BELFAST (BHD) - 3
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Co. Antrim UK
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RYR 613 Stansted 22.00
Where was this supposed to go to. As it was on the arrivals board (BFS) last night-or was it an error on the board as the Liverpool flight at around the same time was EZY 613, so maybe it was the last EZY STN flight.
Where was this supposed to go to. As it was on the arrivals board (BFS) last night-or was it an error on the board as the Liverpool flight at around the same time was EZY 613, so maybe it was the last EZY STN flight.
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Aer lingus are aparently thinking of starting a scottish base, does this mean that belfast isnt doing as well as predicted, what are the loads ike because they certainly have plenty of destinations. i also thought they were going to start transatlantic flights from belfast this year aswell. oh and how were the loads on the cancun and puerto plata flights?
Join Date: Jul 2006
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The Belfast base is struggling with load factors and fares much lower than those at their Cork and Dublin bases. Long Haul from Belfast has been postponed until 2010 at the very earliest.
Join Date: Apr 2008
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i dont think they hav advertised their routes enough and as always i think that people are put off by the drive to aldergrove, i really think, sorry im certain that they need a rail link, the domestic loads would go up aswell because easyjet seem to have cheaper fares etc but again, the city is more convienient. although there are busses every 10 mins, i think that a rail link, twice as fast as a bus would attract more people. then again, what kind of international airport doesnt hav a rail link? 
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From what I have heard most continental routes/TA out of BFS are selling like hot cakes, with the weather I am not surprised. Also with sterling the way it is, folk from the republic are really coming up in the numbers for a deal. Also sterling against the dollar is increasing the numbers. Thats what I heard.
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Contrary to what has been said on here, Aer Lingus has advertised to death through all sorts of medium, Aldergrove is not ´too far` out, it has always been the most popular belfast airport. The reason some loads on some routes are low is because there is over capacity in the market. Heathrow is doing as well as bmi from the city airport in load terms . ie Aer Lingus are carrying half as many pax with half as many flights.
The base is doing as well as was anticipated, so much so that Jet2 will virtually disappear this winter (only to Leeds). London will continue to grow and the sun routes are doing really well. Amsterdam and Paris have been hard to get to where they want but they will stick with these until the numbers improve. As for a TA route that is on the cards but may be delayed due to current economic conditions. Management were looking at 09 in the normal course of things but we will have to wait and see.
A scottish base is a another positive development and I would say Glasgow will be the choice. Ryanair will not come to Glasgow but are in Edinburgh already, so at least at Glasgow they wont have Ryanair on the exact same routes if they launch services.
EI-BUD
The base is doing as well as was anticipated, so much so that Jet2 will virtually disappear this winter (only to Leeds). London will continue to grow and the sun routes are doing really well. Amsterdam and Paris have been hard to get to where they want but they will stick with these until the numbers improve. As for a TA route that is on the cards but may be delayed due to current economic conditions. Management were looking at 09 in the normal course of things but we will have to wait and see.
A scottish base is a another positive development and I would say Glasgow will be the choice. Ryanair will not come to Glasgow but are in Edinburgh already, so at least at Glasgow they wont have Ryanair on the exact same routes if they launch services.
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if BFS was 'too far out' , Easyjet wouldn't have stuck around for 10 years, steadily expanding its network and generally being a thorn in Flybe's side for several years.
I suspect the recent weather will see a sudden surge in bookings to all 'sunny' destinations but I'm not so sure about some of the above claims about EI. Up until recently the LHR loads were circa 50%. If you look at thier fares they are often half that of BMI and very often the cheapest rtn way to London in general. That smacks of firesale to me. Sure it's good for the travelling public in the short term but the yield on LHR must really be hurting with those figures. The AMS also looks dire.
I suspect the recent weather will see a sudden surge in bookings to all 'sunny' destinations but I'm not so sure about some of the above claims about EI. Up until recently the LHR loads were circa 50%. If you look at thier fares they are often half that of BMI and very often the cheapest rtn way to London in general. That smacks of firesale to me. Sure it's good for the travelling public in the short term but the yield on LHR must really be hurting with those figures. The AMS also looks dire.
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although there are busses every 10 mins, i think that a rail link, twice as fast as a bus would attract more people. then again, what kind of international airport doesnt hav a rail link?
I think the buses are fine, if only they were cheaper. I was going on a flight and thought of parking at Templepatrick and catching the bus (greener and all that nonsense, use public transport blah blah blah) as they are every 10-20mins and save a bit on parking, before enquiring I thought city centre to airport=£9.00 rtn, therefore Templepatrick to airport must be about £3.00, however it turns out its £7.40 rtn!!! (5miles there 5miles back). 36 miles = £9.00 / 10 miles = £7.40. Unfortunately the bus company is not trying to be green here and persuade people not to use their cars. If you lived in Templepatrick with a family of 4 your not making a saving by using the bus, despite being 5 miles from the airport.
Once the lanes are open on the widening of the M2 scheme, the journey time will come down greatly, also the bus drops you at various locations around the City centre which is handy.
I think the buses are fine, if only they were cheaper. I was going on a flight and thought of parking at Templepatrick and catching the bus (greener and all that nonsense, use public transport blah blah blah) as they are every 10-20mins and save a bit on parking, before enquiring I thought city centre to airport=£9.00 rtn, therefore Templepatrick to airport must be about £3.00, however it turns out its £7.40 rtn!!! (5miles there 5miles back). 36 miles = £9.00 / 10 miles = £7.40. Unfortunately the bus company is not trying to be green here and persuade people not to use their cars. If you lived in Templepatrick with a family of 4 your not making a saving by using the bus, despite being 5 miles from the airport.
Once the lanes are open on the widening of the M2 scheme, the journey time will come down greatly, also the bus drops you at various locations around the City centre which is handy.
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See the Caa stats for July 08 are out. To Lhr, Bd carried 44k pax, down from 54k last year and Ei carried a few under 30k. I think that is a LF of just over 70% for Ei if I am correct, wonder what the Lf for Bd was? On the face of it, it would seem that Ei had a higher Lf, but you would need to know the number of seats offered by Bd to be certain. I think a good performance by Ei considering they only started in January and having flown with them again to Lhr in July I think they are the best out of Belfast to London at the moment.
True Blue
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ok seems people seem to be disagreeing with me on the busses side of things lol. Thats still pretty expensive though. I notice that jet2 have pulled some of their winter routes, is this because of aer lingus. I also heard that the t/a routes were doing very well, i notice that zoom sell out nearly all the seats on their toronto flights and its hard to get a seat on the new york flight now. This is really good for the airport but whats the chances of continental flying a 764 in to belfast eh! 
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See the Caa stats for July 08 are out. To Lhr
Shannon/LHR last July 32220 BFS/LHR this July 29952 (not far to go)
BFS/LHR with EI now 14% of Belfast/London up 4% on last month or whenever that article was written about how badly EI were doing at their BFS base.
Shannon/LHR last July 32220 BFS/LHR this July 29952 (not far to go)
BFS/LHR with EI now 14% of Belfast/London up 4% on last month or whenever that article was written about how badly EI were doing at their BFS base.
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Spanair
It will be interesting to see if the Spanair MD80 operates the Saturday charter double-rotation through BFS tomorrow. I think it does PMI/Reus/PMI in a "W" pattern. I'm not aware of Spanair having grounded the type?
I'm sure a few unsuspecting passengers will be somewhat apprehensive when they see their aircraft tomorrow....
I'm sure a few unsuspecting passengers will be somewhat apprehensive when they see their aircraft tomorrow....
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Gate22 re AerLingus numbers
Gate 22
I just read your post & thought that i would ad this information.. Aer Lingus have had a good uplift in passenger numbers on Cork/Heathrow in most months since Shannon/Heathrow was axed.
In July it was an extra 8000 almost without an increase in frequency. So the overall change to Belfast of the Heathrow slots has been a great success in passenger number terms.
So that has to be further good news!
EI-BUD
I just read your post & thought that i would ad this information.. Aer Lingus have had a good uplift in passenger numbers on Cork/Heathrow in most months since Shannon/Heathrow was axed.
In July it was an extra 8000 almost without an increase in frequency. So the overall change to Belfast of the Heathrow slots has been a great success in passenger number terms.
So that has to be further good news!
EI-BUD
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Wings on the motorway...
A bit off topic folks, but related to aviation on our wee patch...
Today I saw an articulated lorry carrying a set of wings / tailplanes towards the Victoria terminal in the harbour. Now I guess this journey started at Shorts, possibly the Rathcoole plant. But what is it, where was it going, and how was it getting there?
Given that the whole assembly was in one piece, I assume it was a tailplane, but I think it was too big for a CRJ etc. The whole assembly was covered in blue plastic for minimal protection.
I've seen these journeys before, but never worked out exactly what the load was...
Any ideas?
Today I saw an articulated lorry carrying a set of wings / tailplanes towards the Victoria terminal in the harbour. Now I guess this journey started at Shorts, possibly the Rathcoole plant. But what is it, where was it going, and how was it getting there?
Given that the whole assembly was in one piece, I assume it was a tailplane, but I think it was too big for a CRJ etc. The whole assembly was covered in blue plastic for minimal protection.
I've seen these journeys before, but never worked out exactly what the load was...
Any ideas?
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Flybe to Newcastle
I'm not deliberately changing the subject but last Monday morning we flew to Newcastle with Flybe from BHD. We didn't actually count the number of passengers but I'd be surprised if any more than 15 seats were occupied.
We came back on Thursday afternoon and there were more people on the DH8-400 but it certainly wasn't full. Is Flybe finding this route a bit of an uphill struggle?
We came back on Thursday afternoon and there were more people on the DH8-400 but it certainly wasn't full. Is Flybe finding this route a bit of an uphill struggle?