Confused indeed. There is currently a train station on the same side some seven miles away so no one is suggesting that is any kind of a solution.

What is being suggested is a station 3 hundred metres away which is approximately the distance of the current track from the terminal. Not the miles of track at millions of pounds at BFS but a short platform and a few hundred metres of path. Now if an Antrim rail interchange were to cost £10 million and require 10 million pax then LDY with 400K pax is well on the way with a rail interchange constructable for less than £250K.

The problem at LDY is that BFS and BHD would go mad and political heads would roll if LDY or anything West of the Bann were to get anything ahead of them. And yes! Passengers would come from Coleraine and Ballymena and perhaps even Belfast. Sacriledge!

That sounds more achievable. However does not. No new rail station ever comes that cheap. And if the sole purpose is to attract traffic which currently uses BFS and BHD I don't see the point, even if you could attract them with a two-hour plus journey from Belfast followed by 300 metres of lugging your cases along a windswept walkway. In any case airport managements hate rail links because they make no money out of them.
NS

I've just looked at the CAA aerodrome chart and the closest point of the railway to the terminal is at least 850 metres. Add the requirement for any station buildings and stationary trains to be clear of all obstacle surfaces on the final approach and it's unlikely to be less than 900 metres in practice.
NS

And your point is? If you checked in at DUB for a flight at the end of the D pier for instance you'd still have farther to walk than from a new train station to the gate at Eglinton. And that's only one example, there are several other airports you'll walk alot farther in.

Agreed. I think the original point being made was that it would be cheap because it's only 300m. Clearly if it's three times that length it will be somewhat dearer. And this is for a facility with questionable value in delivering passengers who wouldn't otherwise use the airport.
NS

The only likely benefit a rail stop would have, would be a negligible increase in passengers from the Coleraine area. The vast majority of passengers travelling to LDY either get there off their own steam, or use taxis.

Public transport to the airport is more or less nonexistent, and before there's a debate about a rail stop, surely a dedicated, hourly bus link between the airport and Derry City centre should be the priority? As it stands, the very infrequent buses that do serve the airport, do so at such times as to be pointless (none arrive in time for the early flights, and the last one of the day is around 4.30pm).

So, a couple of hundred grand on a rail halt, or on developing a dedicated bus service?

From September 1st there will be an hourly bus service to the airport.

Good news SpeedbirdATC. A rail stop would also be great for connectivity and would mean Derry airport would be convenient for people who live near stations on the this rail line. With the Dublin government financing the airport and the motorway to Dublin, maybe they could be persuaded to fund the rail stop at the airport and extend the line to Letterkenny;)

June provisional stats are out. Still not brilliant news, with a 7.3% overall decline in pax numbers. The individual routes/average pax/loads are as follows:

Stansted: 8851/147.5/78%.

Liverpool: 5383/128.1/68%.

Birmingham: 4082/120.1/63.5%.

Prestwick: 4028/118.4/62.7%.

Faro: 2213/138.3/73.2%.

Alicante: 1943/121.4/64.2%

Dublin: 1530/12.8/30%.

Reus: 1363/136.3 per flight, and Mallorca 1511/151.1 per flight. I'm not sure what equipment is used on these flights. If it's an A320, then the Mallorca flight has been operating close to capacity.

Reus & Palma are operated by TOM Airbus 320

So, Mallorca must be operating close to capacity. (Unless they use the 180 seat plan).

Thanks Jamie.

All TOM Airbus 320 have 180 seats

UK City of Culture 2013
 

It was good news about UK City of Culture 2013. But how will anyone get here with just 4 domestic flights?

Hopefully this City of Culture thing could spur some route development but I hope we don´t have to wait until 2013!

With Flybe announcing a major fleet expansion, and with their aircraft being the ideal size for LDY, then perhaps they may look (again!) at operating out of Derry on domestic routes.

One would imagine that if even half the developments planned for the city come to fruition, then more scheduled international routes could also work due to increased tourism and interest in the city (e.g. the plans for developing Tate Ireland in Ebrington). Paris, Madrid (as already suggested by Declan Tierney), and maybe somewhere in Germany too.

FLYBE EMB's at LDY
 

It would be good news for Derry/ Londonderry / Legen..............Oh whateverderry

It would be yet another few less £1 coins for BFS, It could be the end for BFS if LDY get Flybe . Great airline and able to get bums on seats

With the airport being turned in to a proper airport and not a council run
landing strip. It will give other airlines a feeling of security for their investment

But the thing is would it be a waste of time spending money on a rail station?
Dont get me wrong but NI people love their cars and 4X4's and getting people to walk 300m from a train station would just not work
Translink have great trains but they are still not going to get people on them when they can drive the big BMW up to the door ( well nearly)
The money would be better spent on other projects.
But what ever they do they must not charge for drop offs!

All they have to do is rename it
I think "Phil Coulter International" He could write a wee song about it
A bit like the one he did for " Supper Gran" with Billy Connoly would be great:ok::ok:

Aircraft Accident at Eglinton Sunday 8th August.
G-NWDC Robinson 22 of Cutting Edge Helicopters came to grief on the helicopter training area at 1650 Local time.
Thankfully, the pilot escaped with just slight injuries.
Wreckage due to be moved late Monday morning.
AE

Any ideas what caused the R22 accident? Glad to hear the pilot is OK!

Having just discovered this forum there's so much I want to say, but I'll refrain from rambling. It's indeed great news that CODA is partnering with Balfour Beatty, and I hope with their experience they can indeed attract different airlines because with a diverse airline choice comes stability for the airport. To those who argue that Derry's just a minor airport we have to look at Shannon and Cork, with between 2-4million pa. Ok we're not going to get that much but there's definitely room for expansion.
What really angered me was RE's careless attempt at expansion in March, with little advertising and near daily flights to destinations. With less frequent flights to Edinburgh and Manchester they could indeed have been viable. I would have thought maybe the return of a Bristol route from RE would have been sustainable since Ryanair had c.44k pa when they operated. More that sufficient for a turbo prop fleet.
In regards to Conor Murphy saying an Airport requires 10m passengers for a rail link, I can only laugh! Birmingham where I study Transport Management, has an Airport that in the past used to be just slightly busier than Aldergrove, however it has a train station, a busy one at that, and has been profitable for 20 years... The airport has yet to meet 10m pa.
One thing we should be proud of though is Derry will soon have a dual carriageway to its airport, thats better than Aldergrove. With the introduction of Dual Carriageways to Aughnacloy and Dungiven this airports sphere of influence can only increase.
As for whether Flybe shall come... Derry is now set to be UK City of Culture, people from the rest of the UK will come, Flybe proudly boasts it's the UK's regional airliner... well it best set up shop in the UK City of Culture.

The July provisional stats are in. Pax per flight and load factor are as follows:

Stansted: 160.3/85%

Birmingham: 131.4/69.5%

Liverpool: 128.8/68%

Prestwick: 139/73.5%

Dublin: 11.8/28% (surely this route is for the chop sooner rather than later).

Faro: 178.5/94.4%

Alicante: 159.4/84.3%

Palma: 178.4/94.4%

Reus: 174.8/92.5%

Burgas: Carried 405 pax during July, but as this route was shared with Cardiff I have no idea how many seats were available from LDY.

Overall, pax numbers fell 7.7%, with flights down over 9%. So, it seems the continued fall in pax numbers has more to do with flight reductions and crazy scheduling from RYR than anything else. Dublin is shocking, and no doubt will soon bite the dust.

Having said that the Faro, Alicante, Reus and Palma LFs are encouraging. Perhaps RYR will add a Malaga for next year.

STN still looks like a route that could return to 2xdaily.

Cuthere.

The sun routes are very encouraging. I wonder if this could tempt another carrier to begin some other sun routes, even if Thomson or Europe Airpost could add to their summer charters, that would be a start.

Hopefully EZY or Flybe are looking at these figures and pondering the possibility of starting a proper London service.:ok: