Unless you’re literally living beneath a rock you will have all seen the devastating scenes coming out of Afghanistan, and namely Kabul over the past 10 days. I’m never going to discuss political beliefs on this page as that sort of thing has no place here – however – the efforts to bring the Afghan people and foreign nationals unfortunate enough to be there during this time to safety have been epic. That’s the word which I would use to describe the variants of aviation traffic coming in and out of Birmingham (BHX) for the purpose of repatriation.
Birmingham Internation Airport is one which is really close to my heart for a number of reasons and it’s been sad to watch its capacity dwindle away over the last few years down to pretty much a fleet of Ryanair 737’s and Jet2 737’s. I feel I missed out on the ‘glory years’ with the early morning American and United 757’s arriving one after another, the Biman DC-10 and the Icelandair 757’s but anyway I digress. COVID was a bit hit on the airport, along with the collapse of Monarch, Thomas Cook, and then FlyBe so it’s been a real bit of excitement for me to see some special traffic returning to Birmingham.
I have been and will continue trying to get some good photos of the chartered flights coming in and out of Birmingham when I can. They’re all flying in and out for Dubai World Central (DWC) and are mostly 767’s and A330’s. Google Image search the ‘Luke Air’ A330 and you won’t be disappointed!