Birmingham International has the highest proportion of business traffic in the UK outside of London Heathrow. More than 50 airlines operate scheduled and charter services from its two terminals to more than 100 destinations in Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent. There are direct North American flights between Birmingham and Boston, Newark and Toronto. Birmingham Airport is situated 5.5 miles (10.2 km; 6.3 mi) east southeast of Birmingham City centre, in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull. It is bordered by the National Exhibition Centre to the east, Marston Green to the north, Sheldon to the west, and the village of Bickenhill to the south.

It is primarily served by the A45 main road, and is close to Junction Six of the M42 motorway. It is connected by the elevated AirRail Link with Birmingham International railway station on the West Coast Main Line.

The airport's only operational runway is north-west - south-east orientated, so depending on wind direction, aircraft land or take off directly over Birmingham. Other leading European airports, such as those at Madrid, Frankfurt and Paris, are located north or south of their cities, to minimise the overflying problem.

As the airport is located within the Borough of Solihull  , all planning applications are reviewed by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council which is run separately from Birmingham City Council. Due to this, Birmingham has little or no control over planning permission for Birmingham Airport's expansion plans  .

The airport has published a master plan for its development up to 2030, called "Towards 2030: Planning a Sustainable Future for Air Transport in the Midlands".  This sets out details of changes to the terminals, airfield layout and off-site infrastructure. As with all large scale plans, the proposals are controversial, with opposition from environmentalists and local residents. In particular the requirement for a second parallel runway based on projected demand was disputed by opponents.

It was announced in September 2007 that plans for a second runway had been scrapped but plans to build another terminal and increase runway capacity would go ahead with works expected to finish in 2012. It was estimated that 15 million passengers will use the airport upon completion.

A new railway station is to be built to serve the airport called Birmingham Interchange. This will be on the High Speed Two railway line. The station would be built on the far side of the M42 motorway and connect to the airport using a "rapid transit people mover". High Speed Two is expected to be completed in 2026.

Currently Birmingham international Airport is extremely accessible and further information on getting to and from the airport can be seen here.