new carrier - BFS to LHR

[jbird11]

It is a shame to see BFS become a charter and low cost airport over the past few years. A lot of money was put into BFS to add a proper chk-in area as the old one was tired and not enough desks to chk-in the many flts that used to operate out off there. BFS has seen so many one hit wanders operate there and I really cannot see a LHR-BFS service in the near future, as for EI I really cannot see them operating a full service to NI to the mainland, for a start they havent got the a/c, they are already axing a few flights already to open up new routes to JER/TFS/PMI from DUB. On the otherhand I bet you any money EZY will open BFS into a thriving base to other european destinations, it really is a shame to see AMS being the only direct european destination that serves the province. You only have to look at EDI and it is opening up big style with new airlines arriving all the time (with the aid of the scottish excutive I might add).

[mysecretsmile]

eastern wiseguy - iam glad to hear that you are indeed living in the present, but i will point out that my previous thread referring to transatlantic services from LDY was in fact as a result of a press article in which I had read and indeed provided a link to in the orginal post.

I am glad it brought a smile to your face !

jbird11 - I agree with you on alot of your points. lets hope the NI executive can get their act together and help support some scheduled new european services (preferable from BHD)

I think the important point is that any new routes that receive funding must be shown to be viable and that the money isn't simply given out to line the pockets of the airlines.

link

[glynn-kayes]

you can expand all you want at bhd but the fact remains it will never be a 24 hour operation as i have said before on this subject bhd was only ever opened so that shorts could keep the unions on their side in the late 70s early 80s and 95 percent of the workforce were from east belfast a few of my family worked at shorts then and a few still do.....back then instead of facing the sack skilled trademen were offered ramp jobs at bhd and most recently bombardier of canada thought that they owned belfast international so they were really in touch with the operation... not ?..bhd is responsible for splitting traffic in northern ireland and stopping european operators from coming in to the province it has held northen ireland back in terms of scheduled services i think it is only a matter of time time before bacx say byebye aer arran are pulling off the dublin route and jetmagic loads are awfull despite what others are saying and as for aer wales i dont hold out much hope for them by the way how is old flymo thompson haha

[Richard Everest]

Handbags, handbags, handbags... Tut tut, children

So, in essence, nobody is actually about to start flying between BFS & LHR, and contoller friendly doesn't have a 'g' on her keyboard!

Speaking from afar, whereas BHD may be closer to Belfast, is BFS not more central to NI? Why the big fuss about the time taken to the centre of the universe, sorry, city?

I do agree with the friendly one, though- if there's only one airline presently seving the route, it's hardly surprising they're carrying lots of pax, is it?

[brabazon]

What about this as the possible new BFS-LHR start-up? So Jeremy "Airport" Spake has a few slots up his sleeves then....

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...threadid=97748

[25minutes]

All very well to speculate about LHR routes out of city,but is anyone seriously going to compete with the prices and frequency of the province,s largest carrier out of BFS?

[no, no, no]

I think if anyone comes up with a new service to Heathrow from Belfast International then it has a very good chance of stealing pax who want to go to Heathrow, but don't want to go to BHD airport (hence are forced on to easy), or go to LHR from BHD, but really want to go to BFS.

Also, as bmi's LHRBHD loads are always full from what I hear, extra capacity would probably be snapped up straight away to Heathrow for point-point as well as connecting traffic.....

I still think bmi would have the upper hand though from City airport as you mention the fares would be the battle ground

but as Jeremy mentions it will be like an airline like no other - maybe it will be a flying circus with bouncy castles......

[mysecretsmile]

thanks brabazon for referring to Jerermy "**** "Spakes intention of setting up a new airline with the possibility of a base in BFS.

It was interesting to read what Jeremy had to say about his new airline. He has obviously never gone from BFS to Belfast City Centre as he says,

"using smaller airports, often with poor bus and rail connections, was "a bit of a nonsense"

So he may re consider setting up at BFS then ?

Although it may not be a small airport, the transportation links to it are third rate at best. For what is supposed to be a major international airport, not having a proper train link is a disgrace and the reason why they never will have a train link is that the management of BFS would lose thousands in valuable car park revenue and so don't want it.

[Tom the Tenor]

Glynn K, your information about ORK-BHD loads on GX is spherical and in the plural.

[Tower Ranger]

Oh Glynn you have no idea how your posts brighten my day!!

Surely you can`t seriously believe that BHD has held back an influx of international flights from BFS? Tell me which of our present routes causes such international competition ........ tell us which of our freight operators has Aldergrove shaking in their boots..........get real!!

If there was no City airport there would be less choice and higher fares for the travelling public.

BTW who wants to stay open 24 hours another hour and a half will do just fine thanks!!

[glynn-kayes]

tower ranger, nice to hear from you ,how are you, im simply stating a fact that most people in the industry know that northern ireland has too small a population to support 3 airports <bringing ldy into the conversation>so what if the business traveller has a 15-20 minute ride into belfast city centre , the world does revolve around belfast city centre or so what if the holiday maker has to go from bangor for that terrible long journey to bfs to get their holiday flight,in man, people travel from leeds liverpool teeside newcastle stoke on trent wales everyday for hols and business alike so the argument about bhd being sooo handy for everyone is absolute s@@t you and i know bfs has better facilities and will always be superior to bhd..as for traffic and euro operators, a few years ago i had a conversation with geoff muirhead the md of manchester airport,in our conversation he pointed out that european operators see bfs/bhd as one of the most stupid situations regarding air travel with large scale watering down of services in an underpopulated province..and it should not be about competition between airports,but airlines in one facility,now think about a price war that would be...anyway im off to pour a wee vodka and coke <again> good luck ya all