD 82 was withdrawn from their fleet at the end of October 2013 - while still active in Europe this type is unlikely to visit again on a regular basis although it has been replaced on some SAS flights by the Blue1 Boeing 717s - a derivative of the MD80! |
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| Apart from the Boeing 787 the other new type (?) of airliner was the first visit of a "Sharklet" equipped Airbus A320 to BHX when D-AIZP operated the lunchtime Lufthansa service from Frankfurt on Friday 22 March 2013 - by the year end it had been joined by visits of easyJet and Monarch "Sharklet" 320s and the first Turkish Airlines "Sharklet" Airbus A321 TC-JSK |
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| It was an interesting year for route development - Air Blue operated their inaugural flight from Islamabad on Saturday 28 September 2013 but within two months it was dropped - the only significant route loss in the year!? bmi regional returned to BHX but had dropped 3 of the 4 routes they had launched by the end of the year while Germanwings also returned replacing Lufthansa on their flights from Berlin Tegal and Hamburg |
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| It was another good year for the network scheduled carriers Air France, Brussels, Emirates, KLM, Lufthansa, SAS, Turkish and United with the result the passenger numbers have now gone up every month since May 2013! Turkish brought their "200th aircraft" - Boeing 737-9F2ER TC-JYI - to BHX on Tuesday 2 April 2013 to celebrate their latest increase in frequency |
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Olympic Holidays provided the variety in the IT charter market - the planned
based Small Planet Airbus A320 never arrived with Carpatair Boeing 737-45D
SP-LLC still in the gold 80th anniversary scheme of LOT operating their first
service to Larnaca while Avion Express, Enter Air, Cyprus Airways and Travel Service also operated their flights with.... |
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| .... with Atlantic Airways Airbus A319-112 OY-RCH being based for their final week of operations in early September 2013. Other airlines visiting on ad hoc flights and student charters included Air Europa, Air Mediterranee, Air Nostrum, Alitalia, Blue Panorama, Bulgaria Air, Danube Wings, Europe Air Post, Hamburg Airways, Jetairfly, Livingston, Luxair, Mistral Air, Small Planet, Transavia and Travel Service while Monarch used Air Explore, Alba Star, Neos and Niki to operate early season sub charters |
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| Freighters continued to visit in all shapes and sizes - star heavy freighter was FedEx MD-11F N590FE which visited for a weekend of training on Elmdon apron.... |
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.... closely followed by ULS Cargo Airbus A310F TC-SGM which operated a charter
from Istanbul on Monday 6 May 2013 while Star Air/UPS Boeing 767Fs made
several nocturnal visits including two diversions from a snow bound East Midlands
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| While there were not as many Antonov's as in 2012 the colour scheme on Air Bright Antonov 26B LZ-ABR which had been used in the filming for the "The Expendables 3" provided some entertainment - once again air cargo/priority freight produced plenty of variety including numerous visits by the Air Contractors Hercules, various Atlantic Airlines/West Atlantic ATP's and hordes of Metro's! |
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| It was a different sort of weather year for diversions! - once upon a time these usual were fog related then with the advent of ILS - Instrument Landing Systems - they became mostly fuel related when aircraft suffered landing delays due to poor weather - in 2013 the strength of the wind was the reason for a number of diversions including Airbus A300B4-608ST Beluga Super Transporter F-GSTF which diverted in from Chester on Wednesday 6 February 2013.... |
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.... while Iberia Airbus A330-302 EC-LXK diverted in from Heathrow on Friday 12 July
2013 when the airport was closed because of a fire on an Ethiopian Boeing 787
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| Delivery/transit flights always bring something of interest with the new Monarch Aircraft Engineering hangar providing a new perspective for these with flydubai Boeing 737-8KN A6-FEJ and A6-FEK both arriving for cabin modifications on their way to Dubai |
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| Icelandic Coastguard Dash 8-314Q MPA TF-SIF again transited BHX on its way home to Reykjavik arriving on Saturday 31 August 2013 while Turkmenistan delivered three new Boeing 737-82Ks - EZ-A015, EZ-A016 and EZ-A017 - via BHX with the final delivery of the year being flybe Embraer 175 G-FBJK on Saturday 21 December 2013 |
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| Embraer Phenom 300 M-VAKE also stopped over on its delivery flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan, arriving on Friday 24 May 2013 and then staying over at BHX due to technical issues |
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| There was again a steady flow of biz jet movements with a number coming from afar including Gulfstream 450 B-8251, Gulfstream 150 C-GXNW, Gulfstream 550 VH-LAL, Falcon 900 VH-PPD, Global Express XA-OVR and Falcon 900EX 9G-EXE.... |
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| .... while many biz jet have bland colour schemes the Elmdon apron was brightened up by visits of Lewis Hamilton's Challenger 605 G-LCDH |
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| .... and TAG Aviation Challenger 850 G-RADY |
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| Gulfstream 650 N673HA became "first of type" to visit BHX when it arrived from Portland-Hillsboro, Oregon, on Monday 29 July 2013 while.... |
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| Falcon 2000 T7-NIK became the first San Marino registered aircraft to visit BHX when it arrived on Wednesday 27 November 2013 |
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| Larger biz movements included GainJet Boeing 757-23N SX-RFA which brought the England Under-21 football team home after their exit from the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football championship in Israel while Boeing BBJ visitors included A6-RJZ, VP-BIZ and several visits by N500LS supported by Sikorsky S92 G-LAWX.... |
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| .... providing some more colour was Starspeed Eurocopter EC155 B1 G-WINV which brought Beyonce in for her concert at the NEC on Friday 26 April 2013 |
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| The Helicopter Club of Great Britain had another "fly in" this time to visit Jaguar in Castle Bromwich on Tuesday 10 September 2013.... |
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| .... while the Flying Show at the NEC over the weekend of Saturday/Sunday 30 November/1 December 2013 attracted a record number of visitors to the Elmdon apron including Christen Eagle II G-KALW |
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| .... which gave an impromptu air display over the airfield on departure! |
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| Military movements always provide a few surprises with the stars this year being two Polish Air Force CASA 295Ms that visited in May |
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| Unfortunately BHX continued to receive visits albeit less regular as the year went on of RAF medevac flights carrying injured service personnel on their way to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, now based at the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham - this meant fewer visits by Tristars another type that is due to be withdrawn from RAF service in 2014 and be replaced by.... |
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| .... the new Voyagers with Airbus Airbus A330 KC2 ZZ333 becoming the first AirTanker aircraft to visit BHX when it arrived from RAF Brize Norton for a visit to the Monarch Hangar on Sunday 1 December 2013 |
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Historic aircraft also performed a number of flypast's - Royal Air Force Battle
of Britain Memorial Flight Douglas C-47A Dakota ZA947 performed a flypast
while en-route from Wednesbury to Bletchley Park on Sunday 5 May 2013
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Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan G-VLCN/"XH558" which has been restored by the
"Vulcan to the Sky Trust" performed a flypast on Sunday 9 June 2013 on its
way to display at the RAF Cosford Air Show with....
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| RAF Avro Lancaster B1 PA474 performed a flypast on Saturday 10 August 2013 |
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| Back on the ground the airport skyline continued to change as work started in January 2013 on the new Hangar for Monarch Aircraft Engineering.... |
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| ....the structure of which soon dominated the Elmdon site and by the end of the year was fully operational with early visitors including flybe, flydubai, Monarch and RAF aircraft |
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| After a long period of preparation - moving services etc - work on the Runway Extension gathered pace and the local geography started to change as first the A45 diversion opened in August and then with the area cleared.... |
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.... work continued apace with the result by the end of the year the site started to actually
looked like the planned Runway Extension with the new Taxiway in the foreground
So where next? - 2014 is going to be another year of change with the 400 metre Runway Extension scheduled for completion in the spring.... .... while this will not change BHX's route network overnight it opens up many new destinations that can be reached "non stop" from BHX with Biman Bangladesh Airlines already planning to start Boeing 777 services from Dhaka and onto New York next summer while Thomson will start using Boeing 787 "dreamliners" on long haul flights Despite this significant investment in airport infrastructure the economy looks set to remain challenging next year but whatever happens I am sure 2014 will be another interesting year with plenty of new aircraft visiting BHX!!
To see a larger image of any of the photos above just "click" on them
Happy New Year!!
Gordon Stretch
Birmingham Airport Photo Blog
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Tuesday 31 December 2013