BELFAST CITY AIRPORT (BHD)

[EI-BUD]

Larry the van man,

Bookings must be storming for EI at BHD - a 50% "Sale" on all routes already!

This is for all routes to all destinations in Britain operated by AerLingus, not simply the ones from Belfast City and this type of sale by EI is not uncommon at this time of year.

EI-BUD

[eastern wiseguy]

Yes it was the first actual ba aircraft as such and not the ex bd ones into BHD

What about the aircraft that brought the Olympic Flame in? I know that that was definitely a BA airframe.(Of course if you mean a revenue flight,then that's different)

[WHBM]

Following the issues described above, returned from BHD to LHR on the EI36 at 1730 on Wednesday. That was a (lesser) disorganisation as well. There were also flights at much the same time by both EI and Flybe to Gatwick, by 1700 these were both being loaded while the Heathrow flights, which had arrived on stand early, was just left blank on the FIDS.

Suddenly at about 1720 the FIDS sprang into action for it with Final Call, no intermediate boarding displays being shown. How are you going to get on-time departures if you put the flight up so late ?

The FIDS themselves are confusing because they show the gate numbers, but there are no gate numbers displayed in the "new" upstairs departure lounge, there are door letters A, B, C etc instead which lead to stairs down to the actual gates, each signed for a certain flight, although it doesn't seem to matter which door you go through at all ! Whoever thought this one up ?

Incidentally, regarding the EI loads on the new Heathrow service on the A319, the northward flight on a November Monday evening seemed about 75% full, and the return on a Wednesday evening was pretty much every seat taken. EI was £175 return, BA had quoted £379, some £200 more, for the comparable flights.

[BCALBOY]

Aer Lingus 50% Offer

Larry the Man

This looks like a lot of Marketing hype by Aer Lingus.

The offer is for travel in the first quarter of next year and has to be booked by 19Nov.I doubt many people will be thinking abt booking at this stage for next year.

In addition the reduction only applys to the actual fare...not taxes and charges , admin fee, baggage, seat selection fee.

So the total charge has to be more than £29.99 ex BHD or more than £45.99 ex LHR otherwise the fare component is £0.00 and 50% off £0 is a saving of £0.

If you travelled on the most expensive day/flight each way in January ,the saving is £2.49 each way or £4.98 in total. Hardly worth laying out the cash and committing yourself by 19Nov to travel in the first qtr of next year to save less than £5 on a roundtrip ticket.

Its clearly just a carrot to try to get more people aware of the new EI services.

[mart901]

But as EI BUD quite rightly said the offer is across the board on UK flights; UK to Ireland - Aer Lingus

The same could be said of BE who email me almost daily with discounts off fares, excluding all the charges.

Good to hear reports of EI doing well, I never doubted they would.
What will be interesting is how it will all pan out, will BE pull out of LGW as a result of the landing fees? I think STN and/or LCY would be good instead of so many flights to LGW and LHR.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by mart901

I think STN and/or LCY would be good instead of so many flights to LGW and LHR.

I've written before about how I used to be a regular some years ago when Scot/Cityjet did the London City route with a Dornier 328. The loads carried were often approaching/actually single figures. There is business traffic to Belfast, but it doesn't seem to originate from or head for The City/Canary Wharf in London.

[mart901]

when WW was at BHD posters on here were disparaging about 30% or so loads. Mostly so far people have been stating full and near full. Obviously it will all take time to pan out but just like the 50% sale the same argument on yield could be applied to all the airlines in the London/Belfast market with perhaps the exception of BA, BE's starting fares to LGW are lower than EI's and EZY are lower still. This same old thing crops up everytime at BHD, first people slate loads, then yield and when both boxes are ticked the "we will never really know the true yield" argument will come into play.

[Mlinnie]

What exactly is the 'yield' ??? Has it got to do with profit ??

[Rinty]

WHBM

The FIDS themselves are confusing because they show the gate numbers, but there are no gate numbers displayed in the "new" upstairs departure lounge, there are door letters A, B, C etc instead which lead to stairs down to the actual gates, each signed for a certain flight, although it doesn't seem to matter which door you go through at all ! Whoever thought this one up ?

Seem to recall that the fids list both the door number and gate. You're correct it really doesnt matter which door you use but if they weren't defined then 3 airlines could all try to board flights at the same time through the same door - potentially over 400 pax.
So who thought it up - probably the same person who thought it through.

[Solar]

Belfast airport security/personell differences

Recently flew to the US from BFS and had a security guy take a tube of toothpaste from me as it was not in a plastic bag whilst insisting that I could purchase ones at the vending machine. I told him to dump it. I usually have a bag but forgotten it.
Last week going through BHD the security guy said your plastic bag looks a bit travelled, here I'll give you nice new one.
The BFS guy also missed a 5'' nail file in my wifes purse which he "thourghly" searched.

[eastern wiseguy]

What exactly is the 'yield' ???

Available Seat Mile (ASM): The Basic Measure of Capacity

One seat (empty or filled) flying one mile is an ASM
A 140-seat MD-80 flying a 500-mile segment creates 70,000 ASMs.
System ASMs are simply the sum of each of these individual segment calculations.
In a typical day in 2007; American made available about 465 million ASM

Revenue Passenger Mile (RPM): The Basic Measure of Production

A paying passenger flying one mile creates an RPM
100 passengers flying 500 miles generates 50,000 RPMs
System RPMs are the sum of this calculation for each of the revenue segments we fly.
In a typical day in 2007, American produced 380 million RPMs.

Load Factor: Production Compared to Capacity

To calculate system-wide load factor, divide RPMs by ASMs; in 2007 it's 138.5 billion RPMs divided by 169.9 billion ASMs, or 81.5 percent.
For an individual flight, divide the revenue passengers on board by the aircraft capacity; in the MD-80 example above, it is 100 divided by 140, or 71.4 percent.
High load factors are not necessarily desirable - How much each passenger pays is also important, as we see in the next measure.

Yield: Revenue per Passenger Mile

To calculate system yield, divide passenger revenue by total RPMs; For American in 2007, this is $18.2 billion divided by 138.5 billion RPMs, or 13.1 cents per mile.
To calculate a customer's individual yield, divide ticket price by mileage; if a customer pays $98.00 for the 500-mile segment above, the yield would be 19.6 cents per mile.

Revenue per Available Seat Mile (R/ASM): The Best Basic Measure

Multiply load factor times yield to get the measure of how much revenue we generate per increment of capacity; using the 2007 example above, it's 81.5 percent times 13.1 cents or 10.7 cents.

Cost per Available Seat Mile (C/ASM): The Basic Measure Of Cost

Unit costs represent how much it costs to fly one seat (empty or filled) one-mile.
To calculate unit costs, divide total operating expenses by Total ASM capacity; For American in 2007, this is $19.24 billion divided by 169.9 billion, or 11.3 cents per mile.

Enjoy

[IrishFlyer2013]

New Aer Lingus route from BHD - Palma De Mallorca

Aer Lingus are starting flight's from Belfast City to Palma De Mallorca. Flight's will start on the 2nd of April 2013 and they will go on sale on Thursday.

Aer Lingus to Introduce New Belfast

[EI-A330-300]

Would of expecrted lots of comments from BHD haters and EI ones since they moved over.....

[panpanpanpan]

Don`t worry, I am sure they are whipping themselves into a frenzy of righteous indignation as I type. How dare EI expand their business, are they not aware there is a perfectly serviceable airfield over the hill?? Ridiculous..

I wonder how long it will take EGAA management along with their tame concerned residents group BCAW to co-ordinate a response? I have no doubt we will soon be subject to Dr Fawcett rabbiting on about how aircraft that fly to anywhere other than the mainland are mysteriously much noisier..

[GAZMO]

Is there a reduction in the number to flights to FAO for these two extra flights?

[GAZMO]

Noted no EI to AGP on Tuesdays

[allanmac]

Good to see that EI seem to be serious about developing their presence at BHD - wonder if they might consider using Regional to expand the domestic network, for instance, to LPL and BRS, both of which were unceremoniously dumped by Flybe from BHD in the last 12 months.

Also ORK might be worth a look - could work if fares were competitive.

[EI-A330-300]

AGP on Tuesday was removed in Sep. I would expect LGW dep at 11.15 to drop and as the 15.30 dep dosn't operate on Satudays that would free the aircraft from 10.15 in the morning for the day.

It would also be possible to fit PMI in with a departure at 15.20 and it would be back in BHD by 21.00 so that would mean LGW stays 3 daily and this explains why the 15.30 departure dosn't operate on Saturdays.

[GAZMO]

Thanks for the info

18 flights to Palma plus charters of TOM and TCX, and the weekly from LDY.

Probably lots of cheap holidays in Majorca next year

[BHD2BFS]

I wouldn't really say that, what we have seen over the years is that northern Irish people aren't that adventurous, hence every airline starts the same old routes cuz it works. They tried Italy and didn't work, they tried Germany and didnt work and even parts of France and didn't work.
So I wouldn't expect cheap holidays just yet