BELFAST INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - BFS (Aldergrove)

[tigger2k8]

^correct, eagle airlines (according to tjhe name on the side of the plane) F100, arrived last night, 4 hours late, tech issues and diverted to VCE before finally reaching BFS

[BFS/BHD]

Aironi rugby team flying out on that one. Italian football team flying out of BHD in the morning to Pisa with Alitalia.

[BFS101]

Aer Lingus have released their seats to Rome from Belfast!! From start of the summer season, every Tuesday and Saturday. First thing out on Tuesday morning, and evening departure on the Saturday.

[tigger2k8]

Good to see the FCO back next year..

Loginair will be performing cargo runs for Royal Mail for 6 weeks in the run up to Christmas... aircraft will be based in BFS as far as im aware for the duration of the operation

on a side note, does anyone know what CO plans to do or what they could do when 25/07 gets resurfaced next year? dont think 17/35 suitable for a 757? can the runway be resurfaced and opened at certain times or does it require it to close?

[speedbirdATC]

dont think 17/35 suitable for a 757?

Im pretty sure 17/35 is long enough. 757's land elsewhere with much less runway to play with.

[Torque2]

Yes 17/35 is long enough to land on but it won't allow operations to the Canaries much less TransAtlantic ops (unless there is a gale blowing down the runway).

[tigger2k8]

thanks for the replies, i thought taking off would be a problem..

we could see EZY using an A320 to BFS to the MLA flight.. word on the street is the A319 wont make it if there is a full passenger and baggage load.. so its either leave people behind, bags behind, fuel stop or use a A320..

dont quote me on it, but it sounds like it could be true.. weight issues happen from time to time on BFS-FAO, and MLA is further than FAO..

as for the LTN flight.. we could see it back at BFS... EZY currently split on the decision...

[eastern wiseguy]

thought taking off would be a problem..

Taking off is NO problem...reaching Newark in one jump might be

[mysecretsmile]

It's hard to understand why Easy continue with the LTN flight at BHD. It's probably only a matter of time until it returns to BFS, although it may depend on whether Easy can be convinced to give London Stansted ago from BHD too?

Surely makes more sense to keep all their routes at one airport (BFS), with no runway and operating hour restrictions and where they operate a base?

[BFS101]

Not sure what's going on but a big Easyjet boss flew into BHD this morning for a meeting and having pictures taken, etc. Maybe some news to come??

Although from the same source, that Ryanair may hold onto the STN route from BHD, operated by STN aircraft. Just rumours at this stage though.

[tigger2k8]

it would be the sensible option if FR held onto STN, as im sure this was probably one of the best peforming flights for them with business travel.. it would also explain (if true) why EZY has not increased flights to STN from BFS, or added flights from BHD..

as smart as i think it would be for EZY to have their operations running from 1 airport, i do think it would be good for them to hold onto their slice of the london market at BHD... all we can do is sit and wait.. expect news within the next couple of weeks if anything is to change

edit - could this be the reason for press at BHD?

UTV News - Airport posters against trafficking dangers

[gate 22]

Not sure what's going on but a big Easyjet boss flew into BHD this morning for a meeting and having pictures taken

Probably on the Luton flight, and therefore he won't be going back until tonight, or will he fly back with FR. Or he could go up the road and have another meeting at BFS then get an earlier flight back to STN.

[flying officer kite]

taking off on 17 would be interesting, Newark direct would likely be out of the question, though i have heard other pilots say that on the 757 17 has very few restrictions..who knows. A couple of years ago in bad weather i did see all 3 of the cargo widebodies use 17.

Regarding an A320 for Malta, im travelling on 1 of the services so would be quite happy if it was. A319s have done direct flights to Croatia, which is apparantly 30 mins closer than Malta to Belfast, and the pilots were working out their fuel allowances down to the last kg, it was that tight

[flying officer kite]

Also, if a 320 was based in Belfast, what are the chances flights to the Canaries and Greece/Turkey are started? Its a massive market and i thought they would love their share of it. Thinking back a few years when the likes of Onur Air were doing cheapies in widebodies etc

[Thad Jarvis]

There are no plans for an orange A320 in BFS. The Malta block time is something in the region of 4hrs. That should prove interesting as I believe the BFS guys have been off loading passengers regularly on Spanish flights due weight this summer

[Torque2]

It is not necessary to offload passengers to any spanish destination with an A319 out of BFS if 25/07 available, it may be if only 17/35 is available. Something doesn't add up.

[Husky One]

what doesn't add up is the load sheet when the MTOW says 64T and not 66T or 68T. Meanwhile down in Mecca upon Sussex they get 66T airframes to do bleedin Amsterdam and back. Easyjet's Spanish routes have been rammed full all summer.The amount of off-loading has been significant. Pretty poor show for NI's biggest operator

[tigger2k8]

as Husky has said, its not the runway, its the aircraft they base at BFS obviously they rotate quite often, the problems only happen at BFS when theres a full pax load and full baggage load... the majority of the time the 64T 319s do the job perfectly well, but if theres 156 PAX and 130+ bags and extra fuel required.. then thats when the problems start... i dont think any PAX got offloaded this summer, dont quote me on that though, but there was baggage left behind on a number of occasions

[Husky One]

Bags are only offloaded for a small overload. Ops prefer to dump pax. The majority of the problems were on the return legs but I can assure you there were plenty of offloaded pax this summer as well as bags and even the odd fuel diversion.

[tigger2k8]

ah that explains it, i would only notice the outbound, the only major inbound i recall this summer was from FAO, 63 bags offloaded in FAO as a 64T(i think) was used when the original aircraft went tech in BFS which resulted in 34 bags offloaded on the outbound that evening, although that was because 200kgs extra of fuel was accidently put on..

hopefully they can figure something out for the BFS-MLA, would be a shame if the first new route in awhile is plagued with weight issues on full loads