Short term would EI have the capacity to up freq at BFS? Perhaps we could see EI staffing and operating 3 daily from the BFS end and BA operating 3 a day from LHR end? 6 a day should probably be enough to cover the demand. No night stops, no new crew base required at Belfast and free's up 3 slot pairs for LHR expansion.

If BA really wanted to maximise their market share of Belfast via Heathrow to the rest of the world, the best solution is their on metal into T5 from Belfast.

Bad news for BHD unless Luffy have a change of heart.

Belboy
 

Why is it you think that continuing to support baby will drag the rest of the group under? baby is the least of the groups problems and the only part of it on budget so far this year.

BA lost a fortune on the then Shuttle in it's final years. I believe the main issue was that because so many passengers were transitting onto long haul, it was long haul that was allocated the bulk of the ticket revenue. Hence massive loss for short haul ! This is similar to BMI and the Glasgow route quite recently, with every single STAR partner codesharing on the BD014 and the route still being knee deep in red ink at the end of the FY.

As things stand, BA get the connecting passengers from EI without sustaining a massive loss on their short haul network.

Clearly the out come of LH review could have implications on baby ops, in the short term 6-12 months I wouldn't worry, baby has thus far done more or less what it said it would do at BHD, there as been the odd cancelation,AMS starts in a few weeks like wise the early BHD EMA departure.

The higher thrust 737's will be on line soon and sales are going well for next Summer.

See from today's tele Manx2 to fly Gloucestershire from BHD (via a stop in Isle of Man):bored:

Looks like flybe and EZY will have to consider canning their flights to Bristol and Birmingham;)

Skipness were the loses not at a time when British Midland brought online new A320/321's on the BFSLHR route and raised the game before the move to BHD?

My logic was based on BHD losing its LHR link therefore leaving no competition on the route. It would be interesting to see EI's response to any loss of BHD's LHR service because presumably they allocate some revenue to BA for connections. If BMI leave BHD, EI won't need to rely on connecting BA traffic to fill seats meaning less money lost to paying BA for the privildge of shuttling their long haul connectors. Interesting times ahead should BMI leave BHD.

Egac, just reading your last post. I kept a copy of the BA write up from 2001 when BA binned BFS LHR and they wrote of losses etc. At that time BA were also using Airbus on many rotations.

At that time BA hadn't gotten to grips with the mass arrival of loco's, it had much higher cost base and had the whole 9/11 situation to compound the problem. BA could probably come to the market and make profits, but probably not at a satisfactory level. Hence I can't see it happening, and past examples suggest they have little interest in many UK domestic services. I also note that IAG report draws attention to general declines in domestic flying in both UK and ESP, so maybe that gives an indication in the Outlook.

Bmi's future in my opinion both from ww and bd point of view pose big threat to BHD airport.

I'm not sure what EI could do if, and it's a big IF, bmi disappeared from the BHD-LHR route. Surely they're already using all their LHR slots as it is, and I don't know if they'd be willing to reduce any of their DUB or other services to use the slots on BFS

Whats stopping Bmi from dropping DUB. I'm sure DUB is just as much at risk as BHO. If bmi goes from DUB then EI would have to increase DUB - LHR before BFS -LHR.

EI have cut 7 weekly flights to LHR next summer from BFS. Was due to be 4 daily will be 3 daily.

EMC

It's great news indeed. Should Dr Foster change his mind after his last soggy trip he shall now be able to fly there. Assuming of course he is from Northern Ireland and doesn't mind wasting half a day to get there.

BmiBaby
 

Guys I really do think that this knee jerk reaction from WW is gonna cost them more in the long run.They are selling routes from BHD that cannot possibly compete with up to 3 airlines selling said routes from BfS.The travelling public at last can mix and match carriers from 1 location and get the best deal with competing carriers.A stand alone so called LFA at bhd will never be able to compete.For one,Carparking,cause youre not gonna go a weekend break and fly from one airport and park at another.or come back to the other airport.2,My many connections at BMI revenue(where i worked for 10 years)are saying forward bookings are very slow and are falling way short of targets.I think that Inkje needs to take off his rose tinted spetacles.3,They are losing cash hand over fist....Stn route is losing money every day.

Muteyshriek; I think you are right in your comments, BHD will notwork for WW in the long term, for a start, they are already closing well established routes to Cardiff and Manchester (MAN if not closing straight away is down to daily, waste of time) if the move to BHD was in any way beneficial they would never have closed routes down, shows that they cannot compete and a deliver a point of difference over Flybe, and the same will be the case to Europe, BHD is costly for parking etc, and EI, LS and especially EZY will fight for the market rigorously.

BHD backed the wrong horse in choosing WW for its big foray into Europe, a bit like Knock airport getting Flyglobespan onto Knock/Boston and JFK. The routes did well but as the airline went bust is a hard case to put to an airline as it seemed a route failed.

Im not convinced at this stage that BHD to Europe will materialise and oddly enough FR are carrying alot more passengers on x2 daily LDY STN than WW carry on BHD STN which this time last year was seeing monthly boardings in excess of 30k.

EI-BUD

If ww routes do not materialise do we think flybe will take up the routes? Surely bhd would give them a good deal if they did, as did I not hear a while back that bhd where altering the arrivals hall for intl flights, if so it could be a big waste of money and they will need to recoup this by either begging flybe to take over the European routes or getting a new airline in ( I don't know who though) I do think flybe could easily take up the Amsterdam route and make it successful, but at the moment all we can do is speculate however I do feel the same as many others in that the big ww plans will never take off

It depends how BE see it, they could be happy enough continuing the routes they currently have, remember BE stepped up and helped BHD big time when FR left, but management at BHD then allowed WW to come across and directly compete on a couple of their domestic routes... which BE wasn't impressed with (although, we never seen the calculated and robust response?)

The sale of BMI will no doubt take awhile.. is there a chance they will run the schedule as planned for summer 2012.

Give em a break
 

Mutley

It's hardly knee jerk, they WW have been at BHD since the 1st of Jan and have done what they said they would do, STN is profitable, if your contact in bmi revenue are mainline then, well what can I say? adding up has not been a strong point in bmi.

Of course anything that Lufty may or may not do with the group could have a knock on effect on WW but for now it's very much business as normal, if STN was to be canned it would have been done by now we are less than 7 weeks from the start of the winter program with two night stopper 737's at BHD

WW is a well run well managed airline, unfortunately it's a long long way down the DLH food chain.

Rose tinted? Well maybe we will see

When is the work due to start /finish on the new arrivals facility? Does anyone have details on the plans or is it too early in the process for that detail.

The Irish News is running an artricle this morning on the results just posted for BHD and if true it is dire. Profits for 2010, when FR were operating for 10 months were £15k.

Not good results, but they could be worse.

Isn't the court hearing in connection with the SfS limit taking place today, maybe the results from that will provide some cheer for the city.

Flybe will be suspending LPL (Liverpool), DSA (Robin Hood) and MSE (Manston) which will be ending very soon.

if this is true it is going to be a big blow to the airport as i cant see any other airline wanting to take up the routes, apart from easyjet who will more than likely increase liverpool flights