Fliers and freight: How BHX is more than just an airport

Written by Nick Barton, Chief Executive Officer at Birmingham Aiport 

Gone are the days when airports simply facilitated the annual holiday.

Today, they are complex businesses generating billions of pounds in gross value added (GVA). Airports are often among the largest employers in their local areas, supporting tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs for the communities they serve.

They also handle thousands of tonnes of cargo, underpinning just-in-time global supply chains.

And yes, they still ensure holidaymakers get to and from their chosen destinations.

Birmingham Airport (BHX) is no different, yet its value is sometimes underestimated. In the coming years, the airport will generate more than £2bn in GVA for the West Midlands.

We are a proud employer of around 1,000 colleagues, with a further 8,000 people employed by third-party partners operating on site. For these reasons, everyone should be interested in — and informed about — the benefits of BHX, and why the airport’s success matters to the region and beyond.

Last year was our most successful to date. We welcomed a record 13.6 million passengers and invested record levels of capital into our infrastructure.

This investment is visible across the airport: new boarding gates, expanded retail and hospitality offerings, enhanced baggage systems, and major sustainability initiatives.

Notably, for significant periods over the summer, the airport was self-sufficient and operating off-grid thanks to our new on-site solar farm.

Beyond the visible passenger experience, BHX also delivered its strongest year for cargo — a critical service for local businesses that often flies under the radar.

In partnership with our cargo operators, we handled more than 60,000 tonnes of freight last year, an increase of over 10% on 2024. By responding to a changing market and capacity constraints in the South of England, the airport has strengthened its position as a key cargo gateway.

Today, BHX supports a growing schedule of dedicated daily and weekly cargo flights, totalling over 30 every week.

This capability is not only essential to global trade and the Government’s growth ambitions; it is also vital to the West Midlands’ ability to attract investment, trade internationally, and prosper as a place to do business.

Alongside freight, around 12% of passengers travelling through BHX do so for business, taking advantage of direct connections to Europe’s key economic centres and beyond.

We continue to work hard to improve connectivity to strategically important global markets, including the United States, Doha, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

BHX is more than an airport where people begin their holidays. While leisure travel will always form the majority of our activity, aviation today is a critical enabler of global commerce — keeping manufacturing supply chains moving and ensuring access to goods essential to everyday life.

Growth in cargo, combined with capacity constraints at other UK airports, means BHX is well positioned to develop further as a logistics gateway, handling increasing volumes of freight whether it arrives by air or road.

Future growth in both passengers and cargo will be set out in our next Airport Masterplan, which will outline forecasts through to around 2040. Alongside these plans will be clear commitments on how we will continue to support jobs, businesses, and economic growth in a sustainable and responsible way.

As we seize the opportunities ahead, we will balance growth with our responsibility to local communities, ensuring impacts on those living closest to the airport are carefully managed and proportionate to the wider benefits BHX delivers.