London to Birmingham Airport, and when it is the better airport

It sounds counterintuitive to drive north for two hours to catch a plane, and often it is. But a direct route that only flies from Birmingham, a connection that saves three hours at the far end, or four seats on a flight where Heathrow has none are all good reasons.

There is also the arrival case, which is more common than the departure one. A flight lands at Birmingham because that is where the airline goes, and the passenger needs to be in London. That is a straightforward job and one we do most weeks.

Birmingham is one of the few large UK airports where the terminal is essentially at a motorway exit. There is no long approach road, no ring road, no urban section. Junction 6, a roundabout, and you are there.

That makes the timing unusually predictable. Once the M42 is behind you the remaining variable is minutes rather than the half hour that Heathrow or Gatwick can absorb on a bad afternoon.

The chauffeur waits inside the terminal in arrivals rather than telephoning from a car park. That matters most after a long flight, when the thing a passenger wants least is to work out which door leads to which pick-up area.

The flight is tracked, so an aircraft that lands ninety minutes late is met ninety minutes late rather than charged for. It is the standard arrangement on every airport job we do and it is worth restating on a route where the airport is two hours from our base.

The National Exhibition Centre shares the junction with the airport, and a large show there changes the traffic on the M42 completely. The approach that takes eight minutes on an ordinary Tuesday takes half an hour on the first morning of a major exhibition.

We check what is on at the NEC before quoting a departure time for a flight. It is a small piece of homework that has saved a number of passengers from a very tense last ten miles.

The passengers who take this journey by road rather than rail are almost always the ones with hold luggage. A family of four going on holiday, a party travelling to a wedding abroad, somebody with a golf bag or a set of skis.

Four people with four large cases will not fit in a saloon, and finding that out on a driveway at five in the morning is a poor start to a holiday. We ask about luggage at the booking stage and send the V-Class where the numbers say so.