I find it irritating when you go into a travel agent and ask them to quote you for a holiday to blah blah blah leaving on a Sunday. They then press a few buttons and go no flights on a Sunday only Friday. You then reply 'yes you can blah blah dep each Sunday at 14.10 also on Tuesdays at 07.25 oh and by the way, Friday flights are fortnightly' making sure that every agent hears your reply. They then press a few more buttons get on the phone, and then 10 mins later 'oh sorry sir your right'.

I agree 100%. I bet a good 3rd of MAN and at least 1/2 of LHR pax are just ppl looking for connections. I reacon a weekly flight to places like the dominican republic and cancun (definetly florida, even in winter) would work very well. I think the fact that you have to get connections puts alot of people off. If BFS had even 1 flight a week to those carribean destinations, people would be attracted to them and would be very successful. Las Vegas however i think would work best once every week early march to late september. I would love to see EI to bring in some Us destinations. I dunno what you think but i think it would work well!:ok:

Did Globespan not offer BFS-LAS for a while?

Visitors...
 

Noticed a WIND JET A320 at BFS today...any ideas why it was there?

Also four similar small aircraft oover towards the tower / RAF apron...not sure what they were...again, any ideas?

Not sure about Globespan, but know last year MyTravel operated a couple of departures from BFS to LAS over Easter, and then again over peak late June early July.

NWSRG

The WIND JET A319 came in from Gander, and was probably a fuel stop before departing to Italy.
The four twin props behind the tower were Royal Navy Jetstreams T Mk2's used for observer training and came in from RNAS Culdrose. They are due to return today.

Last week I think it was Wednesday around 3.00pm, I saw what looked like a Boeing 707 with a large radar on the top on finals for 25 at BFS. The reason I say Boeing 707 as it had four engines and slim fuselage and with the radar looked like the USAF spy plane of the 80's.

I am not a spotter
 

Gate 22

Might have been one of these rare visitors.

RAF - Sentry

I am not really a spotter as in the 'train spotting' tag, however I live with a view of the approach path to 25 at BFS and the westerly at BHD. BHD is quite far away, however aircraft can be easily identified through binoculars. So when a Belfast bound aircraft comes in from the north (normally the transatlantic traffic) it would fly right over the house and that sentry was loud. So it prompted a look out the window. But thanks for that it probably was that aircraft.

gate22

The Ulster Aviation Society produce a journal for members every month entitled Ulster Airmail.
There are interesting features and articles and it lists non scheduled visitors to both Belfast International and Belfast City airports.
Website is
ulsteraviationsociety.co.uk

At work I often get accused of being a spotter but being an aviation enthusiast has helped me enormously in my thirty eight years career as an ATCO.

Well WA, it hasn`t helped you with your vectoring!!!!!

Only joking old boy, its good to see you back on here again.

Cheers, TR

Alacrity,

Thanks for the info...some unusual passers-by on our wee patch!

Easyjet have no flights for:

BFS-PRG
BFS-VCE
BFS-SXF

during summer 09... have they dropped the routes or have they not got round to scheduling them yet

bit wierd as the BFS-PRG route is usually over 100 passengers during summer..

anyone have any info?

As far as I'm aware, Easyjet decided to cancel Berlin before the winter seats from BFS were put on sale, stating a lack of future bookings on the route.
With venice, I think winter seats were already on sale and had been planned to operate, but then pulled at the last minute before the winter flying schedule started. Likewise with Prague, winter seats were on sale for all winter season, and then the flights pulled as of Jan 09.

Appears that these destinations are cancelled for the foreseeable future, and I guess no chance of them being operated for summer 09.

Well there's 6 airframes for summer 09 just like last year so you never know..

FlyBE starting BHD to IOM and BLK from May 09.
Trouble ahead for Manx 2??

Flybe.com - News


Regarding the 6 airframes EZY have for summer 09 at BFS. Is there any gaps anyone has noticed in the current summer schedule to allow for these destinations to be included, or are the 6 aircraft already fully utilised??

EZY Airbus
 

Any sign of EZY basing any Airbus in BFS in the near future?

Ezy scarebuses
 

I can't see it myself, BFS was destined as one of the last boeing bases to be converted to airbus but with easy accelerating the retirement of the workhorses not that far away.

But it could be a while due to the need to re train flight deck crews and the slowing economy which could cause them to defer orders but that would make my first point invalid.

As far as I know Aer Lingus have 3 based units at BFS, however departures up to 09.35 tomorrow morning show only 2 EI flights:
EI 0068 Rome 07.10, and
EI 0032 Heathrow 07.40.

Does one of the based aircraft sit idle? Is this usual?

EI have dropped some mid-week flights to various points, eg Ams, Bcn.

True Blue

EZY have 1 airbus aircraft that nightstops in BFS, however its not a dedicated aircraft (usually a different reg every night) and the crew is from LGW, probably as close as its going to get for awhile..

as for EI, depending on the day of the week sometimes one of their aircraft wont move for a couple of hours until mid morning.. 1 of their aircraft usually goes out to CDG just after 11:00

I hear there was a Ryanair PIK - BHD diverted into BFS yesterday morning and they were able to put all the punters who came off into a people carrier.

Obviously runway restrictions aren't FR's main problem down at City.......

Now now, you are NOT allowed to discuss FR loads on this forum. You are only allowed to discuss EI loads here, they are the only ones not doing well. FR are doing fantastic and you have to keep to that story!!!!!!!!!!!!!

True Blue

I flew the FR1434 into BFS yesterday, I can assure you it has nothing to do with any problems but with the fact the runway was closed at BHD! Shortly after we were on stand, BMI, Aer Arran and Flybe all followed suit. I love how people are always so quick to jump on the FR-bashing bandwagon!

Was the reference to Ryanair not more to do with the low load factor (all fit in a people carrier), as opposed to the reason they diverted from BHD to BFS.

:D:D:D:D:D Brightened up my dull Friday afternoon

FR bashing Citroen Picasso surely?......

Why did the City fail to open on time?....BFS did(mind you we never close)

Spoke to a planner the other day, who said that there are currently 1750 objections to the runway extension at BHD, I thought that wasn't many, however he said they are arriving in there hundreds everyday. They aren't replying to individual objections as there are too many and apparently advertised a response in the local papers recently.

Can't half tell its Friday afternoon.... Love it

:ok::ok:

1700 objections - Impressive considering that there area about half a dozen residents groups and a Belfast Metropolitan population exceeding 500,000. Not to mention that most of the 6 or 7,000 pax through the airport every day could logically be considered as supporters of the extension.

As for BFS never closing - seem to remember a couple of Jet2's, easy and BMI baby at city last summer - diverted due to fog at Northern Irelands only all weather airport. LOL

wasnt that due to the fact the aircraft were older 700's? and landing in the fog at BFS would have been too risky...

the airbus aircraft made it though, as far as im aware

Rosemount......if you had the faintest idea of ALL the requirements which need to be met in order to carry out a CAT 3 approach you would realise the inanity of your comment.

Must have been interesting for Menzies / ATC on Thursday night, turned up for work and thought I was in DUB !!:confused:

Six Airbus out to Dub in an hour must have taken some planning.:D

Not sure why BHD didn't open in time, it had just closed as we got to MAGEE, went round the hold a few times while they were clearing the snow, but the length of time to clear it and the odds of getting a good enough braking action after it was cleared made the decision for us. I guess the snow must have been worse down there.
Non-event really, but BFS were excellent though in organising stuff for us considering they only knew we were coming 10 minutes before we were on stand!
Does anyone know how many non-objections the planners have had? I know BHD were getting people to fill in postcards to send off to them supporting the extension.

The planner said there were a few non-objections, but in no way near objections. He estimated 2000 objections by Friday (yesterday). When I said 1750 wasn't alot, he assured me that 2000 objections was a very high number, and mentioned the biggest ever was an exceptional 33,000, that was for the lignite proposal at Ballymoney. He said that taking that a side 2000 in itself was very large amount for any planning application.

6 airbuses on thurs for dublin? What happened there?

dublin closed because of the snow, so they sent 6 diversions to BFS... bet parking spaces at BFS were in short supply after that lol

There were 1,415 individual objections and a further seven petitions with 289 signatures – making 1,704 in all. In addition, there were 12 letters of support

From article on belfastcityairportwatch.co.uk website.
They also mention that recently
1. bmi LHR/BHD are now using A320's on all their services.
2. bmi want the curfew lifted for one arrival at 10.30pm
3. bmi does not think that BHD require a runway extension.
4. Belfast city council/Antrim, North Down and Ballymoney councils have all called for public inquiry into runway extension.

I suppose you can take what this website say's with a pinch of salt, however a lot going on behind the scene's if true. I thought the issue had all gone quiet.

BD are using a mixture of 319/320/321 on the BHD/LHR sortees!

Bmi haven't even mentioned the runway extension. They are doing what is wise, sitting on the fence and let flybe and ryanair slug it out against each other and the airport.

No matter what the airline says, BD are weight restricted IIRC and what flight crew is going to refuse extra runway length = increased safety margin.

Simple fact is that bmi don't need the extra length for their ops. Plenty long enough already. At the mo, we tanker in and operate out quite nicely. If the extra development incurs a financial penalty then quite frankly we're against it. Why should we pay for the lousy perf. of other aircraft types wising to 'stretch it' into Europe?! :cool:
Besides, why would I want to finish 'lates' after 9.30 pm?

The Dr.

Eastern Wiseguy - I was only having a 'wee joke' and you are absolutely correct in that I do not understand all of the requirements of a CAT 3 approach - and yes (thank you Tigger 2K8) a CAT 3 equipped aircraft would be a good start. In retrospect it may have been heavy rain rather than fog anyway that caused the diversions last year - seem to remember that it was the same day that the landside departures area flooded.

Regarding the other comments about the proposed runway extension.
I also would be surprised if most BD pilots would not like to see a few hundred extra meters of asphalt but publicly they have adopted an attitude of indifference. What strikes me as strange is that Dr Spin makes a comment about the cost of the runway being passed on to the airlines - 2nd time that I have heard this in a week. Airlines and airport authorities have reasonably lengthy contracts which fixes costs so the airport couldn't just increase fees .

Also -note I am not an expert in engine performance so please correct me if appropriate -would a departing Airbus still rotate at the same point if there was an extra 600m of runway? Or would fuel be saved by utilising all available runway length i.e. slower build up of thrust - or whatever the correct terminology is.

BMI have been publicly seeking an extension of the curfew for years and as for Antrim and Ballymoney council seeking a public enquiry - those noisy Ryanair planes must be really bad if they can be heard in Ballymoney - both obviously trying to protect BFS. Just a pity that North Down and Belfast didn't adopt the same tack with BHD and the thousand or so people employed there.