Birmingham Airport hopes to offer cut price holiday escapes during Olympics
Another bit of opportunistic publicity from Birmingham Airport’s Paul Kehoe. He uses the opening of a new hangar at the end of January to get some publicity for hopes of growing the number of passengers this year. More business jets. More tourists during the Olympics, on cheap deals to escape Britain during August. And of course, the usual swipe at APD …
Birmingham Airport’s £5m hangar set to open with cheap flight hopes
Monday 2nd January 2012 (Express & Star)
A £5 million hangar at Birmingham Airport will be completed on January 26, it was announced today – as bosses revealed holidaymakers are set to benefit from cut-price flights during the Olympics.
Around 50 jobs will be created when Eurojet Aviation, which offers aircraft management, charter and maintenance services, takes over the new 41,000 sq ft complex at the airport.
The complex will feature an aircraft sales suite, commercial operations centre and maintenance.
Airport chief executive Paul Kehoe revealed when work would finish as he said the building would provide a boost in the number of corporate jets coming in and out of Birmingham.
He said: “The people who use corporate jets are the people who make the decisions about where to invest.
“If we can supply a service where people on corporate jets are coming through a quality facility then hopefully they will be pre-disposed to invest in the West Midlands.”
The coming year will see another big change as building work at a new airport traffic control tower is due to be completed in March. The £10m structure will replace the existing tower built in 1939.
Mr Kehoe also gave some welcome news to holidaymakers as he revealed airlines were expected to be offering cut-price holidays during the Olympics – with Birmingham Airport set to benefit. Olympics deals are expected to be announced over the coming weeks.
He said: “Not everyone will want to stay in Britain but there will be planes coming in full and leaving nearly empty while the Olympics are on.
“So we expect to see some good deals being offered by airlines.”
But Mr Kehoe said there was a threat to fares as a result of planned 10 per cent increases in air passenger duty. The cost of an average ticket to somewhere like Australia would rise by around £14 as a result. [What a bargain. An increase of just £14 for a return fight most of the way round the world?]
He wants to see more investment in Birmingham to allow for more flights.
“The Government needs to recognise the value of regional airports,” he said.
Comment from a Birmingham resident:
What an odd conflation of all kinds of different things – clutching at any straw they can: cheap flights, biz jets, olympics – and we pay for it all.