Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Birmingham Airport (ICAO EGBB, IATA BHX) is a major international gateway in the West Midlands, lying south-east of Birmingham city centre near the National Exhibition Centre. It operates a single long, ILS-equipped hard runway aligned 15/33 and handles substantial airline traffic, making it a busy but rewarding destination for the simulator pilot flying under ATC control into controlled airspace.
Birmingham Airport, formerly known as Birmingham International Airport, is a large international airport situated in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands. It serves the wider West Midlands conurbation together with Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and neighbouring counties, and is an operating base for easyJet, Jet2.com, Ryanair and TUI Airways, with services also flown by Emirates, Saudia, Turkish Airlines, Loganair and KLM. For a simulator pilot it offers the experience of a full ATC environment, a long ILS-served runway and a busy mix of airline and general traffic, all within sight of Birmingham's eastern suburbs.
The airport lies 7 nautical miles east-south-east of Birmingham city centre and 9.5 nautical miles west-north-west of Coventry, just north of Bickenhill village in Solihull. It is bordered by the National Exhibition Centre to the east, Marston Green to the north, Sheldon to the west and the village of Elmdon to the south-west, and sits close to Junction 6 of the M42 motorway and the A45. Its position south-east of the city, combined with the single north-west/south-east runway orientation, means that depending on wind direction aircraft routinely land or depart directly over Birmingham itself.
The airport has one physical runway, 15/33, a hard, lit surface equipped with ILS on both approach directions. Recorded lengths are 9,051 feet for runway 15 and 8,542 feet for runway 33. A former north-east/south-west runway, 06/24, has since been absorbed into the taxiway system serving 15/33. Field elevation is 315 feet.
Birmingham Airport is a fully controlled aerodrome with the following published frequencies: Approach 118.05 MHz and 123.975 MHz, ATIS 136.02 MHz, Tower 118.3 MHz, Ground 121.8 MHz, and Fire 121.6 MHz. Both runway directions are served by ILS, supporting instrument approaches in low visibility.
The airport was officially opened as Elmdon Airport on 8 July 1939, following a decade of planning by Birmingham City Council that began in earnest in 1928. Several sites, including Shirley, Elmdon and Aldridge, were considered before Elmdon was chosen, with the architectural and engineering practice Norman and Dawbarn appointed to design the facility after committee members toured major European airports in 1935. During the Second World War the site was requisitioned by the Air Ministry and operated as RAF Elmdon by both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, principally for flight training and wartime aircraft production. The aerodrome reopened to civilian traffic on 8 July 1946. It later grew into Birmingham International Airport, home in the 1980s and 1990s to the world's first commercial maglev shuttle linking the terminal to Birmingham International railway station, before dropping "International" from its name in 2011 following the merger of its two terminals.
Birmingham Airport holds a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (no. P451) permitting both public transport flights and flying instruction. It handled over 12.8 million passengers in 2024 and 13.66 million in 2025, making it the seventh busiest airport in the United Kingdom, with international services to Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North America, the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent.
