Ryanair re Belfast
 

Hello all ,
Can anyone confirm that Ryanair are starting a base at Belfast-Int ?
It only seems natural that they would get their slice of the cake at BFS , as well as EZY , Jet2 , and BMI .
I have heard this from reliable sources .

I know no more than you, although it's seeming more and more possible with all those new planes Ryanair have commited to buying. However that doesn't discount the simple reason why Ryanair have stayed away until now: if they were to go into BFS (an established Easy and Jet2 hub) things would get very very messy, with no guarantee of anyone coming out on top.

*j*

Are they going to expand at Eglinton? They practicaly have a monopoly there, would it not be a safer bet?

wouldn't be that messy. They don't do the same routes as easyjet and it didn't stop them at lpl and ltn. I heard that easyjet havn't much in the pipeline at bfs this year either.

Any word of routes that FR might be interested in?

Could get a BFS-SNN route soon.

Just read the front page of the Northern Ireland Travel News, which states that Shannon Airport is in discussions with Ryanair, Easyjet and Aer Arann about restarting the BFS-SNN route this year.

Richard

I guess a Shannon route would be useful for onward travel to the USA (until the Shannon stop-over disappears) depending on the timing.

its reopening the old aer lingus route. hard to see aer arann doing it as they dont operate to shannon at all. Possible option for ryanair seeing they are changing their destinations out of shannon a lot these days.

Did SNN talk to EI about the route? If FR can fill a 738 surely EI could fill a 320 and with interlining traffic too!

Aer Lingus A320s are only based at Dublin, Cork and Heathrow. It would be as difficult for them as for Aer Arann.

It would work really well - although they would have to get the timing spot on.

Is the early LHR not based in SNN?

If EI did have an SNN based 320 then all sorts of good things could start happening - like AMS, FRA, CDG, bucket and spade routes or even DUB :D :D :D :D

I just took a look at the timetable. It looks like it is in Winter, but not in Summer. Presumably, it is a nightstopper rather than a based plane.

I can't see them gong for significant short-haul expansion at Shannon, with the Ryanair base there and their own base just down the road in Cork. However, if the Cork charges sky-rocket...

BFS is a curious one in being the only EU city I can think of to have two commercial airports*, but no presence of Ryanair at either of them, yet the reasons seem to be as much due to airport politics than anything else.

IIRC, BHD would be a non runner due to night restrictions, whereas BFS simply do not need to lower their charges enough to appeal to FR. I think speculation about a base is often overdone anyway. When was the last time any established airline just went in from scratch and set up shop in totally new city without testing the waters first?

DUB seems to be FR's usual testing ground, but that would be too short a sector. GRO, PSA would seem more obvious choices if FR were to start anything at BFS, or is there some good PSO money / other incentives for operating routes within (the island of) Ireland?


*For the pedants - commercial = operating regular scheduled passenger carrying flights. "City" = IATA designated city (and therefore DUS includes NRN aswell as MGL) and not including islands such as Tenerife (not strictly in the EU), Cyprus or Crete.

What's the length of BHD's runway? Could FR have had issues with the 738s and their derated donks? Can't see Harbour liking the 732s either - wouldn't have gone down well with the locals.

The PSO money is for flights from Dublin to regional airports in Ireland to Kerry, Galway, Knock, Sligo, Donegal and Derry. It doesn't cover flights from Dublin to the larger airports of Cork, Belfast and Shannon or indeed flights between them such as Cork to Belfast.