Birmingham airport hands out £13 million share dividend to Birmingham City Council

Birmingham Airport managed to handle 9,119,709 passengers in 2013, which was the highest since 2008 and up + 2.3% compared to 2012. The 2013 number is still around 4.7% lower than the 2008 peak, but has been growing slowly since 2010. Most passengers continue to be on leisure trips, including long haul leisure, for example to Barbados and Gambia (those “seeking some winter sun over the Christmas break”). The airport hopes its runway extension will open during 2014, enabling flights by larger planes to long haul destinations.  More passengers travel out from the area, on holiday trips, than travel in though the airport wants to attract more visitors from South-east Asia.  Birmingham City Council, with 6 other West Midlands local authorities, owns 49% of the airport and has been handed a £13 million dividend after the airport had a “successful” year and reappraised its finances after the imminent completion of the runway extension. This will help fund the £5 million budget black hole in Birmingham’s 39 leisure centres and swimming pools.  Birmingham and the other councils had earlier agreed to sacrifice dividend payments to help fund the £33 million runway scheme, and are now set to be rewarded for their generosity.

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The CAA 2012 air passenger survey showed that at Birmingham the proportion of travellers on business was 22.5% (15.2% international)   http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/81/2012CAAPaxSurveyReport.pdf


 

CAA aviation statistics

Terminal Passengers

Number of passengers (thousands)
CAA – Terminal Passengers 1998 – 2008

UK Airport Statistics: 2012 – annual  (Table 10.3)  Terminal Passengers  2002 – 2012

2013     9,119,709  (up + 2.3% on 2012)
2012     8,916,209  (up + 3.6% on 2011)
2011     8,608 (no change on 2010)
2010     8,564,000 (down -6% on 2009)   link to 2010 data

2009      9,093,735 (down – 5% on 2008)
2008      9,577 (up 5% on 2007)
2007      9,134
2006      9,056
2005      9,311
2000      7,492
1996      5,351

 


17 January 2014  (Birmingham Airport press release)

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Birmingham Airport is celebrating yet another major milestone, as passenger numbers for the 2013 calendar year reach over nine million for the first time since 2009.

Latest figures reveal 9,119,709 passengers chose to fly through Birmingham Airport in 2013, a 2.3% increase compared to 2012.

The nine million milestone was achieved after the Airport enjoyed a busy December, which saw 574,854 passengers pass through the terminal, representing an 8% increase compared to the same period last year. December also saw the largest monthly percentage increase in 2013.

The biggest growth sector in December was non-EU charter services (+12%) to destinations including Barbados and Gambia, fuelled largely by passengers seeking some winter sun over the Christmas break and opting to travel from Birmingham Airport.

Paul Kehoe, the Airport’s CEO, said: “2013 has been a fantastic year for us in many ways. In terms of passenger numbers, we’ve seen consecutive growth in the past eight months, which has led to our best yearly performance since 2009.

“Helped by a strong December, over nine million people have decided to take advantage of the Airport’s world-class facilities and its growing network of flights throughout the past 12 months.

“We are now looking to build on this success in 2014, which will see the opening of our longer runway and with it, the capability to serve more long haul destinations than ever before.”

Scheduled routes that experienced particular growth in December included Stuttgart (+89.2%), Milan (+81.7%), Chambery (+74.7%), Funchal (+65.4%), Istanbul (+45%) and Belfast (+40.2%).

Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham, added: “The Airport’s strong 2013 performance is testament to the ongoing activity to promote the Greater Birmingham and Black Country region as a popular visitor destination.

“Over the past 12 months we have undertaken marketing campaigns with our tourism partners at VisitEngland and VisitBritain to strengthen links with countries including Germany and Italy. The significant recent growth in passengers from Stuttgart and Milan indicates that our work to grow the region’s profile and reputation is bearing fruit.

“The prospect of more of the international business community being able to fly to and from Birmingham in future months thanks to the Airport’s runway extension, coupled with our current work with European funding partners to attract more visitors from Southeast Asia, shows that 2014 could prove to be even more successful.”

Charter services seeing an increase in passengers included Barbados (+70.2%), Gambia (+21.4%), Austria (+8.9%), Finland (+5.6%) and Spain (+5.3%).

Scheduled services seeing an increase accounted for 87.9% of all traffic, whilst charter made up the remaining 12.1% of passengers flying from Birmingham Airport during the month of December.

The top scheduled destinations in 2013 were Dublin, Dubai and Amsterdam, and the most popular charter destinations were Dalaman, Palma and Tenerife.

http://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/meta/news/2014/01/passenger-numbers-climb-at-birmingham-airport.aspx

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Birmingham Airport windfall digs council out of £5m hole

 

Funds derived from Birmingham City Council’s shareholding in Birmingham Airport have come to the rescue of its ailing leisure offer

Birmingham Airport
Birmingham Airport

A major £5 million budget black hole in Birmingham’s 39 leisure centres and swimming pools has been filled after the city council scooped a windfall from its shares in Birmingham Airport.

The council, along with the six other West Midlands local authorities, owns 49% of the airport and has been handed a £13 million dividend after a particularly successful year for the Airport, including the construction of the runway extension.

Now Labour bosses have decided to use £5.2m from the windfall to plug the deficit in leisure services and save the rest for any budget problems which develop during the 2014/15 financial year.

The council has agreed an overhaul of sport and leisure which will see some centres closed, six new ones built and outside operators brought in.

The funding will see the leisure service maintained until the new strategy is implemented and facilities built.

http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/news/local-news/birmingham-airport-windfall-digs-council-6531035

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