Are you allowed to plane spot from Ikeas carpark still?

as long as you dont take a spotters strop if asked to move five feet Ikea are fine. check out ni aviation fourm on the interweb

well nothing today as expected. Ikea spotters said EI are off to city once contract with BFS expires HA HA HA HA HA. they say they have been in. :E

dog in the park; AerLingus staying firmly put at BFS..the base is performing well.

Though still no winter schedule for continental european routes... I would suggest that LHR route situation and BA are part of that story.........

EI-BUD

just saying what the spotters said.

dog in the park; where or what exactly did the 'spotter' say, I must have missed something. I would suggest that even if a spotter surmised that Aer Lingus are unlikely to move that may be a fair suggestion. The majority of us in the industry often dont know any more than some of the spotters who know a thing or two about things!

Even if AerLingus were for moving and negotiating with BHD, the limitations around early closure would be big impact for flying program especially Tenerife, Lanzarote.

Bmibaby European routes seem to be getting good loads, good to see that BHD can command a fair share of the market. Next CAA stats will make for interesting reading.

I doubt we will see EI move its base out of BFS as EI-BUD has said BHD has too many limitations for them and EI has stated the base performs very well.. but...

I could see BA pulling out of BHD and EI running a couple of BHD-LHR flights under the codeshare, that way BA is still keeping by their word of retaining the link between BHD-LHR..

Its anyones guess as to what will happen, as we have seen in the last few years there have been quite a few surprises

Tigger thank you for your post, I always value your contribution. I have said it before and remain committed to my view on the matter. BA are not interested in point to point domestic traffic, they are interested in the interlining opportunity. Belfast differs from the other domestic points in that AerLingus are on the case. I cant see BA having a long term interest in the Belfast market due to the saturation of operations by low cost airlines. Yes this is also the same at GLA, EDI, etc but they dont have an alternative airline flying into LHR that could feed passengers to the network.

It comes as no coincidence that AerLingus have not finalised the winter BFS Europe schedule, I feel that Aer Lingus are looking at LHR to EDI and ABZ. The airline who fills this slots has to interline with BA, and why would BA not want an existing ally onto these routes, codesharing? Giving Aer Lingus Belfast Heathrow in its entirity, plus preserving the relationship between ORK SNN DUB and LHR and the valuable feed into long haul. Many have commented that it is not substantial but it is substantial enough. BA dont need to fly these routes and can still get feed into long haul.

I dont suppose EI can afford to leave European routes much longer to release into booking system.

EI-BUD

reference BA keeping their word, was Willie Walsh not quoted as saying he (BA) intended to return to NI. He wouldnt have said that if he was planning on only using Aer Lingus, who have been operating as a code share for quite some time.

I must admit i hold the cynical view that BA may not last long here, but i hope im proven wrong.

Also worth noting that Aer Lingus fly 3 or 4 times a day, and BMI about 6 or so times, so unless Aer Lingus have surplus aircraft sitting about theres a big gap in the market if BA dont operate here

Who does the man flight out of harbour these days? I used to use this service 5-6 times a year and never had any problems and always thought it was a great little airport,and right next to city unlike aldergrove.

Flybe operate MAN

NEWS!
 

It doesn't mention which Airport though, what it says is Belfast not specifically BHD.

Crucially however, he doesn't say which Belfast airport BA will operate the route from!

BA are working hard to merge BD into there mainline operation before the end of October. BA are planning to release there W12 schedule in June. So it might be 6 to 8 weeks before we find out if it will be BFS or BHD.

From today's NI Travel News email. I've quoted only part of the article.

If right then that is good news.

BBC News - Willie Walsh says Belfast to London Heathrow route safe

BBC has no mention of BHD, just Belfast - Heathrow .. guess it will be a case of sitting tight and seeing what happens, neither article mentions if it will be using BA aircraft or not

From the BBC article
One hundred and sixty people? To handle ~ 8 A320s on LHR-BFS a day and the J41s and ATPs of British Regional? I think I see why it fell into the red....

Yet more news
 

160 sounds a bit high, but could that have included staff that worked in, for example, the old BA ticket office in the city centre?

I think the way WW is wording his statements is significant. If they were going to operate to BHD, why not say so. I have not read any statement that refers to anything other than Belfast, no mention of which airport. Options are being kept open here, I think.

TB

Would Willy risk going to BFS is the question? EI could then go to BHD and get the high paying business passengers on LHR and run european flights away from easyjets home.

I doubt that bhd would be a beneficial move for EI, as they operate a canary island flight with another european flight each day, resulting in a late arrival back in the uk. The bhd curfew would pose too much a hurdle I'd imagine!!

While some articles such as the NI Travel News one seems to assume that by Belfast they mean BHD, everything else has stated just "Belfast" which could either be BHD or BFS, he has also not stated that it will be BA aircraft, just saying that the link would be retained.. so to me these are the 4 options.. there could be more but these are the ones i can think of

1. BA moves to BFS and alongside EI operates X amounts of flights per day, allowing an early arrival into BFS from LHR on BA aircraft

2. BA pulls out of BHD and EI increases flights from BFS under codeshare, however another aircraft would have to be found, unless a sun destination gets the chop or the 3rd base aircraft remains in Winter.

3. BA pulls out of BHD, EI puts an aircraft in BHD for the start of Winter when one is normally removed from BFS operating LHR from both BFS and BHD

4. Nothing changes at all and BA continues to fly BHD-LHR in their own aircraft

Tigger2K8
 

I wish I'd done a MBA in business studies:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Why would BA commit their own metal to Bhd when they can get Ei to do the same job, probably for less money? Or, Ba operate from Lhr, Ei from Bfs, what I mean here is Ba operate first out of Lhr and last to Lhr, out of Bfs. This way, comprehensive service on one route, but no night-stop costs for either airline. Each do say 3 services a day, good service but BA only using 3 of those very valuable slots they have just got. Too much emphasis being put on this idea it has to be Bhd, BA will be quite happy to fly to Bfs, as there will never now be competition to them by any other airline from Bhd to Lhr. That time has come and gone.

TB

Facelookbovvered
 

You don't do an MBA "in Business Studies"... MBA stands for a Masters in Business Administration. :rolleyes:

No need for the sarcasm!

Hang on. Big Willy said Belfast, not Antrim, therefore BHD it is!

Aye, get EI to do it "for less money" as they're a charity. WW said BA are committed to the route, not that they'd get someone else to fly it for them.

Shame BMI are seemingly going. They're an excellent outfit, from a customer perspective at any rate.

I'm struggling with the 'cutting & pasting' technology but in todays Newsletter, WW is quoted as saying that the BHD / LHR route will be maintained. He was in L/Derry yesterday and was questioned about it. To my knowledge its the first time that he has been specific beyond 'Belfast'.
Admittedly nothing to say that he wont change his mind.

Thanks for the sarcasm, just highlighting what could happen, sharing my view point as we are all entitled to, open forum isn't it?

Wikipedia
 

I see that someone has put on the Belfast city airport wiki page that Bmi BHD-LHR is ending in summer & that BA start it from October. Also it shows that the Bmi Baby flights to Palma and Malaga are ending in the summer.

PMI + AGP where never planned to operate during the winter months.

FLYBE Stands up for the Ulstermen
 

Just read copy of press release on BHD website saying Flybe are providing extra capacity for HC Final.

On reading detail it consists of one additional flight to...SOUTHAMPTON!!!

Michael O must be green with envy.

This is shameful and a total embarrasment to all concerned

So BMIbaby are leaving Belfast city on 11th June. That will be interesting and will only really leave Flybe in a monopoly. Very sad day for competition.

David, See bmibaby thread. The airline is to be shut down in September with certain routes inlcuding all of those from Belfast ending mid June. Sad day for all. Good luck to any baby staff here.

belfast might pick up some passengers on the eastjet flight to southend,

I wonder will BE step in to fill the gap left by WW or will they remember how WW was welcomed with open arms to compete on already existing domestics.

Are FlyBe able to pick up the slack?

Might be quiet there this summer....mongrel will enjoy his deck chair in the park...

not seen the new picknic benches then?