What new destinations, routes and aircraft are on the horizon at Birmingham Airport?

To date we have 35 airlines operating out of BHX with a mix of low-cost carriers, full service scheduled carriers, charter carriers, long-haul carriers and cargo operators.  These 35 airlines provide direct connectivity to 140 destinations, with one-stop connectivity to over 600 destinations through Emirates, Qatar, KLM, Lufthansa, Jet2.com and easyJet to name a few.  

Our low-cost market has seen significant growth this year with easyJet increasing its based aircraft to five since starting its base at BHX last year. The arrival of two additional Airbus A320 aircraft enables the airline to offer its customers even more choice for flights and holidays across Europe. It also highlights the airport’s commitment to achieving our sustainability goals, with the A320 neo family of aircraft producing 20% lower fuel burn and CO2 emissions and 50% smaller noise footprint compared to the previous generation aircraft.

Jet2.com has also announced it is expanding its portfolio of city breaks from Birmingham Airport for winter 25/26 and summer 26, giving customers and independent travel agents even more choice when it to comes to travelling to cultural hotspots across Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Austria.

Murcia (via Alicante Airport) is now on sale all year-round and Braga (via Porto Airport) for summer 25 and summer 26. To complement this, city break packages to Geneva and Salzburg are on sale for winter 25/26.

However, our plans do not stop there on route development, as we have particular interest in developing unserved routes in Europe including Riga, Oslo and Helsinki. Further afield, plans include transatlantic connectivity to New York and Toronto as a top priority, as well as direct access to key intercontinental business markets such as Hong Kong, Mumbai and Singapore.  

What terminal upgrades do you have planned, and how will they enhance the customer experience? 

This financial year’s capital investment programme is the most ambitious yet at £76.5 million.  This plan equates to around £1.5m being spent each week, as the airport gears up for further growth. This investment, the airport’s biggest in a 12-month period, focuses on asset replacement, enhanced passenger experience, capacity growth and environmental improvements.

Our new security screening area opened last year with seven lanes and already this year we have added to that with a further two, taking us to nine lanes that can process upwards of 400 passengers, per lane, per hour in peak times.

We’ve just built and brought into service a new outbound baggage carousel, taking the total to nine carousels to support the growth in demand for baggage capacity. 

We have already redeveloped some of our gate lounges featuring new flooring, brighter energy-efficient lighting and sleek balustrades designed to open up the space and enhance the overall appearance of the boarding gates. Previous partitions have also been removed to assist with the flow of passenger traffic and provide a more visually connected environment. 

Come November our ‘south’ terminal will be reconfigured to expand the south immigration area, and the baggage reclaim area. This project will provide an increased capacity and will future proof the introduction of E-gates. Three additional desks and an enlarged queuing area have already been introduced this summer to support UK Border Force processing capacity and an improved arriving experience for passengers arriving passengers into BHX.

And is there any other work happening across the airport?

Out on the airfield, ongoing upgrades to the runway and taxiways, maintenance facilities and the expansion of stand capacity will be rolled out to cater for increased airline growth over the coming years.

With many projects already underway, construction areas at the airport are visible, but limited to cause the least disruption. Overnight works will be prioritised where possible to ensure that projects are completed and handed over to new partners and passengers, as quickly as possible.

There are developments to your retail and hospitality offering too, what’s new that agents can promote to customers?

Our airside area is being completely transformed since we moved security last year. The space that was previously occupied will now become three new food and beverage (F&B) outlets, alongside a new executive lounge.  A hugely exciting time as this will ensure we have the F&B capacity as our passenger numbers grow year on year. 

As part of the airside redevelopment, World Duty Free (WDF) is being completely transformed as we have changed the entrance and we have taken the opportunity, with WDF, to redesign the store with a total reconfiguration with an end build date of next year.

A recent addition to our existing departure lounge saw the opening of Popeyes, the first airport outlet bringing this popular brand to BHX in conjunction with SSP.  This followed the opening of Shelby’s – the first Peaky Blinders-themed bar seen delivered in an airport setting. Since opening, less than a year ago, Shelby’s has been crowned Airport Bar or Pub of the Year at The Moodie Davitt Report Airport F&B + Hospitality Awards. 

Will you be able to handle more customers as a result of the ongoing work?

 Our extensive capital investment programme will ensure we have the facilities and infrastructure to handle not only our projected 14m passengers this year but ensure we’re on our way to handling our 18m by 2033, making BHX the airport of choice for more passengers to come.