Ali Gayward said: “Moving to Belfast City Airport was always a trial, but in over a year we have seen no tangible benefits.
Copied this from the BFS thread. It would be nice, but totally unrealistic I suppose, to think they had actually considered whether or not the passengers had seen any tangible benefits. But I digress.
I always assumed the issue for easyJet was not specifically the provision of a route from BHD to Luton, but an attempt to grab more of the NI to London low cost market.
At the time Ryanair's Stansted flights were carrying respectable loads and presumably drawing some passengers away from EZY's BFS to STN flights.
EZY must have had reason to believe passenger numbers to Luton would not be affected by the move and also felt they could grab some passengers from Ryanair by offering a lo-co London alternative from BHD.
Ryanair has now gone and bmibaby has moved down to BHD. The Baby service to Stansted will attract passengers who since Ryanair's departure have flown to Luton, mainly because you can board the train to central London in Stansted Airport. At Luton you have to get a bus to Luton Parkway Station.
EZY has decided to withdraw from BHD and consolidate its position at BFS by offering routes vacated by the baby move, as well as the only service from either Belfast airport to Luton.
It was suggested at one stage EZY was thinking about offering AMS from BHD but if the rumours about KLM are true, this is a non starter giving them even more reason to pack their bags and head back along the M3 and M2 to the shores of Lough Neagh.