New Year start for transatlantic link.
Birmingham Airport and American Airlines have announced that new daily direct flights will commence between Birmingham and New York John F Kennedy Airport from Friday 8th May 2015, with a British Airways code share.
The route will provide nearly 100,000 seats between and Birmingham Airport and JFK, and through the American Airlines and British Airways joint business and oneworld airline alliance, will offer a British Airways code share, allowing customers to earn and redeem BA air miles and Avios points.
Paul Kehoe, Birmingham Airport’s Chief Executive, said, “This new route will not only create more capacity to this vibrant US business and tourist destination, it will also broaden connectivity and choice from the Midlands with American Airlines across North America and Canada and see the return of a British Airways flight code to Birmingham. Last year, the West Midlands exported £4.5 billion worth of goods to North America and has the largest trade surplus with North America of any UK region, and with global brands such as JLR, JCB, Cadbury and Kraft trading both locally and in the US, this is an important link for Midlands’ business.
“The region is also a major tourist destination for Americans, with attractions such as Stratford, Warwick and Birmingham drawing in thousands of visitors every year so we look forward to welcoming many of these tourists into Birmingham next summer and thank the team at American Airlines for recognising the region’s vast market opportunities.”
The American Airlines flight will operate daily, arriving from JFK into Birmingham at 0710 local UK time. It will depart for its return leg at 1000, arriving into New York JFK at 1255 local US time.
“Adding Birmingham to American’s growing global network is an exciting development,” said Suzanne Boda, American’s senior vice president – Asia, Canada & Europe. “Tourists from the U.S. will have closer access to a wide range of attractions in the Midlands while business travellers will also be rewarded with greater choice when flying across the Atlantic.
“Departing passengers from Birmingham will have direct flight to New York, one of the world’s most renowned business and leisure destinations while connecting passengers will have excellent access to key business and leisure markets up and down the East Coast. We look forward to starting this new route in 2015 and I’m confident of its success.”
The new flights are now on sale at www.aa.com. The flights will be operated by a Boeing 757 aircraft with 22 Business Class seats and 160 Main Cabin seats.