Three big reasons to be cheerful after Birmingham Airport announces good news

Airport expansion

More passengers from Ryanair and Jet2.com will be travelling through the airport than ever before – and thanks to its new £50 million security hall their experience will be enhanced.

The construction of the new hall has now officially reached the halfway point.

The complex project to transform the airport is one of several upgrades in its £300m capital investment programme, which will take it from more than 10 million to 18m passengers a year by 2033.

Work on the new security hall has made significant progress since April, with the facility due to open in June. New quicker scanning equipment will ensure the airport complies with new regulations that come into force in June and enable it to process customers more effectively and efficiently.

The airport says it is also using this as an opportunity to make the terminal more pleasant and welcoming for customers. A new, solar panel-clad roof is being built across part of the terminal, providing natural light, and helping power the terminal with green electricity.

The external facade of the terminal is being extended outwards and four 50-person lifts are replacing the existing escalators. This will create more space inside the building and make the walking route to the departures and the air-rail link station area simpler and easier for customers.

The project team is working 21 hours a day to get the work done safely and on time.

Stephen Barker, development director for the airport, said: “We have made great progress in the last six months. We are aiming for a more efficient pre-flight screening process capable of serving greater volumes of people more effectively.

“We thank customers and staff for bearing with us as we carry out this work in our operational areas. To date we have been successful in maintaining our programme and, with continued support and cooperation, we expect to meet our shared goal of providing a great new facility for everyone. There will be further changes to walking routes in the next few weeks. We’d ask everyone to remember that, in June 2024, the result will be worth it.”

Pre-pandemic in 2019 the airport served 12.5m passengers a year and numbers are now growing again.

. It supports 30,900 jobs and contributes £1.5 billion in gross value added to the region’s economy.

The increased capacity which will result in GVA rising to £2.1bn and jobs supported to 34,000.

Ryanair investment

As work continues to improve the airport, Ryanair revealed more flights from Birmingham Airport this winter. The Ireland-based budget airline now has six of its jets based at the airport – an investment of more than £530 million.

Its winter 2023-2024 schedule for Birmingham totals 34 routes, including four new routes to Budapest, Girona, Seville, and Valencia as well as increased frequencies on another 11 routes, including Krakow, Malta, and Turin.

Ryanair says its investment at Birmingham is supporting more than 2,200 local jobs including 180 highly-paid aviation roles. Three of its aircraft based there will be Boeing 737 Gamechangers, which are highly sought by airports throughout Europe as they reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 16 per cent and noise emissions by 40 per cent as well as carrying four per cent more passengers.

The new routes will contibute to the airline’s Birmingham traffic growing to 2.7 million passengers a year.

Ryanair now operates more than 440 routes and carries over 52m passengers annually to and from the UK on its fleet of 107 UK-based aircraft

Ryanair’s director Dara Brady, said the airline was offering customers in the West Midlands unbeatable choice. He added: “This represents a 600 million euro investment and supports more than 2,200 local jobs.”

Mr Brady added that as Ryanair continues to invest and grow in Britain, UK National Air TrafficServices’ air traffic control remains the biggest risk to passengers’ travel plans.

“Ryanair pays NATS almost 100m euros per annum for an ATC service that is repeatedly short-staffed and, on August 28 collapsed altogether, causing the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights (over 360,000 passengers) and long delays to more than 5,000 flights (900,000 passengers) without plausible explanation.

“NATS followed this latest shambles with more flight disruptions at Gatwick due to staff shortages. Ryanair calls again on Transport Minister, Mark Harper, to immediately instruct NATS (where the UK Governmentt owns a majority) to reimburse all its airline customers for the costs they suffered due to NATS incompetence on August 28 and urgently reform UK ATC to ensure that such avoidable system collapses do not recur.”

To celebrate Ryanair’s winter schedule at Birmingham Airport and its new routes, the airline has launched a limited-time seat sale with fares from £21.99, which must be booked by Octonber 20 at ryanair.com

new Jet2 destinations

Jet2.com and Jet2holidays have announced the launch of scheduled flights and holidays from Birmingham Airport to Morocco for the first time in 2024.

The UK’s largest tour operator and third largest airline will operate year-round from Birmingham to two destinations in Morocco – Agadir and Marrakech.

Flights and holidays are on sale for both winter 2024-2025 and summer 2025.

The companies will operate up to four weekly flights to Morocco from the airport, from October 2024 and run through to November 2025.

The company will operate two weekly flights to Marrakech from October 4 next year through to November 14, 2025.

The Agadir flights will operate twice a week between October 3 and November 16, 2025.

Steve Heapy, chief executive of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: “We are thrilled to be giving customers and independent travel agents even more choice from Birmingham Airport thanks to the launch of Morocco as a brand-new destination. We are incredibly excited about these new destinations, and we know how immensely popular they will be with our customers.

“This latest expansion demonstrates the strength of our growing business, and it comes on the back of customers and independent travel agents in the region choosing to travel with us time and time again.”

Tom Screen, aviation director at Birmingham Airport, said: “These additional flights on sale to this popular holiday destination, coupled with 50 four and five star hotels across Marrakech city, the wider Marrakech area and Agadir This means Birmingham Airport’s customers have greater options for winter 2024-2025 and summer 2025 getaways.”