I heard 26 outbound PAX on BE today and the inbound was over half full.

Ah so around 50% and 33%LF's... not breath taking, but I've a theory this route will be most used by travels from MAN -> LDY on Thursdays and Fridays and LDY -> MAN on Sundays. As students or young workers come home to Derry for the weekend.

Was any announcements made today or any representatives from BE present?

And thank you for the video Stewart... great to see the plane at LDY!:ok:

I think it will be in the Derry journal tomorrow as I seen a guy with a camera come back out of the departure lounge, and I seen they had ballons when the aircraft went into the stand.

For comparison, I flew BHD-EXT return last week. 18 going out, 24 coming back. Doesn't seem to take much for BE to make a profit.

Good point Cu, and we did hear of the rumour that BE only need a dozen passengers to make a profit on a route. I do hope the route gets extended year round and perhaps a second route comes along sometime. If it hadn't of been promising for BE they wouldn't have continued to start the route. Here's to more routes from them in time.

I'm in London at the moment but next time I want to go home, I'll definitely detour via my sisters in Warrington to avail of the route!

Hope the Journals or Sentinels article is available online!

The C551 that visited yesterday was D-IRUP and the Belgian biz jets continued to arrive today, this time C525 OO-JDK arriving at midday from Dundee and leaving a few hours later to Ostend.

Flybe used G-KKEV on their first visit on the summer Manchester route and it was greated by the Mayor, Airport Licence holder and ITV's Julian simmons !

This evening, all 4 stands were full with two Ryanair 73's, an Aer Arann ATR 72 in lingus colours and the G5. Pity the Journal photographer hadn't waited around.......AE

Cheers Alpha, I was wondering which aircraft operated the Manchester route, but couldn't find the info.

A couple more private charters occuring today.

On another note, today for the first time, in a very long time, the arrivals and departure boards couldn't fit all the flights on at once! Is there any scheduled flights this evening after the Spanair to Reus?

Northern, Dublin!

You can view arrival and departure information individually if you click on "Arrivals" and "Departures" under Flight Information.

Found a link in the Derry City Council about the new route starting

Derry City Council - Flybe Makes Flying Start From City Of Derry Airport

Ofcourse CU! I was just being silly! Very busy day compared to most for ATC and ground staff at LDY!

I don't know if people have been following the BE thread, but apparently the AMS route out of INV is doing great booking wise before it's even started! But the LGW route is in doubt, as possible landing prices rises at LGW.

I know I'm being impatient but I'd love to see our airport being used to it's full potential, and it's good to see LDY gaining rotations and new routes. I think if we do see an extra route from BE, it'll be to EDI with 3 rotations a week as they did with NOC at first. I think the arguement for EDI is even stronger than MAN as more people in NI have relatives and connections in Scotland. Prestwick is also further from EDI that LPL is from MAN. Fingers crossed for that route and more in time. The fact that AMS is doing so well from INV is also a real hope for LDY. We might get our first major continental city link through BE. Wouldn't be surprised that if INV has to cut rotations of it's E195 to LGW, they would gain CDG!

Interesting story.

DONEGAL LECTURER BATTLES TO SAVE DERRY AIR LINK | Donegal Daily

A Donegal lecturer, who is based in Dublin, has launched a campaign to save the Derry to Dublin air route.

Aer Arann are pulling the route because the PSO money is ceasing.
Also, the latest CAA stats would suggest there's about 6-8 people per flight, so her assertion that a lot of people depend on the route is incorrect.

The fact of the matter is, Loganair used to operate a reliable service at good times from LDY to DUB. Then RE came in and the route went down the pan rapidly. This morning is a case in point. The 9.20 arrival finally turned up at 11.39.

The route has been utterly decimated by poor timings, frequent delays and regular cancellations; so one has to wonder, which airline would be able to rebuild it?

Sorry Scodaman, but that might actually be the most self serving campaign I have ever heard of. I'm afraid you'll have to either get a car or move, there is no justifiable business case for this route (or the other PSO routes being pulled) to be retained.

I think that is a one man (or woman) battle. Besides, Bus Eireann have introduced a new express service from Derry to Dublin calling at the Airport and Dublin only, with wifi. The third service Bus Eireann has added wifi too. I'd rather use that, as its more carbon friendly and at least it wouldn't be cancelled. With Aer Arann, you pay £50-60 to end up on a lower spec bus anyway. Day light robbery if you ask me! :=

Get OFF this subject now! The next time will see bans being used.

PPP

CAA have published the latest route data. The data is as follows:

STN: 10367. I can't remember when the extra Mon/Fri flights started, so I haven't done a pax/flight on this. I'm sure somebody else can work it out.

BHX: 4662. 137/flight. 72.4% LF.

LPL: 6106. 139/flight. 73.5% LF.

PIK: 4988. 113/flight. 60% LF.

DUB: 867.

FAO: 2114.

TFS: 487.

I didn't bother with DUB, as the route's essentially dead. Also, I can't remember when FAO started, and TFS has already been discussed above.

I also didn't bother with % changes from last year, as these are not representative due to the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull.

Thank you for the detailed breakdown as always CU!

It would appear the LPL and STN flights were cancelled or redirected to BHD today. TFS went out ok though. Hopefully flights are only affected and things go back to normal tomorrow. (Wishful thinking I know.)

Also, Mondays MAN flight was redirected to BHD. Wonder how this will affect passenger numbers. I am taking a tally so we have a more accurate understanding come the results for the month!

Thanks for that half baked attempt.

( Did someone get out of the wrong side of bed or what!?!? :) )

Did I miss something???? :)

Ah Amelia! Welcome back! How's the holiday hut in Alicante?

Go on then, when did the extra STN flights start? Tell me and I'll work it out. Also, if you can tell me how many flights RE actually bothered to operate on the LDY-DUB route, I'll work that out too.

Finally, where's the value in giving percentage changes from last year's severely disrupted April compared with the April just gone?

Selective quoting there too. You're not O'Leary in disguise?!

All in all a brilliant post! Cheers! :ok:

I see RYR are mucking about with LDY again. It seems the apparent double daily from the Winter has gone and double daily will now be on Sun & Fri only! BHX still isn't bookable so still don't knw whats going on there.