Birmingham Airport sees numbers soar

Record-breaking numbers of passengers have flown from Birmingham Airport as bosses revealed big plans for thousands of jobs and new long haul destinations.

The airport has had its best growth in more than three years as thousands tried to flee the constant downpours and took advantage of a strong pound against the weak euro.

It comes as the airport is working to offer direct flights to Beijing and Shanghai to help West Midland businesses tap into the emerging markets in China as well as providing direct flights to the west coast of America.

Latest figures reveal 912,151 people flew from the airport in June, 5.9 per cent up on the year before.

Airport chief executive Paul Kehoe said the rain had encouraged people to get away. Popular destinations included Paris, which was 25 per cent up on the year before, with Canada up six per cent and destinations in Germany up 26 per cent.

The airport has also seen a 100 per cent rise in the number of people flying to Istanbul in Turkey.

In an exclusive interview, Mr Kehoe said: "Our latest figures are very encouraging. We haven't seen this sort of growth for three or four years."

He said the airport's £65m extension of its runway, due to be complete in 2014, would allow it to offer direct flights as far as Tokyo in Japan, Johannesburg in South Africa and Singapore.

Mr Kehoe has revealed tens of thousands could be employed by the airport by 2040 if it can convince the government that it provides the answer to congestion at London Heathrow, rather than a third runway there.