Emirates A380 Visits Birmingham, First Commercial A380 Flight Outside London Options

[Dan_Taylor]

Well, I have just returned after a very enjoyable day at Birmingham! Everyone was out in force at BHX today, with the Long Stay 1 Car Park, Aviation Experience, Elmdon Multistorey Car Park and Sheldon all pretty well filled - quite the turn out for the A380.

I must say A6-EDE was equally as impressive, if not more so, than F-WWOW was on Saturday, and the weather was much better! Thankfully I'd read BHX Flight Guide the day before so I knew of their intentions to depart on rwy 15 (for media purposes - they wanted it to land and takeoff in front of the newly opened International Pier), despite 33 being the runway in operation, so I lingered at Long Stay 1 to catch both the arrival and departure. I was even more impressed when the big bird got up after a little over half the runway length! I don't know the numbers of pax on the flight, but I don't believe it was full.

I must say, I'm glad to call BHX my local after today, and so it seems did most people there. The first commercial A380 flight outside of London has gone to BHX, and today we opened our brand new Intl. Pier fully... oh and celebrated the airports 70th Anniversary! Quite a day all round really... not to mention the KL retrojet PH-BXA, and the numerous vintage aircraft coming in and out all day. Anyway, I'll stop rambling and share some photos from today;

KL retrojet, PH-BXA
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/danta...rbusA380004.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/danta...usA380030-1.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/danta...rbusA380034.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/danta...rbusA380039.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/danta...rbusA380042.jpg
Parked up on stand
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/danta...rbusA380051.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/danta...rbusA380058.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/danta...rbusA380061.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/danta...rbusA380064.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/danta...rbusA380068.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/danta...rbusA380078.jpg

Great day for BHX, and I had a good time too!

Cheers,
Daniel.

[Capt DC10]

Hello Daniel,

Some great pictures there and thanks for sharing them ,

I think the 380 is a fine sight and very quiet considering its size, i live in the SE in Kent and get to see it now and again flying out but have not seen it close to as yet!

Cheers,

Roger.

[morris542]

Is this a regular scheduled service now?

[mcpcshowcaseHD]

Is this a regular scheduled service now?

No, it was a one off (for now at least). It's unlikely the A380 can serve Birmingham until the runway is extended. The plane departed half empty and apparently needed to refuel at a larger airport to get off the ground again.

[Dan_Taylor]

No, it was a one off (for now at least). It's unlikely the A380 can serve Birmingham until the runway is extended. The plane departed half empty and apparently needed to refuel at a larger airport to get off the ground again.

The flight had upwards of 325 pax onboard (same as the usual 77W) and flew direct to DXB. No issue with the runway.

[mcpcshowcaseHD]

The flight had upwards of 325 pax onboard (same as the usual 77W) and flew direct to DXB. No issue with the runway.

But the Emirates A380 can hold over 400 passengers. It was full on arrival but Emirates limited it to 77W capacity on departure. Don't forget the tickets where cheaper (part of the event) and demand was there for it to be full as well. People had booked tickets just to fly the A380 out of Birmingham for the first time (aviation enthusiasts etc). I know someone who was on the arriving flight and they filmed it landing from inside the plane.

The flight global website covered the story and said that the plane was under-weight on take off. Maybe me saying half empty was over-exaggerating it a bit. I think if the plane was full it would have been a close call at the end of the Runway. At Heathrow, where they have up to a 1/3 more runway than BHX (12,799ft vs 8,527ft) I've known them to use a lot more runway when particularly heavy.