Birmingham International Airport (England)

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Birmingham International Airport is a major airport located on the border of the city of Birmingham and borough of Solihull in the West Midlands, England.

Contents

1 Status
2 History
3 Future
4 Airlines
5 Incidents
6 See also
7 External links
8 References

Status

Birmingham airport is the fifth busiest airport in the UK, and handles (as of 2005) nine million passengers a year. It presently offers many domestic flights in addition to destinations across Europe and some flights to the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and North America.

The airport is next to the M42 motorway and A45 main road. It is also served by Birmingham International railway station on the Birmingham to London line.

History

Airport rapid transit system

The airport was opened at Elmdon on 8 July 1939, and was owned and operated by Birmingham City Council. During the Second World War the airport was requisitioned by the Air Ministry and was used by the RAF for military purposes. It returned to civilian use in July 1946, though still under government control.

During the post-war years, public events, such as air fairs and even circuit-races were held on the site. The City of Birmingham took over responsibility again in 1960, and ownership of the airport passed to the newly-formed West Midlands County Council in 1974.

As the airport became busier, and international flights became more frequent, the airport was gradually expanded. In 1984 a new terminal was opened, which could handle three million passengers a year. A second terminal, "Eurohub", supposedly the first terminal in the world to combine domestic and international passengers, opened on 26 July 1991 (with Concorde in attendance), more than doubling the airport's capacity. The original art deco 1939 terminal and control tower are still evident, alongside hangars to the west of the main runway.

In 1983 the airport was privatised, although the local authorities still own a 49% share.On 1 April 1987, the ownership of the Airport transferred to Birmingham International Airport plc, a public limited company owned by the seven West Midlands district councils.

Concorde made a final visit on 20 October 2003 as part of her farewell tour.

Future

The airport has published a master plan for its development up to 2030. The first major element is an extension to the main runway, targeted for completion in time for the 2012 London Olympics. The extension will increase the runway length to 3000 metres, as well as including a starter strip to provide a maximum takeoff run of 3150 metres.

The airport company believes that there is likely to be sufficient demand for long-range direct services operated by aircraft whose operation would be constrained by the current runway. At 2605 metres, this is relatively short for an airport with Birmingham's passenger throughput and range of destinations.

The construction of this extension to the southern end of the main runway will require the A45 Coventry Road to be diverted into a tunnel under the extended section.

The second element will be the construction of a shorter (2000 metre) parallel runway. This is scheduled for "some time after 2016".

Both proposals are very controversial, with much opposition from environmentalists and local residents. In particular the requirement for a second runway based on projected demand is vociferously disputed by opponents.

The master plan also proposes the development of a satellite extension to the current Terminal 1, and the construction of a third terminal.

In addition a new high-speed turnoff has been completed (as of June 2006). This allows aircraft to save time and fuel by letting them turn straight off the runway and into the parking areas without forcing them to travel to the end of the runway or to other existing turnoff strips.

A new food court has been constructed as well, comprising a smart seating area, a self-service bar, a coffee bar and an American/Italian restaurant. As well as this new redevelopment the airport also has a number of other food establishments, including a Burger King, Wetherspoons cafe and several bars/cafes. It also has a substantial airside and terminal-side shopping area, including shops such as The Body Shop, Ladbrokes bookkeepers, Music Zone and Boots The Chemist.

Airlines

Arrivals lounge

Arrivals entrance

Adria Airways (Ljubljana)
Aer Arann (Cork)
Aer Lingus (Cork, Dublin)
Aerosvit Airlines (Kiev)
Air Atlanta Europe (Sharm El Sheikh)
Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
Air India (Amritsar, Delhi, Toronto)
Air Malta (Malta)
bmi
*bmibaby (Alicante, Amsterdam, Belfast International, Bordeaux, Cork, Edinburgh, Geneva, Knock, Malaga, Nice, Palma Mallorca, Prague)
British Airways
*BA Connect (Aberdeen, Barcelona, Belfast City, Berlin-Tegel, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Geneva, Glasgow, Hamburg, Hanover, Lyon, Madrid, Nice, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Stuttgart)
BritishJet (Malta)
City Airline (Gothenburg, Helsinki)
Continental Airlines (Newark)
Cyprus Airways (Larnaca)
Czech Airlines (Prague)
Eastern Airways (Inverness, Isle of Man, Newcastle)
Emirates (Dubai)
Eurowings (Dusseldorf)
Excel Airways
Flybe (Aberdeen [Starts March 8, 2007], Alicante, Belfast City, Bergerac, Berne, Brest, Chambery, Dusseldorf [Starts October 29], Edinburgh, Faro, Galway [Starts March 8, 2007], Geneva, Glasgow, Guernsey, Hanover [Starts October 29], Isle of Man, Jersey, La Rochelle, Malaga, Murcia, Perpignan, Salzburg, Toulouse)
Germanwings (Cologne/Bonn)
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam)
Lufthansa (Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich)
Mahan Airlines (Tehran-Imam Khomeini)
Monarch Airlines (Alicante, Almeria, Faro, Ibiza [Starts Summer 2007], Lanzarote, Mahon, Malaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife South)
MyTravel Airways
Pakistan International Airlines (Islamabad)
Ryanair (Dublin)
SAS (Copenhagen)
SN Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
Swiss International Air Lines (Zürich)
Thomas Cook Airlines
Thomsonfly (Alicante, Arrecife, Bodrum, Bourgas, Cancun, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Geneva, Gerona, Goa, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kavala, Kefalonia, Kos, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Luxor, Mahon, Malaga, Malta, Monastir, Naples, Orlando Sandford, Palma, Paphos, Puerto Plata, Pula, Reus, Salzburg, Sharm El Sheikh, Tenerife South, Thessalonika, Turin, Verona, Zakynthos)
Turkmenistan Airlines (Ashkhabad)
Uzbekistan Airways (Tashkent)

Incidents

On the morning of 4th January 2002 a Bombardier-CL604 business jet crashed on take-off from runway 15 at Birmingham. ["AAIB Report on N90AG accident"]. The aircraft with registration N90AG was on lease by AGCO corporation and was carrying two company executives as well as the two pilots. After arriving from West Palm Beach Airport the previous evening, the aircraft was parked overnight at Birmingham where ice formed on the wings due to the cold weather conditions. The following morning the pilots did not request de-icing of the aircraft before their flight to Bangor Airport in Maine. The ice on the wings caused one wing to dip on take off, the aircraft inverted, crashed into grass besides the runway and exploded. There were no survivors. Sleeping pills taken by both pilots the night before the crash are thought to have been a factor in reducing the pilots' judgement.

On 15th June 2006 a TNT Airways cargo 737-300 made an emergency landing at Birmingham with damaged landing gear and one of its engines struck the ground. The aircraft, registration OO-TND, was originally flying from Liege in Belgium to London Stansted Airport. Due to poor visibilty at Stansted the flight diverted to East Midlands Airport. At East Midlands the flight damaged its landing gear trying to land and eventually diverted to Birmingham. After crashing on Birmingham's only main runway to airport was closed for a number of hours. This happened on one of the busiest days of the year for Birmingham with many passengers flying out to the World Cup in Germany. Both pilots were unharmed. ["Aviation safety network summary of TNT accident"].

External links

References

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