Three new flight destinations from Birmingham Airport for Emirates, Qatar Airways and Saudia

Birmingham will soon be better connected to the Middle East with three new flight routes to be launched in July.

Major airline companies from the Middle East will be starting routes to Doha (capital city of Qatar), Dubai (top holiday spot of United Arab Emirates) and Jeddah (a Saudi Arabian port city) from Birmingham Airport (BHX) - which is perfect for sunny city breaks in the summer and business trips. The three air routes are by three major global carriers - Qatar Airways, Saudia and Emirates.

Here is when the Middle East airlines will start their Birmingham Airport flights

Within a single week the trio of airlines will collectively expand BHX’s Middle Eastern offering as follows:

• Saturday July1 - Emirates, which fly twice a day to Dubai, trumpets the return to BHX of its iconic 615-seater A380 ‘superjumbo.’
• Sunday July 2 – Saudia starts operating from BHX, flying the first of its thrice-weekly rotations to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second city.
• Thursday July 6 - Qatar Airways returns to BHX, following a three-year absence, with daily services to Doha’s Hamad International, voted second best airport in the world in Skytrax’s 2023 rankings.

What did Birmingham Airport boss say?

Nick Barton, chief executive of Birmingham Airport, said: “Direct connectivity with the Middle East has never been better for our business and leisure customers. Emirates, Qatar and Saudia are all major global players connecting BHX directly to their hub airports each with impressive onward networks variously serving Australasia, Africa and the Far East.”

He added: “In Birmingham and the West Midlands, Emirates, Qatar and Saudia see what many other global brands see, including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Accenture and HSBC to name just a few who have recently established headquarters in Birmingham ... a British region home to six million people with an economy the size of Hungary’s on a strong trajectory of growth, and future economic potential not yet fully realised.”

Nick added: “The draw of the West Midlands strengthens further still when one considers the opportunities offered by the new HS2 railway, which, once operational in the early 2030s, will connect London directly to the BHX terminal in a barely conceivable 32 minutes. That’s a game-changer.”

Other routes starting from Birmingham Airport

Budget airliner RyanAir has also announced seven new routes from Birmingham Airport in time for summer 2023.

Here is the full list of new destinations:

1. Barcelona (G) - eight weekly flights
2. Billund - four weekly flights
3. Pisa - four weekly flights
4. Santander - four weekly flights
5. Stockholm (A)
6. Toulouse
7. Venice

Birmingham Airport told BirminghamWorld that easyJet have new routes to Milan and Naples and Jet2 to Nice this summer.

How Birmingham Airport contributes to the West Midlands

BHX plays a key role in the economy of the West Midlands. In 2022, its economic contribution (GVA - gross value added) stood at £1.5bn with 30,900 jobs (direct and indirect) supported. By 2033, BHX forecasts annual customer numbers to grow from 12m to 18m, by which time its GVA will be £2.1bn and supported jobs will be 34,400.