Birmingham International Airport - Location

Jay Shah Page Unit 1 – 1D

There are a lot factors that need to be taken into consideration where you are choosing an appropriate location for a business, and BIA is no exception.

Competitors: Don't go and pick somewhere where you competitors are based, because the chances are they are already established and they will just beat you into the ground. Its like if you got a choice, race a cheetah or a snail, you'd be picky the cheetah, not impossible to beat, but required a lot of work, which is what would be needed for anyone who opens up a business next to a rival;

BIA must be made accessible to everyone who wants to use it. I am not just talking about (potential) customers; you also have to note there must be easy access from BIA to their local suppliers. As long as the there are sufficient links to get to and from the airport, and generally any time of day, for example BIA’s current location, anywhere that fits this description and the ones below are okay.

Surrounding population. BIA will generally by targeting the population around the airport for the most potential customers, so if there aren’t any or there are very little, this is a bad start.

Cost of buildings / work. If the building is already built, BIA won’t pay over the odds for it, and the cost of the building are usually affected by the cost of land, if that is too high, then this is not suitable place. The reason any business won’t really want to pay too much is because money doesn’t grow on trees, and start-up capital is always limited.

Labours ...

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Surrounding population. BIA will generally by targeting the population around the airport for the most potential customers, so if there aren’t any or there are very little, this is a bad start.

Labours and skills – The amount that they will pay to get skilled workers in will reflect on how well the business does, and generally, where or not they would want to locate there.

BIA would have definitely had to assess all of these factors to make sure that the location they chose was definitely the best one available to them at the time. They will also have to consider the interest rates and other external influences in their business location which I will discuss later.

(This map and the Carphone Warehouse map are courtesy of Google Maps [maps.google.co.uk])

BIA is in the middle of England, East of London, approximately eight miles from the cit centre. This type of location is excellent for BIA because it makes it easier for their customers to travel to and from their airports, because they are adjacent to a motorway, so anyone can drive to and from there. Being quite close with such a dense population can only be a good thing for BIA because this means that they will have more customers that they can attract from nearby, and as I have said previously, word of mouth is excellent advertising for BIA, because you beat a friend telling a friend how good their experience with BIA was. This would be an excellent starting point for BIA’s advertising campaigns to get them off the ground. In addition to the motorway links that run to and from the airport, there is also the factor that there is a free Air-Rail link that BIA offer you to get from Destination A to Destination B, in around a minute and a half. BIA has also made there are no other rival airports nearby, that may essentially steal BIA’s customers, which there aren’t, so they are ok with this factor. Also, they have the advantage of offering more convenient flights so customers no longer have to travel far out to Gatwick or Heathrow, they can now use their ‘local’ airport. BIA is also more suited for the location that they have chosen because of the fact that they may be less restricted through external influences and environmental constraints.

Because of the services and facilities that are provided by BIA, the location is a major issue. Airports like there release tons of unwanted pollution into the atmosphere, such as the pollution from the aircrafts. Because f this BIA will need to maintain the environment, otherwise they may destroy it without noticing. They must make sure they do not place themselves somewhere in an area where they may affect local forests or animals dramatically, in a sense that they will not make them extinct from that local area. Everything that BIA produces, for example waste, cannot just be dumped anywhere as there are restrictions covering this. BIA will always research new ways to reduce that amount of pollution that they are creating, but as this in evitable, there is not a lot they can really do.

BIA would not want to affect the day-to-day running of the local resides lives’, so therefore they have measures in place that they protect them, namely by introducing a sound insulation schemes that will protect the local residents. All airports have the same disadvantages where they have problems will the waste and pollution they create and what to do with it.

From what I have researched above, I have learned that the factors of Location have much more than meets they eye, and as a result of this, a lot of time and effort has to be put into the location, and if this was to be chosen incorrectly, the whole business could suffer, mainly financially if nothing else. BIA has responsibilities for economic conditions and environmental constraints, which they must pertain to.

Peer Reviews

Here's what a star student thought of this essay

danielbeal

2nd of Apr 2012

Quality of writing

The report contains an image of a map of the area, with a red box to point where BIA is, in terms of location. This is good, as this would allow the examiner to visualize the report with ease. Towards the bottom of the report, there's a number of small spelling/grammar errors which should be corrected.

Level of analysis

The student has stated that the location of the business needs good accessibly. However there haven't explained why this is necessary. The report could include 'Suppliers will need to access the business with relative ease, as transport companies aren't going to deliver the products to the business for a reasonable cost. It's essential that any business has good transport links, to ensure products from suppliers arrive at the business with ease'. I believe that the section 'Labours and skills' is lacking detail. The student states that wages may increase, if the business is successful. This is true, however one major factor is the location of the business and I believe the student has lost focused on the title of the report. Due to the cost of living the wages of employees will vary. Within London the wages will be high, as the cost of living for their employees are high. Whereas the cost of living within York is less expensive, and employees should expect a lower wage due to the cost of living is smaller.

Response to question

In summary, the report is quite good. All three parts of this task are well detailed and the student if altered a few things would acquire high marks. However the report does lack a little understanding in some areas, and there's a number of spelling/grammar errors which just need correcting. The report states that any business would need to ensure that their competitors are a far distance away from the prosed business. Otherwise, this may cause the business to struggle in the near future. This is a good view point from the student, as there recognise the potential issue. The student states that the population around the business is an important factor, as the population will be a number of their potential customers. However it might be good if the student were to input the number of people living within the area. This would allow the exmainer to understand how small/large the area is. In addition, the student could explain how the business is effected within a hugely populated area or a small area and how this impacts upon the business.

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