BELFAST INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - BFS (Aldergrove)

[david1994]

Ok it will be an official route. Olympic holidays that used Eurocypria are using Cyprus Airways for the Eurocypria route. And yes there will be an annoucement soon.

[tigger2k8]

What is BFS like these days?, now that FR have gone from Bhd, for the moment anyway, are there tumbleweeds still blowing about up there are has there been a noticeable increase in passengers?

oh the tumbleweeds are still about at times, all of the london routes received a jump in bookings once FR left BHD however this could have been people taking advantage of the £10 "rescue" option, will have to see if its more long-term with people switching, as for the LPL and GLA routes, they still seem to be busy enough, even on quieter days.. also the early morning flight (0700 departure) to EDI is doing extremely well this year 140+, most mornings at 156, where as last year they could barely get them half full..... quite surprised actually at how "busy", now when i say busy i mean the numbers are quite good for this time of the year, it has been....

The only hit and miss days would be Tue/Wed which have always been quiet days... believe it or not apart from the days i mention above theres an awful lot of domestics that are going out full, some are even oversold (STN and LGW would be the main ones)... this time last year it was common for flights to be going out with 50 PAX all the time.. unless it was Mon/Fri/Sun

Usually theres a couple of weeks of quiteness between Nov-7th December and then it all kicks off for Christmas with students and families starting to travel home for the holiday, however this quiet period hasnt happened, unless you include the occasional Tue/Wed evening

This is something that came straight from the mouth of someone reasonably important at BFS. Just a waiting game i guess

We are committed to finding a replacement carrier to operate the routes
bmibaby have vacated and will step up our discussions with all airlines
in order to reactivate these services to Manchester and Birmingham.

If you do want to see some tumbleweeds the best viewing time is between 1000-1400 Mon-Fri

[BFS101]

Tigger, any official response from the airport regarding the contentious £1 drop-off fee. Has this been as successful as they had hoped, is traffic movement through the contraflow system efficient, and are vehicles continuing to park and wait on the sides of the roads within and leading up to the airport???

[tigger2k8]

Tigger, any official response from the airport regarding the contentious £1 drop-off fee. Has this been as successful as they had hoped, is traffic movement through the contraflow system efficient, and are vehicles continuing to park and wait on the sides of the roads within and leading up to the airport???

Successful in controlling traffic flow, yes. However people still miss the million signs warning of charges and reverse down the 1 way system or do a U-turn, all to avoid £1, not only is this stupid, but its dangerous and its only a matter of time until someone is hurt. Thankfully theres no longer and cars parked from the roundabout at the long-stay to Checkpoint 1, as they have put barriers up and removed the hard-shoulder, but people still park further up, as they always have done so.

There was a lot of "rage" about the £1, but to be honest, theres still plenty of cars going up that way, i think people finally realised, its only £1.. but theres still the odd 1 or 2 out there.. as for revenue it produces, id love to see that figure, it honestly wouldnt surprise me if they get £3000 a day out of it, considering EZY alone carries roughly 8500-12000 per day (thats including arrivals and depatures by the way) depending on the day of the week

[gate 22]

Well have bmi baby got away with their move, ie will BFS fail to secure an operator to BHX/MAN and let all the battles for these routes be carried out at BHD. EZY would normally have had a quick response-nothing. BE filled the gaps left by FR within a week. BFS have a wonderful ability not securing airlines or routes. They have had to new routes in recent times Galway and Iceland. Galway has already been lost to Bhd just months after starting.

[Facelookbovvered]

Have bmibaby got away with their move??

Gate 22

Don't understand your point here in terms of "got away with their move" one assumes that their contract allows (baby) to leave and move down the road, as to whether it is the right move for baby, then i guess time will tell, i can't see much prospect of another operator back filling BHX or EMA, what would be the point? i understood loads from both airports to BFS were marginal and the EMA route nose dived after Ryanair started ops from BHD, whilst I'm sure they will have picked up again now Ryanair have pulled off the BHD route? if baby stayed with BFS the same thing could happen if some one else started BHD or Flybe used a bigger aircraft?

I suspect that there are fewer than a 100 people a day who need to fly to BFS rather than use BHD, whilst the figure at BHD seems far higher, time will tell.

What impact will it have on baby's handling agents at BFS in terms of jobs?

[tigger2k8]

Last I heard, Servisair is planning between 8-16 redundancies, this covers PAX Services / Ramp / Dispatchers... no doubt relocation to BHD will be offered, but its not always an option for some.. this may change depending on who fills the routes although to be honest, Servisair is slightly overstaffed as it is..

Gate 22, be patient.. takes time to get routes sorted and fee's agreed on then you have to wait for the Spanish owners to muck it up, whilst it may appear some routes get replaced quickly, theres planning and discussions well before they are announced or on sale... after all before the LTN moved it was known about a month before hand by some

[gate 22]

"got away with their move"

I meant to slip out of BFS go down the road and nobody moves into BFS. If an operator comes into to offer say MAN from BFS then one airline will dissappear of that route down at BHD.

[Facelookbovvered]

Gate 22

Just been checking Flybe website and baby website to see flight timings and prices before and after the baby switch, the baby website is showing the change over date to BHD from the 1st of Jan 2011, i could have sworn that it was mid Jan before?

Last flight from BFS to EMA showing 15:30 31/12/2010

First flight from BHD to EMA 2nd Jan 2011 looks like two flights a day (no early rotation) for first week then 3 a day there after

[True Blue]

I can understand what Gate 22 is saying. Tigger I think said that it can be known what an airline is going to do maybe weeks before it is announced to the public. From this, I assume that Bhd would have known for maybe a few weeks that Fr were going to leave Bhd. They, Bhd, appear to have used that time well so that only a few days after the Fr announcement, they were able to announce that Flybe was taking over the routes.

Re WW, I also assume that Bfs would have known for a few days, maybe weeks, that WW was moving to Bhd. The question is, why is Bfs not able to move at the same speed as Bhd in getting a new operator sorted? Whether Ezy or Ls take over say Man, both airlines already operate at both airports. So there should not be much to talk about re prices. No airport is that full at the moment that slots could not be found quickly. An aircraft would be needed, but other flights can be changed if the airline really wants the route.

One question, would Bfs - Man damage Bfs - Lpl for Easy?

My impression is that at the minute Bfs management are struggling to get routes up and running. If the problem is in Spain, then this needs to be sorted.

True Blue

[jetstreamtechrecords]

its the paella queens. Over borrowed to buy airports in the boom so this year chopped back everything to save cash. Stupid chopped in half the route development side too Same thing at CWL - same Spanish owner - chopping everything to save cash and any decision costing more than a fiver gets refered to Spain on a memo in triplicate: Its not the local boys fault but all power now rests in Spain and all decisions take twice as long.

[Aaron9890]

EasyJet

Have heard rumors that easyjet are to start flights to madrid next summer, seems like a good idea to me

[Aaron9890]

something i would like too ask is do any of the below still fly too Belfast, it still has these on the BFS wikipedia page and i haven't seen any arrivals or departures from this on the BFS website all year

Austrian Airlines
operated by Tyrolean Airways †
Seasonal: Innsbruck

Iberworld † Seasonal: Faro

Nouvelair † Seasonal: Monastir

[tigger2k8]

edit - nevermind my reply.. they did operate in 2010 im almost certain i saw them in once or twice, however i cant confirm.. for next year... ill try and find out for definate

[victoria73]

victoria73

Austrian airlines still do the weekly ski flight to Innsbruk in on saturdays.

[Amelia Earhart]

The end is nigh!

Guys there's no craic on this forum anymore since you and BHD went your separate ways. Normally an announcement like yesterday's lifting of the passenger cap at BHD would have sparked a riot but I log on this morning to find nothing, not a word about it. How disappointing.

Anyway, does anyone round here have a sinking feeling, a notion that before too long BHD may have stolen your crown and may be the biggest airport in the North, and that if BFS wants to see what is in store it should cast its eyes towards the northwest and behold LDY?

[gate 22]

Guys there's no craic on this forum anymore since you and BHD went your separate ways. Normally an announcement like yesterday's lifting of the passenger cap at BHD would have sparked a riot but I log on this morning to find nothing, not a word about it. How disappointing.

Anyway, does anyone round here have a sinking feeling, a notion that before too long BHD may have stolen your crown and may be the biggest airport in the North, and that if BFS wants to see what is in store it should cast its eyes towards the northwest and behold LDY?

At worse from the BFS point of view air passenger numbers will probably become 50/50 between the 2 airports. If the runway extension goes ahead then some euro routes will begin in earnest from BHD. However BFS is quite close to Belfast, unlike Prestwick, and BFS is centrally located within NI - both airports have advantages. What will happen is that the airlines will use the situation to get the best deal.

Having said all that the lift in the cap and the public enquiry have been introduced to avoid a legal battle with planning service and BHD (no money in the pot). The planning service apparently cannot provide any legal argument against not lifting the cap. What will probably happen now is that the lift in the cap will be challenged by either BFS or a residents group.

[tigger2k8]

i think we all knew that BHD would get its passenger cap lifted eventually, however they cant make full use of that cap with their current facilities.. unless flight timings change... id hate to see parts of the terminal if numbers increase.. but IKEA is in a spot that would have been a great place to expand

BFS will always be there as an operational airport for PAX/Cargo flights, unless BHD can expand enough for 4.5-5m extra passengers, a large cargo operation and be able to cope with upto 20 night-stopping aircraft during summer, including day-stopping cargo A300/767 aircraft

Each airport has its advantages and disadvantages... while so think there should only be 1 airport, 2 are required for the above reasons, BHD alone couldnt handle the above on top of their own passengers and flights, while BFS could handle BHDs work-load, it would take away the whole "direct to Belfast City" business appeal

[NorthernCounties]

In my view, the DRD need to get their finger out and improve the road between BFS and the M2, as well as reinstating the circular line that runs by the airport. It would be lovely to see BFS get a terminal similar to ORK or the Dublins T2!

[Aaron9890]

Wikipedia

Larnaca (Begins May 2011),

Route put up on wikipedia

just as david1994 said