The 09/09/09 was another day in history for Birmingham International Airport; it was 70 years ago in 1939 that Elmdon Airport opened for business and the ceremonial opening by the Duchess of Kent. Alongside the Duchess was Birmingham Mayor Neville Chamberlain, the weather on that day was torrential rain, not like the sunny day we have today.

By all accounts it was an ambitious opening event. A flying programme including an autogyro, a military air display and a large number of civil aircraft including an imperial Hercules.

Elmdon Airport was soon forced to shed its glad rags and many Birmingham citizens marched straight into uniform, just 2 months after the opening Elmdon was requisitioned by the Air Ministry and civil flying ended. Elmdon was given back to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 8^th July 1946 and opened again for civil flying

And here we are in the 21st century Birmingham celebrating 70 years with the opening on the new International pier. Living locally and a frequent visitor to Birmingham I have seen the construction progress, starting back in June 2008. 45 Million pounds later and here we are today with a magnificent new international pier. The new pier replacing the outdated old pier built back in 1984. It’s the single biggest investment the Airport has made in more than 20 years.

The new pier is three storeys high; 240 metres long and 24 metres wide. Departing passengers using the top floor and arriving passengers using the middle level, the new pier will provide air-bridged aircraft parking for seven wide-bodied aircraft and enough space to serve 13 smaller aircraft at any given time.

So what’s next for Birmingham International...well they are still awaiting planning permission for the extension to the runway. In the press conference it was said that next week they expect to see a paper from Solihull council approving the extension. This will enable Birmingham to facilitate direct flights between China and Birmingham. Also in the planning stage is the reworking of the interior of the existing airport buildings, to give one common area, merging Terminal 1 and 2 together. These changes will allow the airport to grow to about 18-20 million passengers per year.

So what about the celebrations today, well Birmingham pulled the stops out and the star visitor was the Emirates A380. Emirates kindly obliged by switching the normal lunchtime Boeing 777-300 service form Dubai to the A380. The first time that this aircraft has operated a UK commercial flight outside London, and she did not disappoint, what a sight in the blue sky, this lady of the sky strolled gracefully into Birmingham amidst all the media coverage...The Emirates A380 can carry 399 passengers in economy class, 76 in business class and 14 in first class, for the outbound flight due to restrictions she carried 218 economy, 40 business and 12 first class.

Also arriving on the day was over 20 vintage aircraft including a Dragon Rapide based locally at Coventry, The Rapide being one of the first commercial flights out of Birmingham back in the 30s serving the likes of Jersey. Also on the day KLM put their Boeing 737 on the morning service to Amsterdam painted in their retro scheme.

The media coverage was pretty good, airside coverage with landing shots taxing shots and a full tour of the A380

All I can say is congratulations Birmingham what a great day

Great Post - Thanks for the passenger information. Do you know if the plane was fully fuelled?

Thanks for the feedback

Stats for the A380 departure  

The ramp fuel was 88.5t and the trip fuel was 74.5t. Flight time to Dubai 6 hours. Take-off weight was 487t

Take off was granted on runway 15, because the tail wind was less than 10 knots

 

Do you know if this heavier or lighter than usual? I know from what people have told me that a 747 cannot take off from Birmingham Airport fully laiden but I know the A380 can take off quicker than a 747 having seen it many times.