I doubt that they would hold back on route announcements as Aer Arann or dare I say it, Easyjet as the rumours suggest, would want their seats announced and available for booking as soon as possible. There is the case though, that they are holding back route announcements for these flights if they plan to start them in the winter schedule.

I shall hold my breath for 11 days as well then Amelia...:ok:

Hi Guys, just to update.EZY have no plans to expand at BHD.No more routes will be transferred as the company are trying to prove a point to Aena/Tbi re landing fees.There are currently no plans to operate from LDY..

Anyone get the impression Mutley is another Aldergrove fancier?

Pinch of rock salt methinks.

Amelia, Derry Journal isn't out on a Thursday. Was that copy from the website?

Sorry, Derry Journal Tuesday 16th February 2010. Page 2 I think.

Faro flights are amazingly cheap, like less than £40 return during most of April, a good bit cheaper than the corresponding Alicante flights.

Lack of demand or first year reductions as opposed to Alicante which is in its second year (though of course not yet fully established either).

One wonders how much promotion, either by the airport or Ryanair, there has been of these flights. If past performance is anything to go by, the answer will be not a lot. I see the airport website lists flights to Alicante as not available, but do list Faro flights. God knows.

As an aside, I managed to book a few returns from BHD to BRS for £9.98 return. How much demand is there on that route. From the occasions I've used it, it is much less full (~40%) than the former LDY to BRS route (admittedly with more capacity to BHD).

Finally, I see ALPHA ECHO hasn't had anything to add re: Aer Arann introducing new routes. I can only assume this has been postponed/cancelled.

Was pricing LDY - BHX for March and was quoted at £25.00 return inc all charges etc. Also a lot of those flights are booked up, with a few for the coming week showing with only 4 seats left. This route obviously doing well for RYR, shame its getting hacked to death in the summer schedule.:confused:

Also on a side note RE are discontinuing their CFN - PIK and changing it to CFN - GLA. I wonder if RE would consider LDY - GLA. It was successful for BA/Loganair for 30 years so it could work, and especially with the PIK service getting slashed in the summer too. Im sure RYR would love that:ok:

Everyone in the Northwest knows that Letterkenny doesn't have an airport.

However, how many people know that it has an airport code?

LTR!

(LTR) Letterkenny Airport Departures, Arrivals, and Information

No delays reported. :)

Amelia, there is an airfield in Letterkenny. Its by no means big, but its there. All ATC in and out is controlled by LDY, although I think there is a radio frequency that the a/c use on the ground there but there are no controllers, ground crew etc.

In fact a bit of snooping on this

page:Derry City Council

....shows the airport either are or were in discussions with RE about flights to MAN and EDI. Old news I know, but nice to see it confirmed on the council's website, rather than on a rumour forum. No reference to the outcome of these discussions.

The most interesting (and worrying) bit of it though is the list of cancellations to and from the airport in January, and the quite shocking pax numbers on those flights. Quite a few LDY-DUB and return operating with 0 (that's zero) pax. Also, quite a few RYR flights operating with 35-50 pax on board. I know January's a crappy time of year, and the economy is shot, but surely these are pretty poor figures?

If only I'd held fire for a few hours:

BBC News - Airline pledges new Derry routes

EDI + MAN w/ RE
 

Regarding:
Derry - Edinburgh
Derry - Manchester

On sale on Aer Arann's website meanwhile.
Both routes 6 x weekly MTWTF-S

RTÉ Business: Aer Arann flying new routes to UK

ALPHA ECHO, you'll be pleased to hear I'm having humble pie for dinner. Great news for the airport.

Excellent news. Do we know where a/c are coming from yet i.e will it be EDI - LDY - MAN, or are getting a based a/c? Wonder if it will be an ATR 72? Can't wait :)

Going by the flight times on the RE website, it certainly looks as if an a/c will be staying the night in LDY, but then again I could be wrong as it may fly off to position somewhere else. Any thoughts?

Wait years for a flight then three come along at once (FAO, EDI, MAN).

Now all we need is Bristol, Newcastle, Heathrow, Gatwick, Leeds-Bradford, Malaga, Paris and Tenerife.


The new Aer Arann time table looks like:

LDY - DUB - LDY - EDI - ~ - EDI - LDY - MAN - LDY
7:40 -8:55-10:10-............15:55-17:20-19:00 -

overnighting in LDY with evening DUB flight on DUB based aircraft.

Hmmmm....is there scope in there for another rotation or two?

Amelia: BRS and NCL maybe with RE......out of the rest perhaps RYR to Malaga and Tenerife.

No further expansion by RYR on ANY LON routes (as per link above).

Regardless......brilliant news, and I know of a few people who've already booked a long weekend in Edinburgh direct from Derry.

Good news for dublin commuters - the previous timetable just didn't work - amazing what a half hour later departure meant in the morning

Interesting stuff in the final paragraph of this article:

City Council to name airport board this week - Derry Today

Derry Journal 2nd March 2010:


So is this the 3rd company that Alpha Echo was speculating about. Not Easyjet at all (not that I ever believed that one).

I was going to ask where was left for them to fly but a quick look at their route map shows plenty of possibilities. But which would be viable?

How about back to GLA for a start now that Aer Arann have changed Carrickfinn to GLA instead of PIK?