TravTalk India Online Magazine
Tom Screen, Aviation Director at Birmingham Airport, is keen on incentivising travel agents to book their clients via his airport. He discusses the convenience the airport offers to travellers, great air connections, and an average immigration processing time of eight minutes for non-EU nationals among other advantages.
Hazel Jain
With a significant Indian diaspora and proximity to destinations located in the wider Midlands region, Birmingham seems to be a great entry point for Indian travellers. Recognising the potential that lies in the Indian market, Birmingham Airport is keen on attracting more and more passengers travelling to the UK. Tom Screen, Aviation Director, Birmingham Airport, says, “We are really interested in the Indian market, particularly with the high VFS traffic in the Midlands regions. Birmingham is an important entry point for them. We have been interacting with the Indian travel agent community about how Birmingham Airport can help them because we are centrally-located airport within the UK with great transport links. We want to look at incentivising travel agents to book more traffic through our airport.”
He was part of VisitBritain’s ‘Destination Britain India 2023’ mission that took place in New Delhi in November 2023.
Screen explains that it is the only airport in the UK to have a main line railway station. It is nine minutes from Birmingham central, about one hour from London, a 35-minute drive to Stratford upon Avon, and 45 minutes from Bicester Village. In terms of air connectivity, this summer will see easyJet fly from Birmingham to Edinburgh and Glasgow three times daily, 12 flights a day to Belfast, and 10 a day to Dublin. “This airport is, therefore, perfect for travellers who want to fly in here and visit some of the local areas, such as Dudley, Stratford upon Avon, Birmingham, and London for a few days, and then go on to Scotland and Ireland. It is a very convenient place to start their UK adventure,” he adds.
Air India witnesses 90 per cent load factors
He underlines Amritsar and New Delhi as a catchment area – they are each around 80,000-90,000 passengers a year. From Mumbai, it is around 88,000 passengers per year. A majority of them go to Heathrow and some fly into Birmingham Airport. “We want to grow this traffic between India and Birmingham Airport. We are keen to work with them to grow their flights into Birmingham. Right now, we have six flights per week on Air India and we are hopeful that they will increase this by one frequency each by September or October 2024 taking them to eight per week,” Screen reveals.
He is also in conversation with Air India about looking at Mumbai as well. “But that is more like summer 2025-2026 conversation when they get their A350s. Currently, agents are struggling to get seats on Air India flights with almost 90 per cent load factors. Birmingham Airport also has an incentive scheme for airlines to fly into the airport, tailored to the airline,” Screen adds.
