road problems
 

i meant in general. a lot of farmers wont like it being told their fields are going!

Ryanair at BFS
 

Just saw that myself regarding Belfast. It says BHD so its not BFS I don't think they have taken BHD off the map yet. Route maps tend to get updated less. its not on the drop down menu so i seriously doubt it. I would like to see FR at BFS because their cheap flights would attract lots of passengers, unfortunately i think its very unlikely especially with EZY there and the Spanish management skills. i think that ryanair might expand at LDY.

It was removed from the route map about 3 weeks after they finished at BHO. It wasn't on the map yesterday but it appeared this morning.

There is NO justification for ID to be shown for an INTERNAL flight. It was introduced SOLELY for the LOCO's pricing policy. i.e. I buy a ticket at 1.99 and sell it on at a profit(albeit STILL cheaper than the current web fare).

You'd better explain that to the West Yorkshire Constabulary. When you land at LBA from either BFS or BHD you enter the terminal, there are two of those little podium style desks with a detective at each, you form a queue and shuffle through. They take everyone's photo ID, study it and give it back to them. I wouldn't like to try telling them I didn't have any ID on me. My mother lives outside Leeds and it's like that every time we go to visit her. It reminds me of the type of measures people from Belfast had to endure when travelling to GB airports during the 70's and 80's.

Jamie2k9, looked that up again today and its still on, maybe o'learly is changing his mind. Has he been given an update to the runway extension or something. when is the runway planned for extension

Lord above, and just when I thought Belfast had waved cheerio to Ryanair and relaxed a little, now rumours that they may return!!! Ahhhhhhh

Seriously though. BHD need to tread carefully I think. After the car park and access fiasco, collecting my friend at BHD last Monday, should FR re-enter the market, the new extended terminal may cope, but the road network and current set-down / pick-up facilities certainly cannot. BHD could easy become a victim of its own new-found success.

Gone are the days when BFS was the "big planes and International routes" with BHD being a little more sophisticated and business orientated; a more pleasant airport on the whole to use. With WW and possibly FR, BHD could become just another frantic, crowed and stressful airport to use. Please no!!

EZY had the A320 in this morning arrived almost 2hrs late

Frequent Flyer. That is where the confusion arises. The ticketing issue does NOT require id except as I have detailed above.

A-Z of legislation: Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

This link is what the West Yorkshire police et al are concerned with.

I am afraid that anything else is a comparison of apples and oranges.:)

Although they say they fly to BHD at 3km from the city centre, I don't think the bus would take 30mins. I would say that its either BFS or more than likely Belfast being marketed as a destination from Londonderry. For Londonderry they just have to change the 'we fly to' line and maybe add 45mins onto the bus journey. If it were BHD where would they fly to? the runway is at least one year away. Also any additional flights are going to push the airport dangerously close to 48,000 flights per anum.

BHO now removed from the map.

FlyBE Evacuation
 

BBC reporting that a FlyBE a/c bound for BHX has been evacuated at BHD.

which one will make more news?
 

ok bfs or bhd smoke in cabin. which one will demand enquies and calls for safety reviews and which one will get a few lines after a story about pregnant pandas!

I know its been kicked around here a few times but I heard from a pretty reliable source today that EZY will be moving it's Luton service back to BFS soon. I'm not saying it's true but has anyone else heard anything ?

Why wouldnt they?
The service has been cut down to 2 per day peak summer, obvousily the LTN aircraft is filling in for sun destinations from Ltn. So will they base an aircraft at BHD or simply move it back where it belongs to fill out the schedule.

I think it is only a matter of time before LTN route is back at BFS - seemed a very odd to move it in the first place.

get in line!
 

maybe ltn will go back up the road bv then someother airline will fill it and ezy will have lost the foot in door!. bmi did well with it .ps was right about reporting of yesterday!

hi 'mysecretsmile'

I might seem odd, but I think that the move served a few purposes, firstly, assuming that Ryanair were only getting big concessions on routes that currently had no operator on them, LTN at that time was one of the FR bases in the UK that was not served from BHD and I feel EZY moved to be there first ensuring that FR couldnt then secure a good deal on it re fees. In addition, it was looking very unlikely that FR would do a route to BFS, so little fear that FR would take a BFS link to LTN.

Secondly, Might have served as a big bargaining tool with BFS and also the possibility that EZY wanted to sample the demand and yield on a BHD London route.

Given that WW are going onto BHD Stansted route I think EZY might stay put given that if EZY pulled the flight BHD management may make it very attractive for BE or WW to get onto the route.

EI-BUD

BE didn't take the lucrative STN which lay vacant for months (which is a long time in BHD terms), and we are still waiting on their 'robust' reaction to WW. I think the WW STN move is part of an overall strategy by bmi group to take the pressure off the LHR slots on domestics. Will EDI/STN, GLA/STN follow. The only operator that I would see being interested in LTN/BHD would be FR. However why would they bother LTN/Belfast isn't exactly the top London route out of NI? FR had most domestics covered from BHD why would they throw all the toys out of the pram and come back with one token route. Why have they not started EDI/STN etc....

Whether the route is lucrative remains to be seen given the level of capacity to the London market, and it remains to be seen if this will work for WW.

Im not sure as to the answer to this question, though it may be something to do with BAA setting the charges at a level that would not be attractive to FR and hence protecting EZY in the market, at the end of the day BAA would certainly not like to lose EZY at STN given that without them FR literally have the place to themselves?

Don't forget:-

BHD total aircraft movements 2009 - 39330 (2010 not available yet)

with the removal of FR reduction in LHR, the addition of EZY/WW/MANX2/BE extras
I reckon there would be a net gain of 10 flights Mon-Fri 10x2x5x52=5200 plus 4 at weekends 4x2x2x52=832 therefore 6000 extra, basically that would add up to 45330 which = 2670 movements left. That is about 26 arrivals and 26 departures per week, which allows for one more route at say 4 per day. If my maths is correct what will BHD do? cull MANX2 or just operate illegally?

There's a very interesting article in the daily mirror about BHD and safety. Worth a read if your buying it today, not sure if its online

Edit - my apologies not todays, thought it was as I got it handed to me, when I get home I will post bits of info

Any chance of a synopsis?

Ive searched and searched but cant seem to find this online anywhere and i no longer have the paper as it was borrowed, the article was on roughly page 7 and spread across 2 pages, hopefully someone else has seen it, i only had a chance to skim over it quickly, some key points i picked up on. Not all of these are down to the airport, but seems to be more of a dig at servisair's operations, which isn't surprising considering who the main source to the paper was...

*Aircraft not being de-iced when they required it
*Aircraft not getting fully de-iced and captains requesting to skip the rest
*Servisair staff de-icing aircraft who are not trained to do so, some of which are "scared of heights"
*Airport staff telling friends/family not to travel from the airport for safety concerns during the winter weather
*A damaged tow-bar sitting on the runway (although, i would say more than likely the apron or the taxiway
*Improper de-icing of surfaces (runway/apron/taxiway), apparently by servisair, although the last time i checked, serviceair didnt de-icing the ground...

All of this was leaked by staff, including an ex-servisair health and safety manager (apparently)... there was more on the print, and thats only from the first few columns, if anyone can find such article or has a copy of the daily mirror (im positive this was the paper) and can add more to it, feel free.

edit - my apologies, wrong newspaper name

Ex Servisair Health and Safety rep, who was sacked for leaving a tow bar on the taxiway for a Ryanair to taxi over. From reading the article it seems to be a bitter ex-employee out to stir trouble

Thats the very article MontyP, was it todays paper or what was the date? trying to get hold of copy of it to have a better read

even though it looks like a disgruntled ex-employee, the matters raised such as untrained staff de-icing, does need investigating though

I read it, it was last week, Wednesday or Thursdays Daily Mirror. There was a picture of the damaged tyre from the plane that ran over the towbar that was left on the taxiway, IIRC it was an ezy (only one route that can be) and not ryanair. I wonder what damage a disgruntled employee from BFS could do, believe me its worse up there, place is falling apart. Would be safer landing a plane on some of the back roads around the airport than 25/07 at the minute !!!

it was fr
 

the pic was from a bhd - stn flight one sunday morning a few weeks before they left. it was dark and only flight going at time.

I wonder what damage a disgruntled employee from BFS could do, believe me its worse up there, place is falling apart. Would be safer landing a plane on some of the back roads around the airport than 25/07 at the minute !!!

Are you saying it's not safe to use BFS at present? Why? Please explain.

Sorry, I didn't mean unsafe, I will rephrase. It would probably not be as bumpy on a back road, there would be less pot holes. Runway surface was bad enough before the sub zero weather, its even worse now. The surface on 17/35 is better than 25/07.

Charlie and Lima taxiways are also full of bumps and holes and getting worse by the week. Theyr'e constantly patching it up.

Thanks. I was a bit worried for a moment there. Hopefully the pilots won't test out your theory about the rather windy roads around the airport.

I wonder what damage a disgruntled employee from BFS could do, believe me its worse up there, place is falling apart. Would be safer landing a plane on some of the back roads around the airport than 25/07 at the minute

The runway is safe, just a bit bumpy in places round bravo. The back road is far worse to be honest. BHD is safe, servisair has a few issues to sort out though. Falling apart is a bit of an overstatement for BFS, aging yes, but still operational. Was some big wigs walking arond in the last few days, must be something going on, hopefully something good.

was looking at 'therouteshop.com' and shannon airport shows that there would be demand for a route to belfast, surely this would be a perfect route for manx2.com 19 seaters,

any chance we might see this route soon?

There was talk of Aer Arann starting a route between SNN - Belfast before Christmas.

Brian Ambrose has been appointed to the board of Glentoran Football Club. Somewhat ironic, as the pitch lies directly underneath final approach for 04. In fact, the club cannot redevelop the stadium for anything other than football, as planning regulations restrict development under the approaches. Maybe Mr Ambrose will persuade GBBCA to move the runway 500m north rather than simply extend it. Then the wee Glens might get their move from the Oval (nicely redeveloped as urban housing) to a new stadium! ;)

they can build on it
 

part of the Oval agreement was they would get a new stadium first then move. there are new houses right beside the oval and the old school is being converted to homes

Hello folks!

Decided to get myself registered to these forums at long last and make use of myself :)

I managed to get a copy of the Mayfly for BHD which shows a few interesting things! Seems the Amsterdam & Stornoway flights are schedulled on it? Only way I could get them to show is on the photobucket links below and I had a few problems uploading the last page, but there is nothing new. Hopefully this is of some use to someone out there.

American Holidays
 

Sorry to drag the thread a little off topic, but does anyone have any experience of booking with American Holidays based in Lombard St, Belfast?
I have a good offer from them for flights / hotels in the states but having never booked through them before am a little nervous. From what I can see online they are owned by TUI, but I can't see any mention of ABTA / ATOL protection?

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

OK
 

Booked a 4 night stay to the Big Apple with them. Booked my flight with CO from BFS and my hotel ( Holiday Inn ) thru them. No problems.