Originally Posted by
EI-BUD
Hi WHBM In the better times Aer Arann used to get good support on an ATR72. The banking and financial crisis which was particularly acute in the Republic of Ireland hit the BHD ORK route hard.
I'm surprised at finance having been significant to the route; the experience at London City was long that, while Edinburgh in particular, and later Glasgow, were good destinations driven by the banking world, Belfast was a basketcase with a succession of failures. The original pre-purple Flybe (might have still been British European) had a shot, initially with a 146, dropped down to the small Dash 8-300, then given up. Scot Airways later had a go with the even smaller Dornier 328, that didn't last either. I went in all of these and load factors over 50% were unusual. BA CityFlyer finally came along with a stronger offering, their frequent flyer base, corporate accounts at least from the London end, and I suspect some diversion from BA Heathrow flights, which finally seems to have cracked it. In the ROI Dublin always appears the centre of the finance industry, so Belfast to Cork does seem off the finance track.