A 65 minute ride to/from the airport is not that bad considering you’re only doing it a few times each year and Birmingham has a relatively large number of flights. I’ve seen a number of schools advertise how close they are to the nearest airport, yet that airport only has 2-4 flights per day on small regional aircraft. Airfare skyrockets during breaks when a couple thousand students plus locals want one of ~200 seats each day. Birmingham has enough flights where that’s not so much of an issue provided one is somewhat flexible on their departure time. For example, if the 2:00 PM departure is too expensive, maybe the 3:15 PM departure will be affordable or you could leave at 2:30 PM and connect in a different city.