Belfast International-2
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: UK
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Larne, UK
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Antrim
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Drop them at the services, it's about 5 mins walk across the car park or if they're not so able bodied at the Maldron, you can turn around there without going through the barrier (I'm sure that's not a popular option with the hotel!)
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: UK
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So people will spend £20 in fuel to travel to Dublin to avoid the life changing payment of £1 at BFS? You must have a relaxing break if this money is hard to part with. You find it hard to part with the £1 drop off fee, yet your first meal in a modest restaurant in Paris that night will cost £98. Guy's If the plane departs from Belfast and the timings suit use it. If you can't fly from Belfast then it's a connecting flight through GB or AMS, or the endurance of a long road trip to Dublin. This is what most people do, they don't think of flight clearance, £1 drop off......
Last edited by West Brit; 8th Jul 2018 at 07:28.
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: NI
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It's the principle though. For £98 you'll get a Paris meal. For £20 you can drive to Dublin. For £1 you get... nothing. The airport pockets the fee and provides nothing more than it did before the fee was imposed.
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Northern Ireland
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SecondDog, my post had no Purpose, as such. I merely wanted to understand how BFS could deserve at least one TATL flight.
How do I drop someone off (safely) at BFS without paying at least £1?
My overall, generally varied experience, is that BFS security is significantly slower than DUB but accept that either can have good and/or bad moments.
My experience of US pre-clearance at DUB has generally been very good although I accept there are (foreseeable) busy times, but it is always better than US Immigration & Customs in the US; I am convinced that the Agents mellow a little in Dublin!
How do I drop someone off (safely) at BFS without paying at least £1?
My overall, generally varied experience, is that BFS security is significantly slower than DUB but accept that either can have good and/or bad moments.
My experience of US pre-clearance at DUB has generally been very good although I accept there are (foreseeable) busy times, but it is always better than US Immigration & Customs in the US; I am convinced that the Agents mellow a little in Dublin!
Unless something has changed recently, 10 minutes free in the Long stay (which is surprisingly close to the terminal) whether this is affected by the park being full or not might be a question....
I take your point about ups and downs (and BFS gets massive coverage when the lows occur but media gamesmanship is a different story) but having watched the process several times, I think reports of permanent disaster are highly designed by the social media style comentators who in my view blight modern society..
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Northern Ireland
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Point of order... they provided the mandated sterile area and drop off zone. Once the cost was cleared, it is a boost to the falling revenue generated from airlines, which is driven by people's strange belief that they can be transported 1000s of miles for a tenner. Suck it up or use one of the aforementioned drop off methods.....
Join Date: Oct 2007
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I’ve been through BFS security several times recently with no issues or much waiting.
I agree that the drop off is pathetic though. I don’t pay money to drop people off at LHR or LGW. It’s rubbish and the fact that so many people can’t get their head around it causes delays getting out, arguments and more delays. This nonsense is the bastion of regional airports, not for those that claim to be major international operations.
Alas Dub for TATL remains a no-brainer. If you live in Belfast you can get a bus to the front door of T2. Be through check-in, security and even immigration within 30 mins. My average wait at immigration at LAX/MCO and JFK has been over an hour. You can also connect stateside without any more security checks. If we had a service to a proper US hub it would be more of a quandary but it doesn’t look like that’s happening anytime soon.
I agree that the drop off is pathetic though. I don’t pay money to drop people off at LHR or LGW. It’s rubbish and the fact that so many people can’t get their head around it causes delays getting out, arguments and more delays. This nonsense is the bastion of regional airports, not for those that claim to be major international operations.
Alas Dub for TATL remains a no-brainer. If you live in Belfast you can get a bus to the front door of T2. Be through check-in, security and even immigration within 30 mins. My average wait at immigration at LAX/MCO and JFK has been over an hour. You can also connect stateside without any more security checks. If we had a service to a proper US hub it would be more of a quandary but it doesn’t look like that’s happening anytime soon.
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Ballymena
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This debate over the £1 charge is a great example of how some of the population refuse to understand how we got there in the first place. Don't bother having a look at the bigger picture. When I consider what I have to pay to fly somewhere now, compared to years ago, having to pay £1 is nothing. Yet people moan about it, will sit up the side of the road for hours to avoid paying it, but never ask what price they put on their own life. The first time I travelled to New Zealand in1975 I paid about £1100 for my airfare. At that same time I bought a new Ford Escort, cost £1100. Have a look at the cost of that airfare now, still under £1100 if you are prepared to do some research, what price the car? Airports are now getting paid much less per passenger and still have an airport to run. How do those of you who object to the £1 charge suggest they raise the money needed? Because you the passenger will not want to pay it. Imagine the uproar if a new charge was introduced to pay for security etc and added to the cost of the ticket. Lhr is not a fair comparison because it has a virtual monopoly on long haul. Have a look at what you pay to fly through Lhr in terms of passenger charges.
£1 is nothing, get over it and have a life.
£1 is nothing, get over it and have a life.
Join Date: Mar 2018
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True blue good call, but not everybody would say the same, thats why lo cost exists, dunno about anyone else but there would be an awful lot of people not flying if it wasnt for them. Airport executives get an awful lot of money
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Join Date: Jul 2006
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Yes Locos have made flying affordable to a whole new generation of people. Part of that affordability was due to the fact that the airlines reduced considerably what they were paying to the airport. That at a time when other costs were ramping up, like security. My question was, with income going down, costs going up, what should airports have done?
But in a wider context, people need to get some perspective in their lives. They get obsessed in trying to avoid a £1 charge, would being diagnosed with cancer and given weeks to live not be more important? Let's spend 5+ hours to Dublin and back to try and save an hour the other end in immigration. The guy who takes his own life in hand and that of others passing in a dangerous place to save seconds.
Too many now have lost sight of what is important, stress over nothing issues and lead lives that reflect same.
But in a wider context, people need to get some perspective in their lives. They get obsessed in trying to avoid a £1 charge, would being diagnosed with cancer and given weeks to live not be more important? Let's spend 5+ hours to Dublin and back to try and save an hour the other end in immigration. The guy who takes his own life in hand and that of others passing in a dangerous place to save seconds.
Too many now have lost sight of what is important, stress over nothing issues and lead lives that reflect same.
Join Date: Feb 2016
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To those saying they were getting through security quickly - last Thursday AM I was in the terminal at 0455 for the 0615 flight to Gatwick. Got to the top of the steps, queue reaching back to the top of the escalators. I dived for the priority lane, only to find out that you can't buy priority security on the day any more and was stopped at the boarding card scanners. I was (sheepishly) allowed to butt into the queue after the pass scanners, along with several other befuddled business travelers.
Long story short, I squeaked onto the flight by the skin of my teeth. If I hadn't mistakenly skipped the queue upstream of the pass scanners I would have missed the flight. Half the queue in front of me were for the earlier STN flight and were having a canary. Twitter was full of rants about the previous evening and previous few days.
All the security scanners were open and the staff were all thoroughly helpful, but on this basis there is an apparent serious structural lack of passenger capacity for an airport that is pursuing further passenger growth.
I picked the LGW flight (booked at late notice) from BFS over LHR from City because it was a bit cheaper and I resent City for the ridiculous parking costs. I could have gone EI from Dublin for much, much cheaper.
The lack of of any PR from BFS about the well publicised capacity issues that seem to coincide with peak bucket and spade route outbounds is baffling - surely they could at least be highlighting specific windows when extra time needs to be left, given some people are still saying they're wafting through in 15 minutes at other times?
In the same circumstances, if I think there's a chance I need to be there >2 hours before, I think I'll be plumping for Dub given the price differential and (for me) about an extra 50 minutes on the road. Im a massive fan of BFS but adding routes without adding facilities is only going to end in tears.
Long story short, I squeaked onto the flight by the skin of my teeth. If I hadn't mistakenly skipped the queue upstream of the pass scanners I would have missed the flight. Half the queue in front of me were for the earlier STN flight and were having a canary. Twitter was full of rants about the previous evening and previous few days.
All the security scanners were open and the staff were all thoroughly helpful, but on this basis there is an apparent serious structural lack of passenger capacity for an airport that is pursuing further passenger growth.
I picked the LGW flight (booked at late notice) from BFS over LHR from City because it was a bit cheaper and I resent City for the ridiculous parking costs. I could have gone EI from Dublin for much, much cheaper.
The lack of of any PR from BFS about the well publicised capacity issues that seem to coincide with peak bucket and spade route outbounds is baffling - surely they could at least be highlighting specific windows when extra time needs to be left, given some people are still saying they're wafting through in 15 minutes at other times?
In the same circumstances, if I think there's a chance I need to be there >2 hours before, I think I'll be plumping for Dub given the price differential and (for me) about an extra 50 minutes on the road. Im a massive fan of BFS but adding routes without adding facilities is only going to end in tears.
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Larne, UK
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Such a debate over £1, which you can avoid if it makes you lose so much sleep... safely (long stay car park) and not so safely..? You spend £100's or £1000's on a holiday and moan about spending £1, yet wouldn't think twice about spending more than £1 on alcohol to piss down to toilet, cigarettes to slowly kill yourself, betting to more than likely lose..etc ... ill grab my coat now, i give up on some people...
While it is an additional income for the airport, i also believe that they donate a day or 2 per month to a charity..
While it is an additional income for the airport, i also believe that they donate a day or 2 per month to a charity..
Join Date: May 2017
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what about the simple fact some flights a miles cheaper. Pricing flights to Vegas, it’s just shy of £200 more expensive to fly from Belfast than Dublin to end up in the same destination at the same time. For a quid you’d be daft to chose Dublin. For 200, you’d be daft not too.
