Direct European Flights from N.Ireland, who?

[mysecretsmile]

In light of many rumours and recent press coverage (most recent in todays Business Telegraph see link)

Who do you believe will have first crack at launching direct international flights from N.Ireland with the aid of the governments start up subsidies ?

Easyjet have been talking about new direct services from BFS for some time but to date its been all talk. BMI have been rumoured to be keen to start Brussels and Paris (CDG) from BHD.

However I am led to believe another possible operator for new European Routes may be Jetmagic from BHD - they certainly have the right type of aircraft for the job and have enjoyed good success with their direct European routes out of ORK

Can anyone shed any light on what way they think this will pan out ? Is BHD the more obvious choice to BFS if they are to be viable routes for business pax ?
Business telegraph today (http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/business_telegraph/story.jsp?story=434836)

[eastern wiseguy]

Bmi already tried a Paris connection from BFS after Air France left the route.I believe the reason for the failure of Air France was the frankly terrible timings and British Midland weren't much better.Maybe the ideal situation would be for Baby to take on the continental routes from BFS(using the low fares model) and leave mainline to continue its' operation from BHD.The one thing I agree on wholeheartedly is that we need continental connections.I was always amused at Belfasts bid for the european city of culture ...yet it remained ISOLATED from Europe(except from Amsterdam!) Like calling Lisburn a city..ever hear of a city with NO hotels??:confused:

[Smokie]

The only requirement to become a city is that, in a nut shell, the town must have a cathedral.

[eastern wiseguy]

And Lisburn cathedral is where precisely!???:E

[no, no, no]

if you could also point out to me where the cathedral in Nottingham is - after all Nottingham has been a city for many years now......

The problem with Belfast is that is it isn't as popular as other destinations to sell in-bound traffic unlike Edinburgh etc. This would make any new routes that bit harder to make work.