panpanpanpan, redED and BFS101 - spot on with your responses.
EGAC ramper - I guess we'll have to wait and see. I believe WW was quoted in saying he was looking forward to BA returning to NI/Belfast, which wouldnt match the plan for Aer Lingus to operate exclusively. I dont know if Aer Lingus have any spare aircraft floating around to operate all the services, but unless some deal was done with slots and 1 or 2 extra airframes turned up then they could lose some of the market they, and BMI currently handle. Its also worth noting that BA are already selling seats for the winter schedule to Belfast City.
Ultimately we'll just wait and see. I would have thought that with slot usage being a big factor the obvious answer would be to let Aer Lingus work away as normal, and BA could reduce the number of daily services inherited from BMI, utilising the A320/321 more often to keep the figures up..but just my thought.
EI-BUD - i see a lot of sense in what you're saying. I'm just not sold on it, as the snippets im getting from crew in Heathrow seems to contradict what Aldergrove are saying..
Its all very strange, various meetings that have been taking place, and also Aer Lingus still working on their winter schedules.
I'll finish that i agree with what BFS101 said, both airports should play on their strengths. The City airport wasnt really designed to deal with the low-cost and charter airlines market for many reasons. It should focus on attracting new regional airlines for the UK and nearby European cities, like KLM to Amsterdam. It would benefit from the connectivity as well as having another airline alliance in Belfast. I also think that if BA and Aer Lingus consolidated their services and moved all flights to Aldergrove, the City would benefit from the likes of a BA CityFlyer service. Smaller airlines like Flybe and Manx2 will always be able to offer flights and connecting flights to regional places that the likes of Easyjet and others cant, the city airport should be content with that.