07 June, 2018

Primera Air halts Birmingham long-haul services

It is bad news for Birmingham as the European low-cost carrier Primera Air put a halt to all its long-haul flights from the airport for this summer.


The airline claims the delays in the arrival of its new A321neo aircraft has left is the cause of the cancellation of the flight programme for summer 2018, but they do hope to reinstate the schedule when new planes arrive from next year.

The airline had been planning to fly between Birmingham and New York and Toronto for summer, but would now not be able to. The airline was, it said, arranging for all affected passengers to be offered alternative travel from Stanstead or given a full refund. 


Primera Air chief executive officer, Andri Már Ingólfsson, “The plans for the transatlantic routes have been in the making for over a year and both Primera Air and Birmingham Airport have put a lot of effort into promoting the new routes, which were welcomed by the region.

“Unfortunately, we did not anticipate such severe Airbus delays and the prolonged hold-up has forced us to make this difficult and disappointing decision.”

Birmingham Airport issued a statement which expressed its disappointment, saying: “Primera Air has confirmed it plans to reinstate transatlantic services next year once the aircraft is available and this announcement does not affect  short-haul services in operation from Birmingham.”  The airport also indicated that Birmingham needed a New York / East Coast route, citing the 70% load factor Primera's initial New York flight achieved, showed the demand was there. 

The airport also said that anyone who had prebooked long-term parking with the airport would get a full refund if they contact the airport's customer service team.


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