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You are here: Home / Trips / Donughts / Doughnuts On The Mound – Morning Manoeuvres at Birmingham Airport

Doughnuts On The Mound – Morning Manoeuvres at Birmingham Airport

12/07/2017 by Kevincm

Doughnuts On The Mound – Morning Manoeuvres at Birmingham Airport

Donughts On The Mound - A day trip with Aer Lingus and a lot of #avgeeks

In this epic day trip (and it t’was epic)

  • Spotting for the day? Why not?
  • Morning Manoeuvres at Birmingham Airport
  • EI263 Birmingham Airport to Dublin Airport
  • Donughts on the Mound… and a LOT of planes
  • Back to Dublin Airport
  • EI3276 Dublin to Birmingham Airport
  • Cheap ride home sir?
  • Community

Morning Manoeuvres at Birmingham Airport

6:00am.

Waking up, I rolled out of bed, and grabbed my camera bag and a few other things – and got a Uber to the airport.

a backpack leaning against a brick wall
Yup. The batter Etnies Transport bag that has seen far too many better days. I need another one of these as they’re great for splitting clothes, equipment and laptop in an easy to travel bag. Getting another one o these is a challenge unfortunately.

I would had taken a Uber to the train station, and then a train onwards… except I had a fishy feeling what the security queues would be like.

a man sitting in a car
Blitzing down the Aston Expressway. Not the Coventry Road.

And I wanted to cut that risk out as much as I could

£22 later (and the driver taking the M6 rather than going down the A45 as I requested) I was at Elmdon International Airport – or as the rest of you know it – Birmingham Airport.

a building with a sign and people outside
Hello Elmdom International… I mean Birmingham Airport.

With it the beginning of July, traffic was very much “bucket and spade” traffic, with the terminal busy with families wanting to escape Birmingham and to the sun.

I headed over the Aer Lingus check-in counters and obtained my boarding passes for the day. I had checked in online, with all seats assigned – but I still like getting my souvenir boarding passes – even if they’re thermal paper at Birmingham Airport.

a sign in a airport
To the departures!

With that, I headed up to Security – and I was right to be worried. There was a queue that was being held before the boarding pass check, and then three lanes of switchbacks to clear to get to the scanners.

people standing in a line at an airport
Waiting for the barriers to be re-opened.

a group of people standing in a line
Into the switchbacks

a group of people walking in a hallway
3rd switchback!

a sign on a machine
Things BHX is good at: Monetising anything.

Sigh.

The queue moved as best as it could – with it taking 15 minutes to clear the hurdles of security.

Once that was done – it was time to play “run the risk” of Duty Free – Remember, this is a British Airport – it’s a shopping centre with air-bridges attached.

people walking in a airport
Run the risk!

With nothing interesting me in the shops, I headed to a shop that made something resembling coffee.

a restaurant with a sign and a man standing behind it
Things you can get for £2 in Birmingham Airport – Coffee. No Starbucks here though for those Starbucks Lovers.

With a “Big cup of Joe” in had, I headed over to the “International Pier” to watch planes. With me in full plane-spotter mode, there were a few interesting sights parked up at BHX that morning. Here’s the nerd stuff.

As I’ve noted – there was a fair bit of bucket and spade traffic – so it’s no surprise to seeing carriers in full swing.

an airplane on the tarmac
TUI Boeing 757-200

Monarch Airways and Jet2 at Birmingham Arport
Monarch Airways Airbus A321 and Jet2 Boeing 737-800

Regular schedule traffic was also doing its this thing, with Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Wizz Air, Emirates, and a Brussels Airlines plane I’ve never seen before. Yes, it was a Sukoi Superjet 100 (operated by CityJet).

an airplane on a runway
Brussels Airlines Sukoi SuperJet 100 (operated by CityJet).

a plane on the runway
Wizz Air Airbus A321

an airplane parked at an airport
Qatar Airways Boeing 787

Lufthansa Airbus A319 - Birmingham Airport
Lufthansa Airbus A319 pushing back.

Emirates Boeing 777-300ER - Birmingham Airport
Emirates Boeing 777-300ER landing. Soon to be replaced with an A380…

a plane in a building
Children’s play activity area and a model Turkish Airlines Boeing 777-300ER. A bit large to fit in my home sadly…

Eventually, I spotted my inbound service coming in, and I chose to head towards where the gate would be  – which would be Gate 55.

a green and white airplane on a runway
Hello Aer Lingus A320!

And it seemed I found a whole new definition of “gate lice” with nearly half a plane load already lined up to board. Yes, this is before the plane had even arrived at the gate.

a group of people in a terminal
Editors note: The plane was turning for the gate at this point

Give me strength.

Eventually boarding was called – and the queues shuffled forward as people were beeped aboard.

a sign on a wall
Checked. Needs more cool air.

My boarding pass was blipped, and I slowly made my way down the stairs and onto to the tarmac.

Aer Lingus A320 - EI263 Birmingham to Dublin
Next: EI263 Birmingham Airport to Dublin Airport – Ooh. Empty Middle Seat!


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