Tag Archives: Berlin

The shocking lack of European capitals served by flights from Birmingham

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As I see that the Birmingham Airport twitter feed has many comments about the runway extension and the High Speed 2 railway proposals, I thought it was worth a quick reminder of just how many major European capital cities are not served by flights from Birmingham Airport.

Now I’m not just talking about Vaduz or Andorra-la-Vella, which don’t even have airports, these are major European capital cities, including the capital of the largest country in the EU (Germany), aswell as other major players such as the Spanish capital Madrid and the Polish capital Warsaw. Even Lisbon and Rome will not get Birmingham flights until the end of March 2012.

European capitals not served by flights from Birmingham

(but these are served by flights from Manchester or other UK regional airports):

City Birmingham Manchester Edinburgh
Notes
Athens (previously operated by various airlines)
Berlin (previously operated by BACON)
Helsinki
Lisbon (YES) (new route starts 31 March 2012)
Moscow
Oslo (previously by Ryanair to TRF?)
Rome (YES) (new route starts 25 March 2012)
Stockholm (previously by Ryanair to NYO?)
Vienna
Warsaw (previously operated by Norwegian)

Now, surely I’m not being fair on Birmingham here? Aren’t there many other European capitals and major cities which are served by flights from Birmingham?

European Capital* Cities which are served by Birmingham flights:

City Birmingham Manchester Edinburgh
Amsterdam*
Brussels
Copenhagen
Dublin
Istanbul*
Paris
Prague
Zurich*

In virtually all of the above cases, other the cities served from Birmingham are also served from Edinburgh. European cities which are served by Birmingham flights, but not by flights from Manchester, are few and far between.

If there is any unfairness, it is that there are numerous cities in Germany which are both more commercially important than Berlin, and which are served from Birmingham. Yet, Berlin is still important in its own right, both for business, and as a key city break destination. If there are flights to Berlin from several other UK airports, then why not from Birmingham, especially as the new Brandenburg Airport should create an opportunity for new routes.

Surely, it would be easier to create incentives for the airlines already at Birmingham to open up new routes to some of these key cities, rather than chasing much harder to win contracts for flights to Asia, which have so far failed to materialise in any great way from Manchester, and which would be even less likely to work from Birmingham, given its proxmimity to London. And why should anyone fork out a hefty High Speed 2 rail fare to arrive in some field right on the edge of the Birmingham Airport complex, when Virgin Trains will take them to within a two minute shuttle ride of the main terminal building, with an only marginally longer journey time?

Notes:

  • * Amsterdam is nominal capital and most important commercial city in the Netherlands. Seat of government is in The Hague.
  • Zurich is both commercial capital of Switzerland and main gateway airport to Bern.
  • Istanbul is largest commercial city in Turkey.

Will Ryanair use the new Berlin Airport?

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Still wondering how Michael O’Leary is going to respond to the new Berlin Airport.

Will he accept a rise in charges, or will he try and operate from the old SXF terminal.

It is quite unprecedented for a city to effectively shut 3 airports to build one new one (Boris take note?). The closest alternative will be Leipzig ‘Berlin South’ – LEJ. A mere 176km away – a stretch even for the Ryanair boss’ imagination!

Brandt New Airport to open in time for London 2012 Olympics

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So there will actually be a brand new airport open just in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

Complete with its own high speed station and a terminal capable of handling 50m pax per year, situated between two runways. It will be a major hub for Easyjet, Ryanair and AB. Visitors will be able to reach the Olympic stadium in about 40 minutes, stopping by at the parliament or even the zoo if they wish. There’s only one small problem…….

….. it is in Berlin!

Unfortunately, this is no laughing matter. Frankfurt Airport has also been able to build a third runway as Heathrow bursts at the seems.

I have been following the new Berlin airport project for a while, and it has not been without controversy and delay. Yet somehow, the Germans can show us that it is possible to complete major infrastructure projects and deliver on long held promises. when I read that the opening date for this new ‘Brandenburg International’ or ‘Berlin Brandt’ airport is 5th June next year, I thought to myself ‘that’s quite close to the London Olympics.  How ironic that after some 10 years of wrangling, this airport is opened just as London takes centre stage – yet myriad airport projects were promised in the UK to meet this deadline.

Now every UK airport project has to stand or fall on its own merits, and it needs to have a business case which goes long beyond 2 weeks of games. But just think if all of this had been built in time for the games:

  1. Second runway at Stansted.
  2. New terminal at Stansted.
  3. Third runway at Heathrow.
  4. Runway extension at Birmingham (now in preparatory phase).
  5. Second runway at Birmingham.

Instead, we just have to do with yet another airport being added to London’s long list of out-of-the-way sheds. At least Easyjet will be ready with 10 new routes from Southend Airport in time for the Olympics, even if very few of them will be of interest to Olympic teams or spectators.

Now let’s see what happens if FIFA cleans up its act, England put together a successful bid for World Cup 2026, and a high-speed maglev network is promised and delivered by then, on-time and under-budget. Pig just cleared for take-off from Stansted runway 22 Left!

Let’s honour Churchill by naming Heathrow Airport after him

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I’m fed up with reading in the papers about people who want to berate Churchill’s legacy and play down his role in defeating the forces of Nazism.

You only have to look at the current bunch of ratbags infesting Downing Street to realise how much better a leader Churchill was than any of his predecessors. For some reason, we British don’t like to name our airports after real leaders. Instead, we have an irrelevant little glass shed up near Doncaster named after that thief Robin Hood, and Liverpool Airport named after dreary dreamer John Lennon. Lennon might have imagined a world free from tyranny, but Churchill created the legacy to achieve it.

My only question is which airport would be more appropriate – Stansted or Heathrow?

Norman Foster’s delightfully simple design for Stansted might be an easy gateway for Szczecin, from where Goerring first coined the term ‘Iron Curtain’; Gdansk, from where Lech Wałęsa first started the Solidarity movement to defeat Communism; and Berlin, where Roger Waters finally brought down The Wall in July 1990, but the place has long sinced been cheapened by Irish cheapskates Ryanair.

Surely Winston would find Heathrow’s Terminal 5, which now shares so many more connections with the USA, not to mention the rest of the world, a far more enjoyable place from which to catch flights, even if it was designed by Labour Luvvie Richard Rogers?

The International (film / locations) – A concert of Architectural Anthems

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I know that Flightmapping.com’s prime purpose is dealing with flights, but we’ve always had a strong interest in visiting movie locations, especially on films when a lot of travelling is involved. When it comes to showcasing impressive architecture, the Bond franchise is often top draw, but I’ve never seen a film quite like The Internation, currently in cinemas across the UK. Much as I enjoyed the plot (I’m really not getting into that here, that’s well out of our territory), I couldn’t help but sit in awe at the architectural concert that served as both the backdrop and a major star of this film from start to finish.

Berlin

Berlin Central Station / HauptbahnhofThe opening anthem was the scene outside Berlin’s shiny new Hauptbanhof (central station) — perhaps my only complaint here was that they did not go inside — with two decks of track crossing each other, glass lifts and escalators-a-plenty, this would have been an ideal chase location.

We were then served up offices of ‘The International’ (Bank of Business and Credit), which was supposed to be in Luxembourg, but I would suspect was somewhere around Treptower in Berlin. Other Berlin locations used in the film included Daniel Liebskind’s Jewish Museum, whereas additional scenes are filmed in the VW Autocity (Autostadt) in Wolfsburg [how to get there].

Milan

Action then moves on to Milan, featuring a predictable choice of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, and a much more interesting assassination scene (won’t say who) in the square outside Milan Centrale station, which is also flanked by the Pirelli Tower.

New York

The chase for intelligence then moves to New York, leading up to a grand finale shootout inside a replica of Frank Lloyd Wright’s original Guggenheim Museum. This made use of interactive (and translucent) exhibits on display at the museum, together with embedding bullets all over the spiral stair case and full-scale destruction of the internal roof.

Istanbul

For the encore, were taken first to the shores of Lake Garda, where digital effects superimpose Zaha Hadid’s Phaeno Science Centre (also in Wolfsburg) onto the stunning backdrop of a lakeside setting. The second encore takes us through the streets and bazaar of Istanbul, through the courtyard of the Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque, and onto rooftops overlooking the Bosphorus, where the film ends.

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I’ve tried to be as accurate as possible with these, but if you have any corrections, please let me know below.