It has it's own club and everything! (Birmingham International Airport (BHX))

Name: Motley

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Product:	Birmingham International Airport (BHX)
Date:	18/01/01 (831 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Local to me, clean, bright, warm and enough shops and restaurants to keep me entertained.

Disadvantages: The baggage handling. It is incredibly slow.

Birmingham Airport is my local airport and has just gone through a multi-million pound refurbishment. Improvement shave been made to the departure lounge in the main terminal (for all airlines) and to the Eurohub (British Airways only). Unfortunately, this refurb does not seem to have done much to attract new airlines or flights. For an International airport, Birmingham does not have much to choose from.

In comparison to Stanstead and Manchester, Birmingham seems a poor relative in the cheap flights department. I don’t know why exactly, maybe it’s something to do with the taxes, I’m not sure. However, it is attracting more flights every year. You can now fly direct to New York daily, and they have just added lots of new flights to the Emirates.

Birmingham Airport is nice and easy to access, being smack bang in the middle of a motorway network which includes the M40, M42 and M6. It is also next door to Birmingham International Train Station (with free links direct to the airport), which is great for people living outside Birmingham.

The airport is very clean, bright and warm at all times of day and night. There is plenty of security, which always makes me feel a little safer, and the facilities are pretty good.

In the public area of the airport, there are quite a few shops including Boots, The Body Shop, WH Smiths and Gulliver’s Travels. There are also a few different places to eat and one licensed bar. There are the usual money exchange bureaus, cash machines and disposable camera machines to be found also.

Once through departures, you can sample yet more shops and eateries. This time, they are slightly more exciting and include Burger King, Dixons Electrical Retailers, a Duty Free shop for if you are travelling outside of the EEC, but the shop also has great deals if you are not. The departure gates all have open waiting areas with plenty of seats and there are toilets everywhere.


My only real complaint about Birmingham Airport is my experience of the baggage handling. It is appalling. My baggage has been handled all over the world and it has always been done fairly smoothly and quickly. But at Birmingham, you will wait for ages and ages and ages. I don’t know why, maybe they are under-staffed or something. My advice, if possible, carry-on.

Birmingham Airport operates a member’s club called the BHX Flight Club (BHX being the International Airport code for Birmingham). It is free to join and when you do, you get a membership card that entitles you to a 10-15% discount at most shops and food chains within the airport. You also get a club magazine once every month which offers loads of cheap flights and holidays. Well worth joining if you fly from Birmingham regularly. Log on to BHX.co.uk to join.

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