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Birmingham International Airport


Blazer85

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Well I think ultimately, some carriers may begin to slowly move more and more flights away from Atlanta. I know they gain a good bit by having their airlines fly out of Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, but they also probably lose a fair bit because of delays and other problems associated with an overcrowded airport. I don't think Birmingham's airport will ever overtake Atlanta's, but I definitely believe Birmingham will begin to get more and more of their air traffic as Atlanta's is just far too busy and congested (clearly... as it's #1 in the world for air passenger traffic).

Birmingham won't have hundreds of international flights or anything like that any time soon, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a handful of flights added to Asia in the coming years. With Hyundai in Montgomery, Honda just east of Birmingham, the Toyota plant just over the MS line, and the planned Isuzu plant in Birmingham, that's alot of incentive to provide serivce to those executives and corporate folks in those companies. I also believe Birmingham might have a good future as a destination gateway to Central and South America by virtue of our geographic position.

Again, not a huge hub airport by any means, but I can definitely see a handful of flights to Asia, Central and South America, and Europe being added over the next few years.

I think BHM has the potential to become an Orlando airport of sorts. As you said, people will get tired of going through Atlanta, and, you know, Birmingham isn't THAT far away, it'd be much more convenient. Avoid the headache! Lol, I don't know about Asian flights, isn't BHM a bit too far east for that??

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I think BHM has the potential to become an Orlando airport of sorts. As you said, people will get tired of going through Atlanta, and, you know, Birmingham isn't THAT far away, it'd be much more convenient. Avoid the headache! Lol, I don't know about Asian flights, isn't BHM a bit too far east for that??

No. Most of time the international airlines base their entrance into a certain market due to domestic and business travelers to and from a certain region. That is why an Asian airline is considering Nashville (BNA) for some direct domestic flights to/from their. Nashville and Birmingham are in the same parallel, so no we are not too far east because companies don't base their reasons to offer direct flights at airports for those reasons.

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No. Most of time the international airlines base their entrance into a certain market due to domestic and business travelers to and from a certain in their region. That is why an Asian airline is considering Nashville (BNA) for some direct domestic flights to/from their. Nashville and Birmingham are in the same parallel, so no we are not too far east because companies don't base their reasons to offer direct flights at airport for those reasons.

Ohhhhhh ok. Got it. See, I was thinking about whether or not a plane could make it all the way from say Hong Kong to Birmingham without refuling. I know that the larger ones could make it. But, how much potential is there to fill up that plane?

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Birmingham would be fine for flights to Asia if you are talking about distance. A stopover in Alaska for fuel and then it's about 7 hours to BHM from ANC. Nashville already has direct cargo flights on a 747 from Taipei, Taiwan to Nashville everyday. All they do is stopover in Anchorage and get fuel, change crews, and load more cargo then it's off to Nashville with a load of Dell Computers and other clients stuff.

The big thing is getting connections to fill up those flights. Without a sufficent amount of connections coming into BHM (or even BNA for that matter), the flights will not happen.

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Birmingham would be fine for flights to Asia if you are talking about distance. A stopover in Alaska for fuel and then it's about 7 hours to BHM from ANC. Nashville already has direct cargo flights on a 747 from Taipei, Taiwan to Nashville everyday. All they do is stopover in Anchorage and get fuel, change crews, and load more cargo then it's off to Nashville with a load of Dell Computers and other clients stuff.

The big thing is getting connections to fill up those flights. Without a sufficent amount of connections coming into BHM (or even BNA for that matter), the flights will not happen.

Hmm, I didn't at all think about the plane stopping in Anchorage. Dunno why... I think it would work great in a few more years. If the state can get a few more Asian companies with big opperations in the state, we'd have no problem supporting a flight.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Does anyone know anything about the terminal renovation? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Birmingham in desperate need of a larger and more modern terminal. Also, what are the chances of any kind of non-stop international flights out of Birmingham?

I don't know much about the terminal renovation, but at this point we are due for an expansion. However, I don't believe it will be occuring for another 5 years at least. On non-stop direct flights to international destinations, we are the verge of landing those since 1 of our 2 runways has been recent extended to handle 747 cargo and domestic jets.

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Well there is a $161-million planned expansion and renovation of the terminal... but that is still in the planning stages and may be a year or two away from construction even beginning. I am anxiously awaiting it, however, now that we have the capacity to have distant domestic flights as well as international flights.

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I am anxiously awaiting it, however, now that we have the capacity to have distant domestic flights as well as international flights.

Part of an airports capacity to serve international flights is a passport control, visa and customs facility. I know they're planning on expanding customs facilities at BHM for cargo, but establishing a passport control seems much less likely in the near term. Maybe changes in passport technology and/or global trade agreements will make that more feasible.

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Passenger numbers are up... for May 2007, a little over 294,000 folks flew in and out of Birmingham. That's nearly an increase of 20,000 from May of 2006. I also think it's the highest one-month total since before the attacks of Sept. 11th.

Airport seems to be on pace to do quite well this year... so far from January 2007 to May 2007, Birmingham has had nearly 1.3 million passengers pass through the gates.

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Two hotels near the airport recently completed renovations. The Holiday Inn Airport has just finished a $6 million investment, including a new restaurant and fitness center, redesigned rooms, lighting and lobby space.Also the nearby Best Western Birmingham Airport Hotel has spent 6.5 million in renovations since 2004. The BJCC is less than 10 minuets away so that's another 400 good hotel rooms for the BJCC. And we all know they need more hotel rooms down there, not only around the BJCC but also at the airport.

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Southwest is to add 3 daily non-stops between BHM and MSY (New Orleans Louis Armstrong Int'l.) beginning November 4.

Question exactly how many non-stop flights does Southwest have out of BHM? How close is it to becoming a Southwest "focus city"?

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Southwest does about 26 daily nonstop flights out of Birmingham to about 12 different cities. With the new flights to New Orleans (and the additional flights to Tampa and Dallas), it will be about 31 daily nonstop flights out of Birmingham to 13 different cities. If that doesn't make Birmingham a focus city, I would say we're pretty close.

I know Southwest does a big business out of Nashville as well. I wonder how many they do. Probably significantly more, but Southwest is by far the most important, largest air-carrier in Birmingham.

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Southwest does about 26 daily nonstop flights out of Birmingham to about 12 different cities. With the new flights to New Orleans (and the additional flights to Tampa and Dallas), it will be about 31 daily nonstop flights out of Birmingham to 13 different cities. If that doesn't make Birmingham a focus city, I would say we're pretty close.

I know Southwest does a big business out of Nashville as well. I wonder how many they do. Probably significantly more, but Southwest is by far the most important, largest air-carrier in Birmingham.

Between 86 and 90 flights per day to 28 different cities. Their frequencies up here are slightly different as Nashville is a "connecting" point in the south for flights going north and flights going out west. Typically in the airline industry, anything over 80 flights per day is considered a "Focus City" for a airline. That is taking into consideration that some of those flights are connecting flights of course, not just through flights. There has been talk of them beefing it up even more to around the 100 flight range before the end of the decade, but time will tell.

Nashville is the 11th busiest airport for Southwest oddly enough.

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The runway expansion has been completed and commissioned by the FAA for use on Thursday. The airport will formally celebrate the completion on July 23rd, but the 12,000ft runway is already in operation. Now that it is, it will be interesting to see what possible spinoffs may occur in terms of air cargo, international flights, more direct flights to the west coast, etc.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I read where the $161-million expansion and upgrading of the terminal will begin in early 2008. I'm not sure if it's true, but I would assume so since I found that statement on the Birmingham Intl Airport's website. Said it would include more modern customer conveniences, upgraded concessions, and Federal Inspection Service-approved international gates. Looking forward to all of this. Some exciting times are ahead for Birmingham.

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I read where the $161-million expansion and upgrading of the terminal will begin in early 2008. I'm not sure if it's true, but I would assume so since I found that statement on the Birmingham Intl Airport's website. Said it would include more modern customer conveniences, upgraded concessions, and Federal Inspection Service-approved international gates. Looking forward to all of this. Some exciting times are ahead for Birmingham.

Where on the BIA website did you read this? I read this, verbatim, on the wikipedia article but I can not find it on the website.

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I read where the $161-million expansion and upgrading of the terminal will begin in early 2008. I'm not sure if it's true, but I would assume so since I found that statement on the Birmingham Intl Airport's website. Said it would include more modern customer conveniences, upgraded concessions, and Federal Inspection Service-approved international gates. Looking forward to all of this. Some exciting times are ahead for Birmingham.

It's about damn time! Birmingham maybe finally getting a true "international" airport. Now if we can get around to getting direct flights to international, what I mean exactly overseas, destinations

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Southwest does about 26 daily nonstop flights out of Birmingham to about 12 different cities. With the new flights to New Orleans (and the additional flights to Tampa and Dallas), it will be about 31 daily nonstop flights out of Birmingham to 13 different cities. If that doesn't make Birmingham a focus city, I would say we're pretty close.

I know Southwest does a big business out of Nashville as well. I wonder how many they do. Probably significantly more, but Southwest is by far the most important, largest air-carrier in Birmingham.

I would think that if Southwest increased the number of flights out of Birmingham that they would be able to draw a number of fliers from the Atlanta market. People who are looking not to have to deal with Atlanta's airport and by price point.

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I would think that if Southwest increased the number of flights out of Birmingham that they would be able to draw a number of fliers from the Atlanta market. People who are looking not to have to deal with Atlanta's airport and by price point.

People fly Delta out of Atlanta because of the almost endless amounts of destinations they offer from there, not the price. Southwest has a limited, albeit useful, route structure. But it's apples to oranges when compared to what Delta offers domestically and internationally. The two are in two different leagues and for that reason you really can't assume that people will choose Southwest over Delta unless it's on key routes to key markets where it competes directly with Delta.

If they (Southwest) were able to draw the consumers from ATL to BHM, then those flights would already be there. Southwest doesn't go, or in this case, doesn't grow where they won't make money. That's just not in their business model. Now that's not to say that in the future they won't grow the BHM station. I think, atleast from what I am hearing, right now they are concentrating on strengthening their current destinations, maximizing their profits on key routes, and getting their station in San Fransisco up and running. Not to mention adjusting to current labor and fuel cost for the company. The small grwoth that we saw from them this summer is basically the type of growth we will see from them for the foreseable future.

Edited by Lexy
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I doubt that any airline with ram up flights in Birmingham unless for some odd reason, they really wanna make competition for Delta. In that case, they MIGHT put a hub in Birmingham, along with other airports near other Delta hubs. But, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

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The reason they don't fly into ATL has nothing to do with the demand for it. It has to do with the increased costs associated with flying out of ATL. Low-cost carriers generally shy away from those type airports as it cuts into their business model. I would look for Birmingham to continue to increase the destinations offered through Southwest. Southwest has been VERY successful in BHM.

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The reason they don't fly into ATL has nothing to do with the demand for it. It has to do with the increased costs associated with flying out of ATL. Low-cost carriers generally shy away from those type airports as it cuts into their business model. I would look for Birmingham to continue to increase the destinations offered through Southwest. Southwest has been VERY successful in BHM.

I think Southwest will be Birmingham's biggest airline, or continue to be, I can't remember who holds the spot down there. But, low-cost carriers are something that the citizens like, and will probably want more of. As the city attracts all of these new biotech industries, high tech industries, UAB grows more, and larger corporations locate to the city, I think that new flights will be offered, and Birmingham will be like maybe Nashville.

But, I'm not gonna say it's impossible for an airline to remove hub status from Atlanta. It could very well happen. AirTran seems like the more likely one to do so. Traffic through ATL is going to increase, we cannot prevent that, so, eventually, an airline is going to want to get out of the congestion, and it's not gonna be Delta. The more likely situation would be that AirTran created a secondary, or "joint" hub out of Birmingham. As in, they cut the traffic through ATL in half, and put it on BHM. That seems like it MIGHT happen. Birmingham would stand to gain the most from removal of hub status of any airport in the Southeast.

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The deal with hubs is you really need, at the very least, four runways and most importantly, sufficent O&D traffic. Without the O&D, the hub would fail. You need the runways so that you can support operations that would come from the hub and you need the passenger traffic so that you could support the connection capabilities that a hub would produce. Plus, you have to have a demand (of sorts) to be flown to. Let's use Southwest here in Nashville as the example: Since Nashville is a Focus City for Southwest, there had to be enough O&D to support the flights along with a desire from the traveling public to fly to, and connect, here. You can't just say as an airline, "Huntsville or Mobile would logistically make a good place to put a hub so lets put it there." There has to be the demand for it in that market financially. Plus the market has to show vibrancy to a degree and economic strength. Population growth helps too because that expands the catchment area of the airport. Birmingham would most likely never be a hub for an airline just due to it's proximity to Atlanta. It could be a Focus City, but it's doubtful a hub would ever become a reality there due to that short distance to ATL unfortunatly.

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