Tad disappointed in the 1 daily flight between EMA and BHD would like to have at least2 or 3, or like mentioned we'll see how BMI Baby take to it and their reaction.

Must be for when they have to divert from BHD or LDY so the passengers can back their own way!!!:)

To say that one is a tad disappointed is a truely great understatement. The entire press conference said nothing of any note or value, once daily to EMA PIK and LPL will only hack off flybe. I must congratulate all at BHD on the best goal I have ever seen, sadly it was an own goal.
I can only hope that the 'more to follow' by the Chief Exec is something more exciting that a once daily to SNN.

Well I guess it'll be small steps and expand gradually. Still its better than not coming at all.

I think anyone who thinks that this isn`t big news is way off target.
Ok so its six flights a day to start with but the arrival of the most competitive of lcc`s with a reputation for the lowest fares and the relentless ability to succeed against their competitors is definitely gonna make a huge impact on the NI market.
It wouldn`t matter whether these flights were from Bfs or Bhd it is definitely big news. I`ll bet Ej aren`t reading the papers thinking " its only a couple of flights per day " because with Fr`s reputation for rapid expansion it won`t be long before they`ll be going into Europe from Bhd.
I knew if i stayed here long enough something interesting would happen one day.

I have already said that it is good news - for consumers. However we are not on a level playing field, the whole way this has been 'handled' is sus, I am open to criticism here but my opinion is that there is an imminent EI announcement and FR just wanted to steal their thunder. BHD is operating near to its (admittedly artificial) cap so there is not much room for expansion unless (and I would suspect it will happen) BE throw their toys out of the pram and to a certain extent BD as well.

There will be a lot of scrambling at BFS now too, they would have liked to land FR and have lost some face by not doing so. They will also want to see a juicy announcement from EI to offset that disappointment and WW and LS will be looking for assistance to fend off the oncoming U2/FR battle of the big boys.

Whatever way you look at it we may have political peace here now (and long may it continue) but politics still plays a big part in everything.

So they found it .......:hmm:

There is a lot I could say about that, but it has all been said before.

I do think that local politicians should take up the running and create a policy for both airports, there is room for both airports but a lot of the operations are currently daft, it is a well known fact that BD moved from BFS to BHD because of a fall out with BIAL - what sort of a way is that to carry on. The airlines try and fight both airports off against each other, I think I read somewhere recently that BE were in discussions with BFS, their current contract was up for renewal - yea right!

Ryanair announces Belfast city flights
(from RTE.ie)
Ryanair is to start flying from Belfast City Airport beginning on 30 October.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0725/ryanair.html

JAS

Just a spotter

Just woken up?:}:}

You are absolutely right G22 the location at this end doesn`t matter, in fact the last time i went through Paris it was with Air France/ City Jet out of Dublin. What matters most is the fare and the timings. Maybe if you live in the Paris area and want to go to Belfast you would choose to flight that actually goes to Belfast and not Crumlin ? I don`t think its the wrong Airport, Fr have been operating out of Ldy for a while now and their hours are even more restrictive. Don`t get too down, EI will be along to cheer you up any day now!!

Eastern, thanks for the directions to AA, who knows when they may come in handy!!

Maybe the BBC are confusing the would "start" with "announce"... Maybe EI will make an announcement about BFS in August.

All AB domestc services have been axed from the end of the summer schedules, MAN, BHD GLA etc. Its old news.:rolleyes:

I agree gate 22, it does seem a strange choice. I'd say they'll have been 'promised' things in order to persuade them. We must remember that the people who made this decision on both sides will have weighed this all up. FR of all airlines, are not ones to piss about and subsequently see things go tits up. The words ruthless success pretty much sum them up from what I can see.

I'd be suprised if FR fail at the city for exactly that reason. However, if I, only going on what I know, had to pick the idea airport for them to be at, aldergrove would the choice by a considerable distance.

So is the status of the EI routes still unconfirmed or do we definately know a heathrow route will start at some point in the near future? Is anything else, numbers of routes, destinations, frequencies still rumours?

it is not outside the realms of possiblity that RYR will end up in BFS over the next couple of years anyway. Easyjet will not react to this announcement..just as they failed to smell the coffee at EMA, LPL and alike. If they do it will be more waffle in the same way they pretended to be launching great expansion last winter. BFS are waking up to this now. If EZY won't give them the routes they want then they'll get them off somebody else. The favourite looks like EI at the minute but the Ryans are very good at playing airports of against each other. Bottom line is great news for the consumer but bad news in the long run if you are a local pilot. Back in the day JY were the big show in town. Then came EZY to eclipse them. I can see RYR doing serious long term damage to EZY in the very same way within a year or two.

Why is there a believe that Air Berlin are to axe their domestic routes at the end of summer ? This is not the case with BHD, they have just recently added Oct 07 -July 08 to their online booking engine.
Their Stansted to BHD service is now performing very well with decent load factors on each flight. A couple of extra rotations would breathe even further life into this route for AB.

Why is there a believe that Air Berlin are to axe their domestic routes at the end of summer ?

When you put flights into the booking machine say for Nov it comes that the flights only operate until Oct 07, and this is where the speculation comes from. However they may just have not put in the winter schedule yet. Where does it say about -July 08. According to caa data June 07 8478 pax pretty poor for London/Belfast 2 rotations per day

Agree with the above. This is the start of the end of easyJet in Northern Ireland. The Ryans will have both Belfast airports served from their many, many outstations within 3 years. They can use cheaper (for example) Eastern European pilots to do this, which will in turn be reflected in lower fares and a better choice of routes. Nice while it lasted........