BHX (Birmingham uk) night flying rules

Could someone please settle a (non-cash) bet?

I was travelling back from Frankfurt last week on the Lufthansa flight,
due to arrive at 22.45. Due to thunderstorms at FRA we were delayed an
hour.

The debate I am having with my friend is whether our plane would have
been allowed to land after midnight. I know that BHX has a quota of
night flights of 4000pa between midnight and 6am. My friend has
converted this into a maximum of 10 flights per night and said that is
the limit each day.

Do planes ever get turned away to other airports because the night
flying quota has been reached? Seems unlikely to me.

Thanks

Tim

Lansbury wrote:
> On 9 May 2005 06:58:19 -0700, "Tim Holden" <timpholden.uk>
wrote:
>
> >Do planes ever get turned away to other airports because the night
> >flying quota has been reached? Seems unlikely to me.
>
> The answer is yes. If they can not arrive before the airport closes
for the
> night, then the flight would not necessarily be cleared to take off.
>

But in the case of BHX it doesn't close for the night? The schedule
certainly shows a smattering of flights throughout the night. From a
quick scan there are 11 flights between midnight and 0600 on a Monday
night for example. I can understand that certain airports would shut
up shop and turn late aircraft away but would BHX ever do this?

Tim

"Tim Holden" <timpholden.uk> wrote in message
news:1115682875.163634.115540@o13g2000cwo. o...

> I can understand that certain airports would shut
> up shop and turn late aircraft away but would BHX ever do this?

I went to meet a TompsonFly flight at Coventry one night.

The passengers had been bussed from Pisa to 'somewhere else' in Italy coz of
fog, then it was foggy at Coventry.

The guy I was collecting was told by the flight crew, that *if* it was foggy
at Coventry they would have to transfer to EMA, coz it was too late for BHX.
(or maybe TompsonFly don't have the correct 'arrangements' at BHX??)

--

J B