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Birmingham Airport Information

Facilities

Birmingham Airport provides an extensive range of facilities for business and leisure travellers including children and those requiring special assistance.

Business Facilities - The Servisair Executive Lounge is available for all Terminal 1 passengers and provides them with a quiet space complete with complimentary drinks, snacks, newspapers and magazines for a small fee. Passengers can use its facilities for up to three hours before their flight.

Terminal 1 passengers can also access the Aviance Executive Lounge which is located directly in front of the exit from the main security area. For a small fee guests can enjoy a peaceful environment with complimentary drinks, snacks, newspapers, magazines and television. The lounge also has essential business facilities including telephones, fax, WIFI, internet kiosks, laptop ports and work station. Passengers can use the lounge's facilities for up to three hours before their flight.

Passengers of Air France and KLM have dedicated lounge facilities in Terminal 1, which are clearly signposted upon entering the Departure Lounge. Details of the facilities available can be obtained from the airline.

Flybe have an executive lounge in Terminal 2 within the Departure Lounge for its passengers. Please contact the airline for details of the facilities offered.

Leisure Facilities - Birmingham Airport has an extensive range of shopping, eating and banking facilities which include Accessorize; Austin Reed; Boots; Burger King; Costa Coffee; Dixons; Frankie & Benny's; Gamegrid; La Senza; Spar; Starbucks; Subway; Tie Rack; Travelex; W H Smith and World Duty Free Shopping. There are baby changing facilities; left baggage, lost property, telephones, toilets and trolleys available throughout the terminal.

Religious and Cultural Facilities - The Airport Prayer Room is located in the Millennium Link Building between T1 and T2. Prayer resources for each major faith are provided within the cupboards, e.g. prayer mats, bibles etc. Wudu/Washing Facilities are available in T1 located within the toilet facilities on the Main Concourse. The Airport prayer room is supported by the Multi Faith Chaplaincy team.

Special Assistance Facilities - OCS Ltd are contracted by Birmingham International Airport Limited to provide assistance to persons with reduced mobility. If you require wheelchair assistance to the terminal from the car parks, from the check-in desks to the aircraft or on arriving back at Birmingham International Airport, OCS staff will escort you from the aircraft, through immigration & customs and assist you in retreiving your luggage. To arrange this please contact your tour operator or airline at least 48 hours before departure advising the type of assistance required. If you do need to contact OCS direct the helpdesk number is 0121 767 7878 or they can be contacted by email on bhx.prm@ocs.co.uk

Textphone - to help the deaf and hard of hearing with telephone information - is installed at the Terminal 1 Information Desk. The special textphone number is 0121 767 8084. Staff are also available at the Information Desk and Special Assistance Reception Desk who use sign language. Induction-Loop and Mini-Loop systems are installed in various locations around the terminals.

Disabled Parking Spaces are available in the Drop & Go area which is close to the terminal building. Blue Badge holders are entitled to up to 60 minutes free parking within the Drop & Go area upon production of their Blue Badge and car parking ticket at the NCP Customer Services desk within the terminal building. Normal charges apply if the 60 minutes is exceeded. Parking spaces are also available at multi-storey and surface car parks. Should you require assistance, help points are situated close to the disabled parking areas. Car parking is charged at the normal rates. Disabled drivers are advised that the Blue Badge scheme does not operate within the airport for security reasons.

Birmingham International Airport accept registered assistance dogs if travelling on approved airlines and routes. Please contact the OCS helpdesk if assistance is required.

Transport

Birmingham Airport has six car parks offering drop and go, short, mid and long term parking. Carparking.com can arrange Meet & Greet chauffeur parking or off-airport Park and Ride parking for Birmingham Airport with our parking partners located close to the airport. All of our parking partners provide efficient, reliable and cost-effective parking services.

The Airport has its own rail station, Birmingham International, which is located only 500 metres from the passenger terminals and is linked to them by the free Air-Rail Link. Air-Rail link runs every two minutes from 0515 to 0200, with a journey time of less than 2 minutes, providing a fast and easy connection from train to plane. There are approximately 9 trains per hour during the day between Birmingham International and Birmingham New Street with the journey time of between 10 and 20 minutes. From Birmingham New Street Station there are frequent direct services to most of the midlands and many parts of the UK.

Birmingham International Airport is served by a network of local buses. The main services the 900 to Birmingham City centre and Coventry; and the 966 to Solihull rail station and Erdington. Both services operate from early in the morning to late at night including weekends and bank holidays. But there are no overnight services. All the buses stop in front of Terminal 1.

Black cabs provide a 24/7 service from outside each of the passenger terminals. Each taxi carries up to 5 people with luggage, and is able to take wheelchairs. All black cabs accept major credit cards, provide receipts and are the only taxis licensed to operate without prior booking. For further information telephone: 0121 782 3744.

History

In 1928 Birmingham City Council decided that the City required a municipal airport however because of the economic depression plans were put on hold until 1933 when Elmdon, eight miles south-east of the city, was identified as the preferred site for the airport. In May 1939, services to Croydon, Glasgow, Liverpool, Ryde, Shoreham, Manchester and Southampton began and Elmdon Airport was officially opened by HRH The Duchess of Kent on 8th July 1939. The airport was owned and operated by Birmingham City Council until the outbreak of the Second World War when civil aviation ceased and the airport was requisitioned by the Air Ministry for use by the RAF. During this time the Air Ministry built two hard surface runways to replace the original grass strip.

Still under Government control, the airport re-opened for civil flying in July 1946. British European Airways began scheduled services in 1949 to Paris and flights to the continent steadily grew during the 1950's with services to Zurich, Dusseldorf, Palma, Amsterdam and Barcelona. The City of Birmingham took over responsibility again in 1960 and the terminal extension, known as the International Building, was opened during 1961. An extension to the main runway was completed in the late 1960's enabling jets to use the airport, resulting in the introduction of regular services to New York.

By the early 1970's the airport was handling more than 1 million passengers a year. In April 1974, operations at the airport were handed to the newly formed West Midlands Metropolitan County Council which incorporated the seven Metropolitan areas of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

In order to handle the growing number of flights and passengers, construction on a new terminal with a capacity for 3 million people, on the other side of the runway began in 1981. It was opened in 1984 by Her Majesty the Queen and handled record passenger numbers during its first few years. In 1986 ownership of the airport was transferred to the newly formed West Midlands District Joint Airport Committee, which still comprised the seven District Councils of the West Midlands administrative area. On 1st April 1987, the ownership of the Airport transferred to Birmingham International Airport plc, a public limited company owned by the seven West Midlands District Councils.

July 1991 saw the opening of the Birmingham International Airport's second terminal, known as the Eurohub. In 1993, Government public sector borrowing restrictions meant that future development of the airport could only be funded by using private sector finance. The owners therefore decided to reduce their shareholding to below 50% in order to restructure Birmingham Airport into a private sector company thereby making it possible to finance its £260 million development programme which began in 1997. In 1999 Birmingham International Airport celebrated its 60th anniversary and a record 7 million passengers passed through the Airport's two terminals.

In March 2000, Her Majesty, The Queen, officially opened a £40 million terminal development, which provided a two-storey arrivals concourse linking the two passenger terminals for the first time, and a new pier with air bridges, check-in desks, a baggage reclaim hall, catering and retail outlets, and Customs and Immigration halls. Continuing with its plans to provide its passengers with greater facilities and easier access via public transport, Birmingham International Airport opened the £11 million Air-Rail Link people mover system and the £7 million public transport Interchange in March 2003.

By the end of 2003, more than 9 million people were using Birmingham Airport each year, and at this time Birmingham was identified as the preferred location for growth in the Midlands in the Government's White Paper, "The Future of Air Transport". Following the extensive consultations that were held on the expansion of Birmingham International Airport's runway a planning application was submitted to and approved by Solihull Metropolitan Council in December 2008, to extend the runway by 400 metres which would enable the airport to reach the West Coast of America, South America, the Far East and South Africa.

To handle future growth the airport embarked on a £45 million state-of-the-art extension to Terminal One in June 2007. The new 'International Pier' will replace the current out-dated facility constructed in 1984. The new Pier will be a three storey construction; Departing passengers will be accommodated on the top level, with arriving passengers on the middle level and office accommodation for airline and handling agents on the ground floor. The new facility will provide air-bridged aircraft parking for seven wide-bodied aircraft and enough space to serve 13 smaller aircraft at any given time. The Pier will also provide vertical segregation to separate inbound and outbound passenger traffic, in line with national security requirements. New gate lounges for passengers will also be created. The pier is anticipated to be fully completed by November 2009.