Birmingham Airport commissioned North Star to review the mode share performance of rail services for airport access and consider whether factors such as marketing and awareness are actually more important than speed, reliability and cost.This is in light of the conclusions of North Star’s annual Global Air-Rail Market Share report, which has shown that a tactical level, marketing and awareness (or lack of) can cause significant shifts in rail market share. Birmingham Airport commissioned this report as a bespoke study of rail access performance to the airport.
Birmingham Airport has a rail market share of 23%. This is a transformation from 9.1% in 2005. It was found that whilst the rail share has risen to 23% there are a number of opportunities to increase this through marketing and communication of the rail benefits to air passengers and potential users of the rail service.
John Morris, Public Affairs Director of Birmingham Airport said: “North Star’s work demonstrates what we have achieved, but also provides further insight into where we need to look next to further improve the rail mode share. We are pleased with the findings and they provide a stimulus to our cooperation with airlines and rail companies alike”