Birmingham Airport customer numbers exceed pre-pandemic levels
Customer volumes at Birmingham Airport have exceeded 2019 levels for the first time last month, in what has been described as an important milestone by BHX bosses.
According to latest data, in October, 1,106,000 customers travelled through the Midlands transport hub. The figure was in comparison to 1,101,000 in October 2019.
Tom Screen, aviation director for BHX, said: “Customer numbers were 100.4 per cent of what they were October 2019.
"That is officially the first month we’ve surpassed pre-pandemic numbers and it's good to hit this milestone as we continue to recover from Covid.
"With more routes, more airlines and more based aircraft, it’s no surprise we’re seeing more customers."
In 2019-20, BHX served more than 12m customers before Covid struck, reducing customers volumes by more than 90 per cent to just 1m in 2020-21.
In 2021-22, visitor volumes rose slightly to 3m but, when the Government reopened the borders in March 2022, customers surged back.
In 2022-23, customer volumes totalled 10.5m.
This year, BHX expects to draw level or even exceed 2019-20 numbers.
It comes as construction of a state-of-the-art new security hall is due to be complete by June 2024.
"This is part of £300m of upgrades to BHX planned in the coming decade," added Mr Screen. "We’re on our way to becoming a bigger, better, greener airport for our customers.”
Speaking in April, as security hall plans were revealed, Chris Wilson, head of terminal and capacity planning, said: "It is a really exciting time and our customers will see big changes by 2024.
"In the next 18 months we will have developed a whole new search area to fundamentally change the way we support passengers and continue to have a safe and secure airport."
