As always. BFSHDtoBHDBFSbetterthanHDBFS, I'm entirely calm. I bet Wee Willie is itching, ITCHING I TELL YOU, to take all and everything IAG-wise up to BFS ASAP! There's nothing he would like more than competing on the LON routes. After all, he has LHR to beat people with. Meanwhile, FR and EZY only have STN, LGW and LTN in that area. Wee Willie would be a nutter not to move to the shed.

Roll on.

I'm not here to annoy anyone, but the way I look at it (and I may be wrong) and I have no favourite airport
But if you put a level head on there is advantages to a move, if larger aircraft can be used it allows slots to be made available and also allows for a later arrival into Belfast and no worries about additional costs
I've noticed BA now close their lounge in BHD during quiet times which they didn't do before so they are obviously very cost conscious even when it comes to a business lounge being open for an extra hour when not needed
I'm not saying it's going to happen, but what's really stopping it from happening? They'd maybe even pick up at deal at BFS

Advantage to a move? Let's pretend Belfast and its immediate environs are the economic hub of NI. Let's pretend it is also the political hub of NI. Let's pretend people who fit both categories live nearer BHD than BFS. Let's pretend there's a premium world class service allowing these people an extra 30-60 mins in bed compared to EZY/FR from BFS, and they keep flying to LHR. Let's pretend some of these people fly BHD to LCY at a much higher cost than using the competition at BFS.

Let's pretend in total these passengers amounted to 10s (no need for an apostrophe on the plural - Queen's English and all) of thousands of people. When you engage reality, I STILL see no business sense in moving to the shed.

Yes but how many are only travelling to LHR and how many are connecting through so don't care which airport it is?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Thing is though, I won't pretend to know. Suffice to say that there are PLENTY of people from the Six Counties/NI etc etc who feel convenience/price etc is enough of a motivational reason to use DUB, and therefore, there must be a population who make similar decisions about BHD/BFS.

The runway at City isn't a constraint for BA; look at their Dublin pseudo-Shuttle* service, they could put any aircraft they want on it but they go for frequency with the A319 / 320 / 321. There was much excitement at Christmas when it was rumoured they were scheduling a couple of B772 rotations into Dublin but they turned-out to be A321s.


* it's about time they dropped the Shuttle moniker in general, it has no connection to the original walk-up-guaranteed-seat service.

Lots of issues last night with 4 Flybe's after 2130. I hear the radar is still completely u/s and that Aldegrove now charging for services. The new shareholders will be very happy campers.

I heard it on the grapevine that the radar issues could go on for months. Aldergrove would need to be charging, specially if 04 and 07 are in use, they would be sure to need an extra controller for that?

I haven't heard that the radar will be off for months but I know that some of my fellow pilots have been told that transits and zone entries will be curtailed until it is fixed. I have no idea what the protocol is for charging but I suppose it all comes down to who owns what equipment, if NATS own the radar at Aldergrove then any bill will presumably come direct from NATS, if Aldergrove Airport own the radar then potentially there could be two bills to pay, one from NATS for staffing and the other for the use of the radar to provide a service.:confused:
Either way you look at it, its going to be expensive I would guess!

I believe the rumour about Aer Lingus has been on the go for a while now, what I'm hearing is that its just for the winter and they will be back for Summer 2017 as the routes have been proving very popular and busy for summer 2016, its only hearsay though. I'm sure the doom and gloom people on here will be rubbing their sad little hands at the thought of Harbour finally being a quieter airfield than Aldergrove.:hmm:

That actually makes more sense as the sun routes must be a good money spinner for EI. If they gave up the LHR maybe they might do some more sun routes.

To be honest and not being doom and gloom I have heard ei tails won't be in BHD 2017

Seems like a lot of hassle to close a base only to re-open it 6 months later although Thomson run a summer only operation at BFS but it's 24/7 while open.

Looks like the radar won't be fixed for at least a month so the holding and delays will continue. Have heard that Flybe and BA not happy campers.

Not a lot they can do unless they do what jet2 did last year and temporarily move airports which is unlikely to happen.

Looks like BHD-LPL has gone, off sale from end January.

Was the Harbour - Liverpool not confirmed as stopping some time ago? I don't think this is anything new.:confused:

On another point, I was out flying yesterday and could hear the Harbour controllers vectoring aircraft in again so I assume the radar has been repaired, at last!:ok:

No, although rumoured, it was never confirmed ... in fact, they recently increased their number of flights... FLYBE?S 2016 SUMMER TAKES OFF FROM LIVERPOOL

Aer Lingus' future at BHD
 

Aer Lingus cutting 70 jobs at Belfast, 24 pilots, 38 cabin crew and some maintenance work but the airline says there will be no change to the flying schedule. Just 17 cabin crew will remain at Belfast City, all other jobs lost or transferred to Dublin.

Breaking on social media.

As expected, if they operate bucket and spade next year ex DUB or seasonal recruitment. This was on the cards months ago.

Aer Lingus: Airline cutting 70 jobs at Belfast city airport - BBC News

I wonder will this mean the night stopping aircraft will go as well, once the summer flights are gone then there wouldn't be much point in keeping 1 aircraft alongside putting a crew up in a hotel somewhere? Will it make more sense to operate the Heathrow from that end? Its a small consolation for those affected but at least Dublin isn't that hard to get to if it means keeping a wage coming in.