Council under fire for not using Birmingham Airport
Jun 15 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post
Council officials travelling abroad on official business have been criticised for failing to fly from Birmingham International Airport.
BIA officials said the city risked sending a “mixed message” by allowing staff to use London airports or Manchester rather than Birmingham.
The rebuke came in evidence to a scrutiny committee investigating BIA’s plan for a £120 million runway extension.
The airport also accused the council of poor communications, complaining it was not always informed in advance when important visitors or civic delegations were flying into Birmingham.
But the criticism was swiftly rejected by the council, which insisted it almost always used BIA.
A spokesman said: “Over the past 12 months about 95 per cent of flights booked have been from Birmingham International Airport – either direct flights or with connections.
“When we do fly from other airports we do so based on factors of cost or logistics, but this is a rare occurrence.”
According to the final scrutiny report, the airport finds it “anomalous” Birmingham City Council uses other airports for travel arrangements.
The report added: “This sends out mixed messages. Most global destinations are available by hubbing from Birmingham. It was suggested the council could lead by example and ask members and officers, when travelling by air, travel via Birmingham International Airport – whenever that represents best value for money.”
The committee concluded, since the city council has a part share of the airport, it should do everything possible to promote the benefits of using BIA.
However, the same study quoted the view of the airport company that Birmingham is “currently being disadvantaged” because its runway is not long enough to cater for non-stop long haul flights to cities in the emerging economies of India and China.
Comparison was drawn with Manchester Airport, where destinations include Abu Dhabi, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, Philadelphia and Singapore.
Birmingham, though, offers daily flights only to New York Newark, Philadelphia and Dubai.
According to BIA, the airport is losing 100,000 passengers a year who travel to Los Angeles from Heathrow because they cannot get a direct flight from Birmingham.
More than a third of people from Birmingham and the West Midlands who flew last year did so from airports in London and the South East.
But BIA’s claim most global destinations are available from Birmingham by switching flights in Europe was dismissed by the regional development agency.
Advantage West Midlands told the scrutiny committee it was not surprised much of the business community preferred not to fly from Birmingham via a European hub airport.
AWM, which has earmarked £25 million toward the runway extension, warned foreign investment into the West Midlands was “seriously constrained” by the lack of non-stop long haul flights.
