It’s been a long time coming, but next spring will see easyJet formally open a base in Birmingham, much to the anticipation of local agents.

You could well be forgiven for thinking the budget airline already has a home there – it currently serves 13 routes flown with “away-based” aircraft, but from next spring it will station three Airbus A320s at BHX.

The airline has confirmed it will launch 16 new Birmingham routes next summer, including many holiday hotspots. Pre-pandemic, this may have been over-ambitious but since then easyJet holidays has carried 1.3 million passengers in its first full year, so can help fill those seats.

Three choice

Tui and Jet2 are likely not best pleased; Tui is a long-time Birmingham resident and will next summer station 12 aircraft there – two more than now – serving 45 destinations. It will have 1.4 million seats on sale, 100,000 more than summer 2023.

Tui counts 11 exclusive routes from Birmingham, although four are long-haul and two to Cape Verde, not easyJet’s territory. Among these exclusive routes, perhaps only Marrakech, Agadir and the mainland Greece destination of Kavala would interest easyJet. The bulk of Tui’s seats – more than 400,000 – are unsurprisingly to Spain, plus more than 300,000 to 11 Greek islands.

Jet2 has had a base at Birmingham since July 2016, where it initially stationed four aircraft. Now it has 15 and boasts more than 60 destinations, the vast majority summer sun. Route additions next summer include Montenegro’s Tivat and Greek island Lesvos.

Tom Screen, BHX’s aviation director, laid out some sound reasons for attracting easyJet – something the airport has sought for a decade. “Compared with competitor airports, we have the lowest low-cost airline penetration – 37%. It’s 43% at Manchester, 48% at East Midlands and 77% at Bristol,” he said.

Ground to make up 

Analysis showed Birmingham was losing passengers within its core one-hour drive catchment to competitor airports, including 2.5 million a year to Spain and the Canaries. Birmingham, Screen said, received only 48% of its catchment’s traffic to Alicante, 49% to Palma and 54% to Malaga.

The airport will target areas such as Gloucestershire, Stafford, Worcestershire – even Stoke-on- Trent – with the trade’s help.

“We feel easyJet is such a compelling brand it will give the travel agent and consumers more choice – and hopefully better fares as well.”

EasyJet’s package business was a strong plus for the airport and another catalyst in the airline’s planning. “I have the team at easyJet holidays to thank, I imagine they put quite a lot of pressure on [the airline],” Screen admitted. 

One expansion trigger has been a £40 million upgrade of the airport’s security and search area. 

This will process 400 passengers an hour against the current 160. It looks like all systems go for 2024. Jennifer Lynch, general manager of ArrangeMy Escape, with branches in Worcester and Great Malvern, believes so. More routes, she said, would be “better for the client, better for us, better for the price point”.

“Not all airlines fly every day to these destinations, and we lack some routes only operated by Tui, so another option to Sharm el Sheikh and Tunisia is like gold.”

Lynch added: “EasyJet has also started flying a lot earlier in the season which gives us more flexibility. We hope easyJet sees the benefit – it will have encouragement from us.”

Andy Tomlinson, managing director of Sutton Travel in Sutton Coldfield, is someone who also welcomes more competition. “It’s good to have a trade-friendly airline and operator bringing in more flights we can sell,” he said.

“Quite a few of the new routes are operated by the likes of Ryanair, which aren’t too trade-friendly, so some of these we will get behind. Now there is easyJet holidays with the low deposit it gives us another great opportunity to compete with people booking direct or with the OTAs.”