'Low-cost carriers will play a key part in our growth over the next few years'
There has been plenty of activity at Birmingham Airport, in line with its ambitious growth targets, from an upgraded security area to easyJet opening a new base. Aviation director Tom Screen shares some updates
What new routes do you particularly want agents to know about?
Birmingham Airport has increased its route network significantly over the last 12 months and there is more to come. Jeddah, Doha, Bergen, Tivat, Vienna, Berlin, Seville, Valencia, Derry, Tirana, Lyon and Derry have all been successfully launched with Treviso, Lodz and Plovdiv coming later this year. New airline Pegasus operating to Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen is also significant for us and it complements our existing Turkish Airlines Istanbul services – which are increasing from 14 to 18 per week from June.
How important was easyJet adding Birmingham as a base?
It’s huge for us. Birmingham has historically not had a significant low-cost presence. Ryanair has been at the airport since 1990 and we’ve had carriers such as BMI Baby and Monarch in the past, but the real low-cost airlines have not played a significant part in our story so far and that was something we really wanted to change. You look at the airlines that have the huge order books of aircraft and it’s Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz, etc and they will play a key part in our growth over the next few years, so having easyJet finally committing to a base is exciting for us.
What resources and training tools does Birmingham offer for agents?
We do lots of webinars and airport tours with our airline partners to get our messages out. We’ve done several significant trade events this year with our airline partners too, which have been well attended and have offered an excellent platform for us to educate our travel agent community about the routes available and the services available from Birmingham.
Can you give us an update on the airport’s upgraded security equipment to meet new proposed liquid rules?
Like all UK airports we are complying with the government directive of new scanning machines. To meet our projected growth of 18 million passengers in 2033, we have also taken the opportunity to build a new security area that will ensure a streamlined process for customers. The last 18 months of building works has sometimes been a challenge, but we are nearing completion. As all airports at the UK are at differing points in completion, and we are one of the first airports that will have made that transition, passengers are still required to comply with the 100ml rule, however they will not need to take liquids or electrical items out of their bags.
Does Birmingham charge for drop-off and pick-up?
In partnership with NCP, we offer a drop-off area for our customers, with up to 10 minutes’ free parking. And customers parking at Birmingham airport have access to a wide range of on-site parking options, varying in price and type of product.
What action is the airport taking to make its operations more sustainable?
In November 2019, we published our sustainability strategy which sets out a number of objectives, including the airport’s commitment to become a net-zero carbon airport by 2033. Since then, airport emissions have been reduced by 25% through investment in control systems, LED lighting, electric vehicles, charging points and other energy efficiency measures. With regard to aircraft, managing noise is a top priority for us, and we have updated our comprehensive noise action plan to address issues of noise and track-keeping, noise monitoring and community complaints about aircraft noise. Additionally, our sustainability team works with both Air Traffic Control and our airlines to improve environmental performance during the landing and take-off cycle, promoting reduced engine taxiing, continuous descent approaches and the use of fixed electrical ground power (FEGP) when an aircraft is on stand, and now 92% of our stands are equipped with FEGP.
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