It would appear that Birmingham International Airport would be a reasonable alternative to having a third runaway built at London’s Heathrow Airport.

The Birmingham facility recently said that it is presently performing at 40% of its capacity and is capable of catering to 9 million extra travellers per year without any modification to the terminal. A total of 18 million passengers using Birmingham International by 2030 has been predicted via the airport’s Master Plan.

In the airport’s statement said that the Birmingham facility is not searching to transplant the London operations in its entirety, although Birmingham’s wider portfolio may consist of South East Traffic.

Birmingham boasts having nearly 50% of the UK population within a two hour drive of the city, which places the airport in the middle of an interesting position. Airport officials said that high speed rails could boost passenger activity to Birmingham as well. In such a case, Central London would be accessible via a 40-minute train ride, placing the city of Birmingham in the London Underground Map’s Zone 4.

The rail service originating from London Euston to the Birmingham International train station takes about 70 minutes at the moment. A high speed rail service would reduce this by 38 minutes.

Birmingham Airport CEO Paul Kehoe said that the facility is ready to take part in any government initiatives. He added that the airport is ready to attract travellers who want convenience, choice and accessibility.

In September, nearly one million passengers used Birmingham Airport; 666,599 passengers from scheduled flights as well as 270,606 from chartered flights.

These numbers indicated a 4.8% slide over the same period in 2008. Although the passenger numbers have decreased, the trend has followed similar activity at other hubs around the world.

On a more positive note, the Birmingham airport has experienced a growth in the number of destinations. The latest notable international flight additions are to Prague in the Czech Republic and Krakow in Poland.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Business & Finance, Travel News, UK News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.