BELFAST CITY AIRPORT (BHD)

[dog in park]

Let's stop being Babys and stop the slagging.

[BHD2BFS]

We are a small country of around 1.5million and have 3 airports with almost 7 million pax a year there is no need to be negative

[Belboy]

Did I miss something? Where'd the original thread go?

[dog in park]

It went on a WW flight to AMS

[Midnight runner]

Ditp , i'm new here but dont understand all the snipeing at baby & the city for putting on new routes.
Whilst i do agree that a daily AMS is clearly not working at the moment , i imagine the reason the route planners allocated the route was in the hope of getting feeder traffic to/from the KL hub , albeit without the benefit of a codeshare/transit pax product.
I for one hope BHD continues to develop new routes & is allowed to expand as the market demands dictate , rather than have artificial obstacles to competition put in their way.

[bongoo]

At last, someone without an agenda speaks some sense..

[sealink]

What about having the amsterdam every other day and fit in a couple of JER flights during the week ? How about reinstating the ORK flight.. . might be a market there?

[Midnight runner]

I think perhaps 3 a week would be max for AMS but there would be plenty of options for alternative routes given journey/turnaround times. Baby don't seem to do themselves any favours on the advertising front either , with distinct lack of radio/tv adverts.

[mart901]

WW are offering BHD-AMS for £16.99 each way with 22kg of free luggage, they have done this offer on BHX-AMS also. That just needs some decent marketing there is no reason it shouldn't work with offers like that.

[larry the man]

Lots of coverage in the Belfast papers today, some good, some less so. Couldn't be bothered saying more or posting a link in case someone takes offence at the comments and the thread is closed down again.

[elle may clampit]

LTM.
I agree. The articles covered in the BT yesterday are such alot of c*** and everyone knows it. I don't intend to go through the long list of inaccuracies in the articles but it is no less than we have come to expect. Being sensored for telling the truth is most frustrating.

[Midnight runner]

Care to elaborate ellie may?

[tigger2k8]

The article is on the homepage of the Belfast telegraph if anyone wants to read it. Basically Brian Ambrose claimed when FR pulled out BHD might have had to close its doors. Why has this came out now well over a year later and especially when they have done well to get routes sorted...

[mart901]

So that would surely raise the question what state was the airport in before ryanair arrived? They weren't there that long. Im sure it affected them badly when they left but their survival was not dependant.

[EI-BUD]

Why on earth would Brian Ambrose release these sort of comments, makes little sense to me from a confidence point of view. Maybe trying to get traction in the runway extention etc, attract publicity for same.

Mr. Ambrose must be realising if he wanted to get a sizeable share of the market to Europe he needs some serious catalyst like Ryanair.....

[Midnight runner]

Clearly the comments are to underline the hit taken when Ryanair pulled out , also trying to highlight the impact felt beyond the airport with fewer visitors to N.I seems like common sense to me that a runway extension that leads to more routes and a return of Ryanair could only be beneficial to the local economy. With more jobs being created both at the airport & beyond. There would be no increase in operating hours & no aircraft which are larger or indeed noisier than those which already operate or have operated out of BHD.

[BHD2BFS]

Personally I don't see why ryanair can't go to BFS, easy and ryanair fly from the same airport in other places why can't they do the same here, there is plenty of routes that they could launch without copying easyjet ie Germany, italy, Cyprus, Greece

[mart901]

Or Ryanair could only achieve what it did by below cost selling being up against Easyjet, on top of capacity restrictions could not make profit and left with a big bang blaming someone else as always but looking like a white knight in the process?? As said previously if they wanted to be in the Belfast market they would be there.

[elle may clampit]

Midnight
Some elaboration.
In 2010 when FR were at BHD for 10 months the airport made the lowest profit in it's history, so why would their departure had that much impact on the airports viability?
If the airport had closed, would there really have been 1500 jobs lost, the airport only employs 200-300 staff.
Did FR really bring in so many people that the wider NI economy was impacted by their departure despite the fact that all of the destinations they served were still available. were the people in STN really flocking to Belfast and have they stopped doing so because its now only available on baby and easy.
Submit the correct information to the planners don't blame them for not granting your permission before you do.

Well done on the German route!

[EI-BUD]

Ryanair could only achieve what it did by below cost selling being up against Easyjet, on top of capacity restrictions could not make profit and left with a big bang blaming someone else as always but looking like a white knight in the process??

Stansted flights, and with very respectable monthly loads were such good value, leads one to believe that FR were not making alot on this route. However, one really never knows the yield. The fact that 930 pm is the last flight in a night in effect makes each aircraft less efficient from cost/operating point of view and that needs to be factored into the overall profit equation to equate to BHD being a profitable destination for FR.

Second issue for FR at BFS is BE, FR made no impact on BE on GLA route and PIK was a complete disaster, some flights 15-20 passngers. When FR went on STN BE's figures on LGW continued to grow month on month! LPL achieved great loads, but BE has never made a success of that route.

Personally I don't see why ryanair can't go to BFS

Ryanair simply wont be going to BFS as that would sour the relationship with Easyjet plain and simple. They couldnt strike a deal that was attractive enough and besides all that if they did come to Belfast market, they would go after the same routes that Easyjet are on to sun destinations to make a 189 seat jet work on, lose money competing in the process as Easyjet so well established here.

seems like common sense to me that a runway extension that leads to more routes and a return of Ryanair could only be beneficial to the local economy

Runway extention alone wont see FR back, the other restrictions needs to be lifted and FR would want and need absolute flexibility across the board, without same their is an impact on cost. The subject of extending the runway has been debated to death on here, and the best reasoned argument on here is that NI needs an aviation policy and strategy that looks at what is best for NI as a whole.

If Ryanair are so confident that they can attract lots of extra passengers to the place, why dont they increase operations at Eglinton??? The days of FR £1 seats are gone, NI opportunity is for inbound passengers and to my mind marketing the Northwest as a tourist attraction and leading up to the north coast is as sellable as Belfast, so given that FR dont see that I dont believe the opportunity ex BHD for FR is as big as this thread would suggest. Any increase at BHD will in the main in my view simply be carving up the limited market the currently exists.

EI-BUD