Belfast City Airport-3

[GayFriendly]

Where is it confirmed that EI will continue flights to/from BHX, EDI and MAN? It's certainly not on their website which has no availability from 18th July for these routes.

I booked a few weeks ago for 25th July, when I go into Manage my Booking my original reservation comes up and still shows as confirmed and being operated by Stobart Air and I can even book and pay for a seat on a seat map that is clearly an ATR....

I've not had any communication from EI to say that this flight is cancelled or what they are going to do about it. I appreciate they were apparently caught short by Stobart but this is very poor customer service indeed. Wish I'd booked with EasyJet instead!!

[ajamieson]

One month is an near-eternity in current circumtances, even without the airline collapsing. I would imagine EI is trying to fix rescue flights over the first few days before processing next month's forward bookings.

[mart901]

Front of the website tap where it says about the travel disruption/more information at the top. The flights won't be on sale as they are manually moving customers bookings where appropriate etc.
You may see this under the my trips section of your account with them, there may be a second booking there and you'll not be able to amend it currently while they are.
They seem to be working on August at the moment and they say they're working on plans for past that, I'd imagine the uncertainty in Ireland covering the Dublin base and what they can and can't fly isn't helping matters. I think it took them about 4/5 days or so from the announcement to my June flights being ammended.

There's been hardly any flights on sale until recently and given the pent up demand for domestic routes currently putting them on sale before they've accommodated everyone who was booked on regional could be a much bigger customer service issue than not informing you as promptly as would be expected.

[Alteagod]

Agree I think in short term these are very much rescue flights for pre seat sales as loads seem to reflect this.. I suspect the crewing logistics alone must be a nightmare but I am sure it will sort itself out eventually to a more workable schedule and fare structure.

[mart901]

The fares did drop down on the flights I'm booked onto this month a few days after I was moved onto it, some fares down to £29 one way, but still not a full schedule and indeed I agree it's a temporary arrangement they never planned for, they've salvaged as much as they can I think.

[allan1987]

​​​​​​Aer Lingus did say would run until end of summer on 6 routes. But nothing has been put on sale from 18th July. Also was mentioned that Cardiff and East Midlands is cancelled until 27th June, so may be possible that EDI, BHX, CWL and EMA will move to BA Cityflyer, and Aer Lingus will still operate flights to MAN.

I see that Esken is looking for someone to sublease their 8 ATRs until April 2023 not sure if Emerald or BA Cityflyer would be interested in this

[PPRuNeUser0176]

GayFriendly

Details of Aer Lingus Regional Replacement Schedule

Aer Lingus will operate six routes until at least the end of August 2021 and is progressing plans for services beyond this date, details of which will be announced shortly. BA CityFlyer has announced that it will operate four routes for the rest of Summer 2021 period.

Operations by Aer Lingus

Belfast - Edinburgh
Belfast - Manchester
Belfast - Birmingham
Dublin - Manchester
Dublin - Edinburgh
Dublin - Glasgow

Operations by BA CityFlyer until at least 31st August 2021

Belfast - Leeds Bradford
Belfast - Exeter
Belfast - Glasgow (starts 2nd August 2021)
Belfast - Newquay (starts 3rd July 2021)

https://www.aerlingus.com/support/fl...n-information/

[GayFriendly]

Thanks to everyone for your replies to my post about BHX-BHD flights!

My booking is still showing as confirmed on a Stobart operated ATR and I can still book a seat....

I guess they will get round to updating and re-confirming my reservation now it appears they are continuing flights until end of Aug. This must be a huge amount of work given the scale of re-bookings, refunds and flight changes they're having to deal with. Having said that, a quick, generic email to all customers affected to reassure them that their reservation will be honoured and some idea as to what and when would have been appreciated, particularly in light of the fact that alternative flights from BHX, MAN and LPL have absolutely shot up in price since Stobart pulled the plug.

[PPRuNeUser0176]

EI to run the routes until end of October (end of summer schedule) and all on sale.

[brian_dromey]

The routes currently operated by BA city flyer are shown as “Sold Out” from the 1st of September. Prior to that the website returns no results at all. I think 31st of August is the last confirmed BA Cityflyer pertain to LBA and EXT.

[Alteagod]

Maybe BACF only taking old ,Stobart bookings until.

[ECR]

I only looked at a couple of dates in July and August on the BACF service to Leeds Bradford, but it was certainly available to book on the BA app. There were even business class seats for sale so I think they are certainly taking bookings to the end of August. I doubt BACF will continue with the non London flights after August, but I can live in hope!

[brian_dromey]

Sorry, I meant on the Aer Lingus website. As it currently stands the EI website shows BHD-LBA as "no flights" until the 31st of August and "Sold Out" after that date. I guess there is no concrete plan for flights op by Cityflyer after that date. As one poster notes, BA seem to be offering Club on BHD-LBA, I wonder what uptake will be like.
I share pessimism that Cityflyer won't be in the non-LCY domestic market long term. But their network was so reliant on business travel pre-covid that nothing can be ruled out. I think LCY had the highest proportion of business travel for any airport in London, possibly globally. 45% of travel at LCY was said to be business, 25% at Heathrow, 15% at Gatwick and 13% at Stansted.

[Alteagod]

I think post Covid anything is possible now with airlines but short medium term all the money is probably domestic with a sprinkle of business/European customers. The recent announcement of funding from the NI Government to support domestic routes might keep them a bit longer on the route.

[SealinkBF]

BA selling Business Class seats now on the Embraers. The seats are identical, you get a snack and a drink in Y anyway - business gives lounge access, better luggage allowance etc.

[mart901]

https://m.independent.ie/business/ae...-40612869.html

[allan1987]

Emerald Airlines to start in October with 14 ATR 72-600's that they will use on routes from Belfast City, Cork, Dublin, Donegal and Kerry,
BACF may stay at but change to different routes, possibly bhd to lgw and and at busy times to man/bhx/lba

[Alteagod]

I won't hold my breath just yet on Emerald Airways. No doubt it will happen but not getting over excited just yet.

[allan1987]

Aer Lingus have put on flights on for sale for to EDI, MAN and BHX for W21.

im guessing Emerald is going to look after dublin routes only for W21

Interesting to see what routes and times will BA CityFlyer for operate W21

[Alteagod]

I suppose they could always change the operator or aircraft type later on. At least they operating the flights