BELFAST CITY AIRPORT (BHD)

[sarcon]

I agree with what is being said about Flybe not generating enough pax for the airport but I believe the per pax charge AL are being offered is alot less than the incumbents, Flybe and bmi are paying. Will the additional pax with AL make up for the further reduction in revenue. Will the airportend up in an even worse financial position than it is now. The management say it is profitable and the last published accounts confirm this, but that was only £15k. What Flybe do when this is announced officially could have a momumental impact on the airport.

[irishlad06]

Reckon it will b announced in couple weeks for at least 3 atr and maybe some mainline aircraft, there was rumours in the mill that the ace flights would leave a night, longer turnaround at ace then back in the morning to bhd, suppose this is possible but might involve overnighting crew surely, only one of the many rumours in the mill

[mart901]

I hadn't thought of the overnighting option and whilst expensive EI do a fair bit of it, for instance LGW crews overnight in dublin.

[brian_dromey]

In the past (mid-90's) EI have done similar things with charter flights, from ORK, DUB and SNN. In the case of ORK the aircraft would fly ORK-LHR sectors during the day and about 2200 depart for the destination, specifically I remember going to FAO. I suppose arrival would be around 0000 local. The aircraft would then stay at FAO until around 0400 for an arrival into ORK around 0630, ready to go out to LHR at 0730. I don't believe the crew were overnighted, as such, just had a long-ish break between the flights.

[panpanpanpan]

Did BMI not do something similar with Italian Lakes flights from Harbour, departing last thing at night and then back in at opening time?

The Flybe being very very cross is a nonsense - they have had as much chance as any airline to expand over the years and simply havn`t had the imagination or will to do anything other than routine UK flights.

As far as Aer Lingus goes - my source at Harbour tells me as far as staff are concerned nothing has been signed and anything in the press or on this spotters site is pure speculation.

Where`s Mutley to give a balanced and subjective viewpoint?? Maybe he is still negotiating bigger and better things for pursers?

[ALLMCC]

The arrival of Aer Lingus at BHD (if it happens) may be the wake up call Flybe needs - a look at BHD's arrivals board on any day shows some lengthy delays usually on Q400 operated flights - there do seem to be a lot of technical issues with the Q400 and, recently, more flights seem to be EMB175/195 operated which, in turn, seems to have improved timekeeping.

I know of a few people who have stopped using Flybe recently because of delays so there is still room for improvement.

[onyxcrowle]

Thanks for the reply FRG7700 , Granted this is speculation but this story is almost as gobsmacking as it would be if my local airport was to announce several new routes at once either new or stolen from say Leeds or east midlands . If this is EI moving en masse from Aldergrove then perhaps there is some kind of fall out between the airline and airport .
Maybe the real truth is EI are going to start additional flights from BHD , Leaving current services at Aldergrove (BFS) as they are . It seems more likely to see new ATR destinations and maybe a couple of Airbus routes.
One other question someone might be able to answer though , Why did Flybe pull the DSA flight days after announcing how well used it was ?

[EI-BUD]

Perhaps the EDI route would work well around either side of a European route. Would mean still reasonable utilisation of the aircraft with short sector to edi.
Perhaps BHD are trying to force Flybe's hand onto routes vacated by Bmibaby?

I guess since CDG was tested in 2008 (when Ei also in d market) management not keen to test the market on longer sectors that they may feel are marginal and also tie up an Embrser in the process...

[dog in park]

Story of fear in local paper! BCAW member will boycot EI and now fly EZY to STN. Good to see that they have other members other than Killead International and a spin Dr!

[BHD2BFS]

Biggest problem is that if EI move down and things don't work out at BHD, what are they going to do? The cant really move back to BFS, then we end up loosing another airline

[onyxcrowle]

I can't see EI pulling out of the north altogether it would be a bad move to alienate a whole spectrum of the county .
And it would be a big ask to expect folk to drive down to Dublin to get an EI flight ! . Though do they have flights between Belfast and Dublin ?

[dublinaviator]

How have we gone from Aer Lingus moving to BHD to completely pulling out of the North??!

[Fairdealfrank]

Quote: "How have we gone from Aer Lingus moving to BHD to completely pulling out of the North??!"

Ha ha, the rumour mill is now in overdrive!

[flying officer kite]

Many years ago, perhaps, though it was never profitable to fly Belfast to Dublin- certainly not these days when its only 2 hours by car, bus or train.

I can imagine Flybe will indeed be annoyed if this rumour proves to be true. They have had the chance to expand from BHD, with the likes of Baby proving that there is a market for new European routes, but they dont seem interested. Perhaps a lack of spare aircraft floating around to operate them. Their view might change once more 175s arrive, but for now they're happy to send people to mainland Europe via England on their services. Besides, would you like to spend 2+ hours sitting in a noisy uncomfortable Dash going to Frankfurt from Belfast??

Aer Lingus/Arann operating to Glasgow would be interesting, as its not a high yield route for Flybe, even with their multiple flights a day, and connectivity with Loganair to the rest of Scotland. Same for Aberdeen, though the oil business helps that route.

My personal thoughts as to what would be a logical move at the city airport: Get KLM in, or get them partnered with Flybe, and maybe one of the Lufthansa subsidiary airlines in to operate the destinations mentioned by Brian Ambrose in the Belfast Telegraph. The city airport gets a lot of European business traffic each day, and would benefit with city links like that. Also with contraints at Heathrow, high APD in the rest of the UK, and the resulting desire of more people wanting to go longhaul from outside the country, the airport could also cater for that market with such links, and it would have all 3 airline alliances here as a result

[Fairdealfrank]

Quote: "My personal thoughts as to what would be a logical move at the city airport: Get KLM in, or get them partnered with Flybe, and maybe one of the Lufthansa subsidiary airlines in to operate the destinations mentioned by Brian Ambrose in the Belfast Telegraph. The city airport gets a lot of European business traffic each day, and would benefit with city links like that. Also with contraints at Heathrow, high APD in the rest of the UK, and the resulting desire of more people wanting to go longhaul from outside the country, the airport could also cater for that market with such links, and it would have all 3 airline alliances here as a result"

There may be a perfectly good reason why KL isn't at BHD. Pretty sure that they would be there if they could make money: they're already at about 18 (?) UK airports, so regional UK operations is hardly alien to them, and BHD isn't slot constrained.

APD (scrap it now!) is the same whether going to LHR or going to AMS.

Constraints at LHR are not a problem for BHD, there are several flights/day on the BD, now BA, service, plus a complementary service from BFS on EI.

As far as BE's UK-based operations are concerned, aren't they mainly a domestic carrier with a just few European routes?

[larry the man]

I see on another thread that someone is suggesting that AL will serve LHR LGW and STN from city when they move over. I hadn't heard the STN mentioned before, can anyone confirm that this is part of their plan. At least this route would not directly impact Flybe, but with AL competition planned on other routes that make up over 70% of their operation from City they might still be a tad upset. What their reaction, if any, will be, remains to be seen.

[EI-BUD]

Aer Lingus STN BHD

I would suggest that any attempt to serve STN from BHD by Aer Lingus could very well result in a response from Ryanair. Highly unlikely in my view. They have been to STN on a few occassions before, daily from DUB in the early days of Ryanair before the new STN and then in mid 90's when the 5 year restriction came to and end (where they couldnt target Ryanair's routes).

That didnt last long and they had up to 5 daily 146 rotations. Yes BHD is a different story now but STN is well served by easyJet so I cant see them stepping into STN not only for that reason, but the likely response from Ryanair.


EI-BUD

[Thad Jarvis]

The STN yield has always lagged behind other London routes. That's why Flybe dropped it. Air Berlin dropped it too. EI would be bonkers to switch airports and concentrate on UK domestics already well served. All they'll do is generate a price war which they'll lose. When they arrived in BFS they tried to duplicate the EZY network and failed. I doubt Flybe will roll over and let them pull the same stunt on their patch. They could create a niche though if they put a bit of thought into it.

[eastern wiseguy]

I doubt Flybe will roll over and let them pull the same stunt on their patch.

Honestly?

Flybe don't really seem to care who muscles in on their routes recently. They seemed happy for Baby to compete with them...why would any other airline be any different.

As to that.....when is Mr A going to make his announcement......the longer the silence lasts ...

[david1994]

Maybe the first week in July will tell us as that's when EIN will be releasing the schedules for Belfast.