It seems that easyJet thinks there’s a market that can work at Birmingham Airport, as it plans to open a base in 2024.
easyJet Airbus A320neo taxing into Birmingham Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
The new base will support 100 direct jobs for pilots and crew in the UK, along with the indirect job creation a base creates.
easyJet will base three 186-seat Airbus A320 aircraft at the airport, making Birmingham its ninth base in the country.
The airline already serves key domestic connections and international routes from Birmingham to destinations including Amsterdam, Geneva, Milan, Naples, Lisbon, Faro and Palma de Mallorca. The addition of more aircraft at the airport will enable the airline to further expand its network from Birmingham with new routes for holidaymakers and business travellers.
The move is a part of easyJet’s strategy to take advantage of key growth opportunities across its network and follows the return to growth this summer in the UK with the airline flying eight per cent more capacity than pre-pandemic and over 1 million more seats in peak summer.
In Quotes
Commenting on the expansion plans, Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, said:
“We are delighted to be announcing our new base in Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city, which creates around 100 direct and many more indirect jobs.
“Having already served Birmingham for many years, the decision to open a base and grow at the airport now is testament to the strong demand we see, coupled with the importance of the UK market in supporting our profitable growth.
“The UK is easyJet’s largest market with 55% of all easyJet passengers flying to and from UK airports so this move will not only reinforce our leadership position as the UK’s largest airline, but also demonstrates our confidence in the resilient strength of demand for travel, with customers choosing us for our trusted brand, unrivalled network and great value fares.”
Nick Barton, chief executive of Birmingham Airport (BHX), said:
“This landmark investment by easyJet is a huge vote of confidence in the West Midlands.
“Basing three aircraft at BHX will create many more jobs for local people and many more options for customers.
“Years of hard work have led to this. Together we look forward to years of future success.”
That’s taken long enough
easyJet – for the most part – has taken its time with Birmingham Airport, choosing to serve other airports first, and then adding service from other bases.
And it is going to find competition at the airport – with it being Ryanair and Jet2 having bases, there, along with TUI, not to mention the other carriers that fly in and out of the airport (be they full-service airlines like Air France, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus and KLM or Low-Cost Airlines like Sun Expres, Vueling and Wizz Air)
It’ll be down to the route network they choose to launch from Birmingham Airport – and which honest nests they want to stoke when they launch the routes.
Suffice to say, I will be watching with more than a passing interest after my December adventure with them.
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