At what point did my post become tribal as opposed to logic based assessment?
It is a great failing of this country to use tribal defensive arguments to sustain things that are not logical or sensible for its own future. That is why Dublin has been able to laugh at us squabbling while they become the now uncatchable major hub for the geographical entity upon which we live.
The BFS/BHD argument may be repetitive and usually pointless now but I stand by what I said, If you were to sit down as a government and plan an effective air travel strategy for the province, based on currently available resources it would not put the one international airport the country needs on the side of Belfast Lough with a short runway incapable of launching services to long haul destinations and flying restrictions due its city location. You wouldn't have LDY either if you want to be brutally honest because we don't have a market for more than one airport.
Of course that view wouldn't suit the people who work at BHD/LDY and many Stormont folk but the way we are going is only sending business 2 hrs down the road to a foreign country's (again technically correct if not to everyone's view) shiny new airport. This gives BFS (as NI's only realistic choice for an international airport as things stand) no chance to garner the business needed to reinvest in it's renovation and repair in order that some of the approachable emerging airlines might be impressed enough to start/increase services.
You should have also noticed that my post says that because their are two airports for Belfast (and because noone in government is brave enough to have the above discussion or create said strategy) that there is no alternative to the current balls of a situation where the two fight over the same carriers and fail to create the capital needed for future growth.
There is nothing tribal about me or my post, how about some creative response. Maybe you see some great scheme whereby BFS/BHD can reach a point where they both offer a great routemap and are happily making money and Dublin's control over our aviation industry slackens off.
Great post, very logical and not tribal at all
Having done the "2hrs down the road" thing I wouldn't be in a hurry to do it again, after a long return journey it's horrid knowing you have a 2 hr drive home. Never say never but Dublin would have to be *much* cheaper for me to consider flying out of - that's for practical/logical, not tribal reasons
. That said however I'd imagine there is still a sizeable populus here who would never use it for tribal reasons
I told a friend from New Zealand who was staying with us last week that we, a land of about 1.6m, have 3 aspiring international airports. He laughed at me and wondered what sort of idiots we were. Sadly, he saw Dublin as our main international airport.
Oh dear. Definitely not for me, I'd happily pay a bit more to fly from my local airport. Shame all our airports are fighting each other instead of mounting a half decent challenge to Dublin - combine them and we would have an airport the size of GLA (look at the routes they have despite even nearer competition from EDI).
All that said, it's been great to see some great new routes recently announced from BFS, I wish them success and hope they stick around!