BELFAST (BHD) - 3

[stakeknife]

Believe 1st 319 by mid Nov, by April 2010 6 319's will be at BFS.

[ALLMCC]

Could the number of based units at BFS be reduced if more routes switch to BHD?

[tigger2k8]

Could the number of based units at BFS be reduced if more routes switch to BHD?

i doubt we will see any more domestics go to BHD, the competition is too much at BHD and in all honestly Ryanair would probably destroy EZY if it started any routes that they provide.. EZY should be providing a bus service for a week after the last LTN flight leaves BFS, due to the fact people might have their car in BFS but will arrive back to BHD... im just waiting for people to arrive at BFS thinking their flight departs from there.

I honestly wouldnt be surprised if we see a BFS-LTN rotation back for summer, as they are losing out on approximately 100,000 pax by only having 2 flights a day from BHD which at the cheapest seat price works out at around £2.1m lost income

but if more routes would move to the city and no new routes or more rotations are added at BFS then yes, the fleet would be reduced in size... but the odds of that are very very slim... once the construction work is finished at BFS and the airport is finally brought out of the year 1970 and into 2010, expect to see new routes and possibly new airlines as theres still a market for canada that hasnt been filled since Zoom/XL folded and air transat ceased routes from BFS

[True Blue]

I think Ezy and all the other airlines should transfer to Bhd, after all plenty of space and no restrictions of any sort!! I mean, compare the ease of operating from Bhd with the heavily restricted Bfs which is so far from most civilisation that it is closer for most to travel to Dublin, especially those in north down. What is keeping them all from transferring?

The transfer by Ezy of Ltn to Bhd gives Bfs a great opportunity to get another operator, like Jet2 in there to start and reduce their dependance on Ezy.

Await incoming.

True Blue

[belfastmark]

Does anyone else rekon perhaps the next route to be moved by easyjet to bhd would be Paris, it makes sense when you think about it, flying a route like Paris to the more central Belfast airport?

On another note, why are Jet2 not exploiting an untouched market in Belfast. Belfast to Turkey, is it just me or does anyone else not think they would make a killing on Turkey flights? I know there are charter flights but they are very expensive and alot of people own homes out there so don't want to book a holiday just flightS?

[True Blue]

Turkey could be great move for Jet2 or Ei. We own a home out there, lots of people do. To get a decent price, we fly via mainland about 4-5 times a year.Next July we are doing Bfs - Lhr - Adb - Lgw - Bfs. Works out about £400+ cheaper than flying direct.

True Blue

[ALLMCC]

Fair comment Tigger but I can't see Easy being content with operating just one route from BHD. It's significant that the first route they announced was one that hadn't been served for some years since the British Regional days. Looking at BHD's current domestic network, there aren't many destinations worth covering that aren't already. If they shift any other routes to BHD, then they will be in direct competition with either Flybe or Ryanair. In Flybe's case, it might be the wake up call they need as I suspect their persistently poor on time performance has lost them custom. It would probably only work with Easy basing at least one aircraft.

As far as the improvements at BFS are concerned, they are long overdue and will improve things considerably. However, what is needed is a new terminal but, sadly, this will not be happening until at the earliest 2015 according to the master plan.

[EI-BUD]

There is a flight on the departures board at BFS tomorrow morning departing at 0800 to East Midlands. WW9471. When is this plane coming in?
There doesnt seem to be a corresponding arrival in the morning.

Any info?
And the flight number is out of sequence with the normal BFS EMA schedule so perhaps a charter?

EI-BUD

[super737]

ALLMCC, Could you please produce figures to show the shoddy time keeping of flybe as of recently? The amount of extensions for the past couple of months has been quite low and alot of the time the flybe based units are well in before 2130.

[Straightahead]

EI BUD
This aircraft arrived into BFS on Friday evening from MAN, went tech and is awaiting a part and will posn out to EMA on Sunday.

[Husky One]

LTN -BHD will only survive if the aircraft nightstops in BHD or they use a BFS unit. This isn't on the cards anytime soon. The route can't return to BFS in its current form because there will be no airframe available to cover it and the summer schedule is pretty much finished. If they do manage to keep it going despite the awful timings the earliest opportunity to mend the problem will be winter 10.
The first easy airbus arrives 1st week dec. There will be 5 until may then a 6th which should stay until october 10. They will all be 319's - a great pity and putting paid to any suggestion of new pastures being explored. Easy is chasing yield in Italy and France..we'd better hope they get bored with that by next winter.

[TSR2]

TOM1723 now due 22.15. Departure from BFS delayed until 15.00.

[Cloud1]

TrueBlue - what a stupid thing to say. How on earth would it be easier for passengers to use BHD if EasyJet and 'every airline' transferred their services from BFS. The airport terminal is not big enough, nor are the parking facilties or any of the other passenger facilities for that matter. Be a bit more realistic please.........BHD need more direct city to city route as you say to Paris or Amsterdam but not everything!!

[NWSRG]

Cloud1...

Could it be that TrueBlue had his tongue firmly in cheek?

[True Blue]

Cloud1, if you had been reading the recent posts on this thread you might have recognised why I posted what I did. Bhd has various rules to abide with, or at least they are supposed to. They have a cap on movements and pax nos, I believe that I am right in saying that. So this question, why do all these people come on here asking what other routes Ezy will or might consider transferring to Bhd? Is is beyond the capability of those who post on here to reconnise that Ezy could not transfer many routes to Bhd even if they wanted to? So why all this wondering about further routes from Ezy or indeed for that matter Fr? None of this will happen without major changes in the rules that Bhd have to operate under, even then there isn't the room for all this ask for expansion. Bhd in severely limited for space on all sides, a fact and it will never be able to expand in the way that some would like for that reason alone. Yet all I ever read on here is posters looking for Bhd to become a major international airport. The airport policy in NI is a mess, split services on routes that means there is not a good service for anyone. I have ask before on the Ldy thread, but nobody answered my question, name me ONE other country in the world, with a population of 1.6m, where they have three airports all competeing and wanting to be international airports? And in what way does the transfer of the Ltn route to Bhd benefit the NI travelling public, now we have 2 flights a day, down from 4?

True Blue

[EI-BUD]

Hi True Blue, you make some very valid points in your last post, however, I think it is fair to say that alot changes in this industry all the time and I think if the City airport did a deal with Easyjet the question by Easyjet would have been asked; i.e. if they want expansion would it be possible?

I would be surprised if no major changes happen at the city airport in terms of either Ryanair or Bmi. Is it sustainable for Ryanair to continue to operate a 189 seats and be restricted to filling 169/149 seats (outbound/inbound) per flight?

Will bmi as we know it now stay as it is? There is bound to be some changes in the coming year. As a result i think that it is fair to speculate as to what Easyjet's future path at BHD could be. In addition, could Easyjet serve eg Barcelona, Alicante with 319 comfortably from BHD runway??? If so this may be the tool to support the no to the extention campaign and in the same way restrict Ryanair's ability to do more there.

So should Ryanair or Bmi's services change at BHD in the next seasons Easyjet certainly could add additional routes.

I have no vested interested in BHD, I like the airport, but I fly from BFS frequently and no as often from BHD.

Does anyone know what are the specific restrictions at BHD as regards the ceiling on annual movements or passenger numbers? Is it a restriction on both or one or the other. If it is movements surely the thing to do would be to incentivise large aircraft?


EI-BUD

[EI-BUD]

Bfs & Bhd Movements

Taking a typical Monday in November the split in scheduled departures from Belfast BHD and Belfast BFS is as follows

Belfast BFS-53
Easyjet-35
Aer Lingus-5
Manx2-3
Jet2-2
Continental-1
Bmibaby-7

Belfast BHD-55
Flybe-32
Bmi-7
Ryanair-13
Manx2-3

In terms of movements the City airport is getting more of the share than usual, and when the LTN service moves over in 2010 that will be another 2.
Thought readers might be interested in this info.

CAA stats might reflect a tougher time for BFS this winter than BHD given that ;
Ryanair increase EMA to x3 daily
Ryanair increase LPL to x3 daily
Bristol operated from BHD this winter whereas it didnt last year
Aer Lingus have cut back by 1 aircraft over last winter
however, bmi have reduced the LHR BHD route by 1 daily.
(goes without saying that BFS will have on average larger aircraft)

EI-BUD

[tigger2k8]

the delayed Malaga flight was supposed to go out on the First choice coloured aircraft... the same 1 that went tech for 3-4 days during summer on stand 21... a thomsonfly 737 was brought in to take the passengers out

EZY has no intentions of moving any more routes to BHD, especially non-domestic... the wording of their press release was a verbal warning to the management at BFS thats all

[True Blue]

"EZY has no intentions of moving any more routes to BHD, especially non-domestic... the wording of their press release was a verbal warning to the management at BFS thats all "

so could they move Ltn back to bfs after making their point?

True Blue

[tigger2k8]

so could they move Ltn back to bfs after making their point?

theres every possibility that BFS-LTN will reappear after winter... EZY themselves cant confirm if LTN is out of BFS forever, so its obviously an option, it all depends if EZY's relationship has improved with Abertis... however if the route does well at BHD then we could very easily see flights to BHD and BFS.. 2 LTN flights during the summer wont be sufficient, and theres no plans to add any more rotations at BHD... you cant compare if a route is better at BHD by reducing the flights to 2 a day and changing the times..

from summer 2010 things will get interesting at BFS... more construction should be announced once the shopping area is finished, as theres an awful lot of work to get done by 2015, take your pick though, as its anyone guess as to what they will start next