RE: Birmingham International Airport (UK)
The main runway will be extended in the next few years. Rumour has it that BHX will annouce their intentions in early 2001, and the extension may be comlete in around 2003. The town of Solihull will not be a problem for the extension, as it lies around five miles from the current threshold of runway 33. However, the village of Bickenhill will suffer, and nearby buildings such as the Clock public house and a petrol station will almost certainly need to be demolished. As for your point about Turkmenistan, they operate 757’s from BHX, so runway length is not a problem for these impresive narrow bodies. Also, Kazhakstan Airlines do not fly from BHX, I think you may be confusing them with Uzbekistan. This airline operates twice weekly services with 757’s to Tashkent.
Your other point about the PIA 747’s is what a lot of people already (wrongly) think. When some people hear of a 747 landing on the 2600m runway that BHX has, they assume it will have problems. This is completely wrong. Wardair flew 747’s out of BHX to Toronto Pearson International for years, and without any problems. The PIA services can rotate from the runway with 300-380 PAX onboard, they can do this because they are never fully fueled and they route to Karachi/Islamabad via Copenhagen. I have witnessed this service arrive at BHX many times, and they slow to a taxi speed long before they reach the end of the runway. True, a fully fueled 747 with 300 PAX on board would have problems – but that main runway can throw up a few surprises. Two Japanese Government 747-400’s flew into BHX in 1998 for the G8 summit. When the summit finished, the 747’s flew direct from BHX to Tokyo non-stop, although they did not have much runway to spare when their wheels left the tarmac!
Also, the nearby borough of Solihull has a lot to answer for. Many local residents complain that a runway extension will disrupt the community with more aircraft noise, a loss of green belt (which BHX already owns), etc, etc. In the next breath these same people moan when they have to fly to LA from LHR because a service is not available from BHX because the runway is not long enough! If people don’t want an airport to disrupt their lives, then they should not move near one in the first place.
With the London airports becoming more restricted with the amount of traffic that uses them, it is a certainty that a regional airport such as BHX will benefit with new long haul routes. Operators are lining up all the time to fly from BHX….Eg, Emirates (from Dec’00) Air India (Nov’00) Turkmenistan (new routes to New-York and Toronto), Cathay Pacific, Delta. American even want to establish BHX as it’s new Midlands hub. They fly to Chicago already, but they plan to fly to Dallas, Miami and JFK from 2001.
BHX has a bright future ahead of it, and it’s recent success has surprised many. Manchester now has some real competition.
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