Having just returned from a brief vacation over in Norway, I’ve come to realise that BHX (Birmingham International Airport) really is quite a good airport. While it’s hardly a Gatwick or Heathrow, it still manages to service a large number of European destinations via a fair few different carriers (BMI Baby, British Airways, KLM, and SAS to name but a few). There’s also a new carrier coming soon, called German Wings, which will offer flights to Cologne, Germany, from BHX.

This time we used SAS to fly to Oslo Gardermoen, the only downside being that we had to fly via Copenhagen as direct flights from Birmingham only go to Oslo Torp (which is quite a bit further from Oslo than Gardermoen!). On the way out the check-in was quick and painless, leaving us with ample time to kill in the passenger lounge (with WiFi access!) and spend a bit of holiday money on some fresh cookie’s from Millie’s. Yum yum.

On the return leg to Brum, my girlfriend and I managed to get off the plan, through immigrations, collect our baggage, catch the mini-tram over to the train station, and get back to Birmingham New Street all within just a little over an hour. Granted not all our travels through the airport have been that efficient (the immigration hall can be a bit of a bottleneck as it’s undergoing a fair bit of renovation which is due for completion in Spring 2006), but on the whole it’s so much easier than having to travel down to the London area to get those low-fare getaway deals.