New Easy routes from BFS ?

[Buc Driver]

I was listening to Radio Ulster today at lunchtime, when the presenter announced that Easyjet had just announced new routes to Paris CDG and to Nice. Has anybody any more info.

[babydoc]

Announcement Tue morning

CDG, NCE, ALC, and AGP

[Tom the Tenor]

RTE 1 Radio had a short report a few minutes ago about Easyjet announcing flights to Alicante, Malaga, Nice and Paris from Belfast. Quite a coup for Belfast. Well done to Belfast and Easyjet.

[GW76]

When is Glasgow going to be connected with the rest of the network?, in particular I cannot believe we have no direct routing to Paris. Come on Easy get your finger out. The "Terminal 2" is for you.:(

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Where's ALLMC when you want him?

Cheers

WWW

[Kestrel_909]

Excellent news! More routes to Europe that we can add to our current three?

So that's a romantic weekend in Paris, a week in Nice, some sun in Alicante and a night on the town in Malaga!

Any more details, ie when do they start, times, frequency, a/c?

[MEFLYBE]

Something like this as of June:

ALC EZY 6705 13457 DEP BFS 0600

AGP EZY 6757 23567 DEP BFS 1745

NCE EZY 6737 26 DEP BFS 0650
NCE EZY 6741 14 DEP BFS 1725

CDG EZY 6721 DAILY DEP BFS 1300

Regards

Mike

[Deeko01]

Hi,

Good for Belfast about time as well, for way too long they have been well and truly shafted, all they need now is to get transatlantic back maybe if Aer Lingus dont come back Continental will look at it because there is a market for it.

GW76

wrt Glasgow services who needs Easyjet??? they had there chance to set up these routes but complained it was too expensive for them, Flyglobespan and Air Scotland are here we should put our backing behind them and help make them both a success, not to mention Ryanair down the road doing a good selection of European destinations l really dont feel that we need Easyjet.

Funny though Glasgow was Easyjet's flagship route yet they very quickly forgot about us.

Hoo-Hum

Dee

[LTNman]

easyJet, Europe's leading low cost airline, today announces the introduction of four new routes from Belfast International Airport direct to some of Europe's most popular destinations; Alicante, Malaga, Nice and Paris.

These new routes are a direct result of the Air Route Development Scheme, the Northern Ireland Authorities initiative to improve the provision of air services in the province.

In addition, easyJet is also increasing the three daily services between Gatwick and Belfast to four and, due to high demand, a second daily service between Gatwick and Prague. Both these increased frequencies commence on 27 May.

This major expansion from easyJet's Northern Ireland base will increase the number of routes offered by around 50%, with a total of 13 destinations now available.

easyJet is not only Northern Ireland's largest airline, but the only scheduled airline in the province to offer of a choice of direct European services.

Seats are now on sale here at easyJet.com.

Ray Webster, easyJet Chief Executive commented

"We are delighted that the Government has shown such proactive support to the airline industry. The introduction of this initiative means that consumers in Northern Ireland now have more opportunities to travel throughout Europe at easyjet's fantastic low fares, and there will be great benefits to the local economy as increasing numbers of Europeans travel to Belfast as a destination."

"Our success at Gatwick Airport over the last couple of years has been phenomenal and we will continue our policy of introducing new routes and additional frequencies whenever an opportunity arises."

Belfast - Alicante
Commences 25 June. Fares from 27.99 GBP one way (50.98 GBP return inc taxes)

Belfast - Paris (Charles De Gaule)
Commences 25 June. Fares from 17.99 GBP one way (33.71 GBP return inc taxes)

Belfast - Nice
Commences 26 June. Fares from 27.99 GBP one way (53.71 GBP return inc taxes)

Belfast - Malaga
Commences 25 June. Fares from 27.99 GBP one way (50.98 GBP return inc taxes)

[ALLMCC]

WWW don't fret - I'm still watching - for the record though the only route which qualifies for the subsidy is Paris - the others are "bucket & spade" destinations which are all established charter routes and have been for years from BFS - could have serious implications for the charter market - also assume this finally puts paid to the long running FR rumours.

[Uncle Monty]

Wrong again ALLMCC

Both and NCE and CDG qualify for gov support

[hushkit77]

come on kids.... lets not even get into the usual punch up that starts when a thread is opened about BFS or BHD. We should all be extremely happy with the news as it will benefit everyone in N. Ireland. Who cares what is subsidised and blah blah blah. The routes are in place now so lets just sit back and watch them go!! Good luck.

[Chillwinston]

hushkit - "Who cares what is subsidised and blah blah blah."

I think with the recent goings on with RyanAir, most people are concerned about subsidies.

Lets have a level playing field for ALL operators!

Good to see ALLMCC has taken time out from his cave and posting

[Scottie]

I wouldn't write off GLA/EDI to EU routes just yet.

Things maybe happening behind the scenes ;) :ok:

[nef]

Well, hopefully, particularly at GLA which I feel is pretty underserved.

If there was an EZY Paris link I think I'd spend every 2nd weekend there!:ok: (Paris, i mean;) )

[jbird11]

Happy Days

Fab news, good luck to BFS and Easyjet. It is about time ehh!!! its not only good news to the People of N-Ireland that they can now fly direct to these destinations but it will hopefully provide some extra positions for flight deck and cabin crew.:cool:

[dontdoit]

***Imminent disaster warning***

You can only incite 1.5 million people to travel a finite number of times, no matter how low your fares are. We are talking about a small catchment area here, on the extreme North Western fringe of the civilised world (despite what some of the posters on here think, the world does not revolve around the province of Ulster).

BFS-LGW will work but point-to-point into Europe has been tried before (from BFS) by cleverer operators than EZY and is doomed to failure.

[NWSRG]

Well thank you for enlightening us 'Dontdoit'. There was I thinking that the world did indeed revolve around our little province. I am now depressed. How could we not be the centre of the universe?

However, it does seem that we are becoming, if not the centre, then at least a significant portion of the Easyjet world!

And as for your 1.5 million argument...well if the RoI (that's Republic of Ireland, another little outpost to your west) and its 3.5 million inhabitants can justify the business that Dublin sees daily, I think we may just be able to sustain a few continental routes ourselves.

Good for Easy for giving it a go...and maybe we'll soon see a Continental 757 giving us a JFK service. (You may not know it 'Dontdoit', but until 9/11 Aer Lingus were able to successfully fly an MD-11 to JFK four times, yes four times, a week from our little corner of the world).

[WHBM]

The new Easyjet routes out of Belfast are an interesting late addition to the summer programme, being announced it seems after their other new operations.

Could this be a pre-emptive strike to stop Jet2 getting established here. Already the latter had announced a route to Prague and their aircraft roster seemed to allow for something more to be introduced based on Belfast. Easy are presumably making sure they keep hold of what must be one of their strongest cities on the network in terms of percentage of market share.

[Scottie]

Dontdoit,

You've a good point but I'm sure my employers will have done their sums. A good deal from TBI no doubt.

Remember they did their sums over EDI/GLA and found they could get a better deal at Newcastle so took their aircraft their instead.

Apart from Paris which is once a day the other destinations are not daily only 4 or 5 times a week so they're not saturating the route by any means.

They will be finding their feet on these routes and if successful may up the number of times they travel. A cautious approach and hopefully a successful one!

[tallseabird]

Good for you Easyjet and good luck. I am one of the lucky ones in the western outpost and I already take advantage of flights to the centre of the universe and will soon be able to fly directly to other universe outposts. There are still other outposts I would like to see on offer and as far as I know they are open to any operator.
I do have one concern, too many eggs in one basket, some already think that Easy are making BFS too dominant but the way things are going Easy have become the force to be reckoned with in NI terms not just BFS and that is strangling competition, I don't care which airport it comes from, Easy need a competitor of substance.

[ALLMCC]

tallseabird

For once I would actually agree with most of what you say - I have said similar things in the past about BFS admittedly sometimes less than tactfully - unfortunately the only serious competitor to Easyjet would have been Ryanair and it now looks as if that prospect is all but dead in the water - I know we are talking about BFS here but dare I say the situation at BHD is rapidly becoming similar albeit on a smaller scale - Flybe are really becoming much too dominant there with little or no competition apart from BMI and BACX. Even BACX are looking decidedly dodgy with MAN being their last remaining route out of N Ireland.

One wonders if both airport operators are content with these "all eggs in one basket" situations. At BFS in particular although passengers nos are increasing year on year, revenues continue to drop. Are they prepared for a worst case scenario if either Easyjet or Flybe ran into problems? (not unknown in this industry) - could they guarantee any other operator/s would step in to plug the gaps?

[Powerjet1]

Really just like easy at Luton isn't it. More than two out of three eggs coming out of the same basket.

[ALLMCC]

Guess it must be a TBI thing!

[In trim]

Whilst I agree with the "all eggs in one basket" sentiment, the only comment I would make is that eJ have always tended to demonstrate the business model that they will tend to add frequency rather than monopolise a route and then 'milk it' with higher yields.

In terms of the consumer this has got to be an advantage when compared with some others who would corner the market and then simply increase prices/yields.

[babydoc]

Let's just accept this for what it is - GOOD NEWS

Whether it's one carrier or several providing these new routes is irrelevant. The eggs in one basket issue might be a concern if ej were not in good nick but as the last figures show it is highly profitable.

It's a great brand and a good product. It is providing daily services to two of Europe's big capital city airports - AMS and CDG - from Northern Ireland. And there's probably more to come.

FR would not add anything to the Belfast mkt that ezy doesn't provide already or likely to provide in the near future.

With regard to BFS's profitability - the money making dynamic of the airport has changed to reflect the demands of the airlines using the facility.

It has reached a new base now from where it can build profits into the business once more. It will do this by putting more passengers through the airport's growing range of shops and by having more cars in the car parks. These new routes and the others that will follow will do just that.

ALLMCC - BFS isn't the only one to have to adapt to the changing low cost dominated environment. What makes you think FlyBE and BMI haven't struck similar low cost deals at BHD.

BHD faces a big challenge to make a profitable return for its new owners.

Even when it was able to charge silly fees to airlines, BHD only ever posted small profits of around £1.5 million a year. We haven't seen any figures for a few years now.

[Tom the Tenor]

What if Belfast and Cork got together and somehow coaxed Continental to do joint flight to Newark? With the huge resource of CO's hub at Newark to North, Central and South America you would easily fill a 757 three of four times a week. No bother at all!