Does the 'Seats for Sale' public inquiry commence later this month?

Public Inquiry starts on 20th May. Aldergrove are spending alot of their time in court at the minute and will no doubt be in the thick of this one as well.

AMS and BCN
 

Any news of second AMS flight? Any word if VuelING staying over the winter?

Elle, if the Flybe shareprice continues to fall the way it's been doing since the start of the year, 111p on 1st Jan - 52p today, the outcome of the 'seats for sale' hearing will be less of and issue for the airport.

Funny enough there is only one broker recommending to buy Flybe shares and surprise surprise it is their own broker! Weren't they originally floated at something like £3?

Mmmmm.

PR guy resigned a few weeks back, Sunday papers reported company secretary leaving after a few months. No sign of winter flights on sale.

Might all be incidental but strange never the less?

Maybe another change of product or colour due??

Might be incidental also that a number of airports served by Flybe were actively seeking new airlines to put 'additional capacity' onto existing Flybe routes at the conference in Aberdeen a couple of weeks ago.

Winter schedule will be bookable from the second week in June.

Are the rumours true that when EI contract is due for renewal they will leave Belfast all together and BA will take on the Gatwick route
Leaving any loss of seats down to BA and KLM to pick up for connecting passengers?

When is the EI contract renewed?

I suppose B2B that what you say is entirely plausible, but will probably only be completely decided once IAG complete the T/O of Aer Lingus.

WHAT! !
 

Contract with who! It is possible I suppose. Is there any evidence anywhere as to how the routes are doing. I understand that a sizeable number of seats on the Faro AGP and PMI are sold as part of block booking by tour operators so little yield on those. Are they making money just ticking over. Is BHD a stand alone base from DUB.

This is hugely spurious, Aer Lingus started Oct 2012, and assuming a 5 year agreement, this would take them to Oct 2017, that is over 2.5 years away. So much to be decided before then, namely EI position with IAG etc.


Aer Lingus have put too much into the base to walk away, and certainly to be talking about walking away when they are only half way through agreement.


I can see BA looking at BHD LCY, the route has performed well and BA will want to square up with BE at LCY and I can see BHD being a logical next step. Have to say I didn't expect that route to perform as well as it has!

BHD is a standalone base with different Ts&Cs than the ROI bases

As stand alone then might be ok then and BA on LCY might dilute the LHR too much. My monies on a LGW rather than LCY for BA.

As stand alone then might be ok then and BA on LCY might dilute the LHR too much. My monies on a LGW rather than LCY for BA.


Fair point stab3.5up, but the same rationale could be said of Dublin, where BA have 8 daily LHR services, though LCY was launched as a competitive response to BE's entry to the LCY market, it ensures that somebody else is not getting a slice of their market.


BE is doing well ex BHD to LCY, and it would appear that the only loser on the Belfast City to London route is LGW. Their early departure at 0630 seems to be a hit. And since BA have been successful to date in giving BE a good run for their money, I cannot see that BA will be content until BE are out of LCY...

Valid point. We may yet see BA going to LCY

I'm a bit behind with this one, so apologies in advance

Record number from North opt to fly from Dublin

What caught my eye was the second busiest route for NI passengers out of DUB is LHR. I'm just curious as to why, seeing as it's the exact same 2 airlines serving LHR from BHD and DUB. Does APD really make that big a difference? It must be quite frustrating for EI in particular, considering the expense of opening a base at BHD.

Or is the curfew the problem?

Una

It wouldn't pay the like of me sitting across the lough from BHD and 30 mins away from BFS to head 3.5 hours to DUB would be madness, and goes against my principles. However, once you get further into Co.Down it probably makes sense. I know people near Newry who have virtually written off flying from anywhere buy DUB. The frequency to LHR is much greater from DUB and I guess it offers more connections as a result.

BA offers great fares if you are connecting from DUB via LHR
Much cheaper than connecting from BHD

It just seems odd to me. I mean is that purely down to lower taxes? Handling fees at DUB etc? I mean neither are my local airport so I don't have a horse in the race so to speak, I'm just genuinely curious. Is APD really THAT damaging?

IIRC this was brought up by Arlene Foster, when Willie Walsh was over to open the refurbished BA business lounge in February 2014. He stated the fare difference was due to BHD being on the UK domestic fare platform, whilst DUB being on a European fare platform. European fares tended to be more competitive to get business away from their respective flag carriers and hubs, and to use BA and LHR.
At the time it was something Arlene Foster said she wanted resolved, as we had a unique situation here with a land border with another European state, offering these large differences in fares.

There are no mid or long haul flights to compete with at BHD so there is little incentive to offer cheaper flights. At Dublin they need to incentivise to compete with direct flights and other carriers who don't have a presence at BHD like Etihad, Emirates etc. Clearly they are happy with the loads for connecting flights vs the additional revenue gained from higher prices.

UB tax
 

Noticed on booking a ticket from BHD there's a hugely increased UB tax, up around £23-25 per person. Looking UB up online its a Passenger Service Charge levied by the airport!

Anyone know why? I'll be expecting a hell of a better experience for an extra £25 every time I fly. Starting with clean toilets and a heck of an improvement in the security experience.

It's like they want people to go to dublin!

Who were u flying with nrm2?

nrm2, you may have hit the nail on the head with your last line. I think that once the current planning issues are completed you will see the sale of City to DUB being completed. The plan thereafter is to use City as a regional, business airport and Dub for everything else.

Sounds a very plausible story. DAA if they can get their hands on BHD will then use that to smash BFS out of business. Then complete domination on the island of Ireland for DAA. I wonder how far down the road this sale is?

They are well known for adding on every additional charge they can think of. I recently returned a rental car to BHD before getting a taxi into the city centre. The taxi driver explained there would be a £2 surcharge as every taxi journey originating at the airport is subject to an airport levied charge of £2.

I did not fly to or from BHD.

I hear the announcement that the sale is complete will be shortly after the current enquiry, but not sure if that means when its is complete, or after the decision is confirmed by MHD.

Is there any actual evidence to say the daa have taken them over. They dont need BHD to damage BFS.

Perhaps people are getting over excited??

No evidence whatsoever, this is a rumour forum I guess.

I smell bullsh*t however.

Something like this would go to a competition enquiry I would think.

airport66
 

They are very confident they are going to win over the residents at this enquiry, but if the daa did want to buy it and try and smash bfs as all i have seen on both threads this past couple of days i totally agree with Ils25, it would go to an enquiry and put an end to mr ambrose plans.

Surely BHD is maxed out for parking stands at this stage with all the additional flights.

Sorry but short of getting runway extended and doubling parking stands BHD will not 'smash' BFS.
As much as I like the City Airport it has huge limiting factors, and I'm not talking about curfew, seats for sale limit, short runwa, I'm talking about physical space to expand, parking space....

They could never handle the freight business, nor Virgin 747, perhaps with extension of runway TA 757... So there will always be BFS.... Equally, if EasyJet did move, how on earth could BHD ever handle 10 airbus for EasyJet at the same time? A split of the EasyJet operation is the best that BHD can ever hope for...

shoe shine - if the Harbour has been sold or even in the process then its a very well kept secret. What`s your source for the information?

The seats for sale process has been very quiet as well, wonder when there will be an outcome for that. I was very touched to see how concerned the legal team for Aldergrove were regarding the quality of life for the Sydenham residents. What a farce that Aldergrove should have any input whatsoever.:=

KLM
 

I see KLM winter schedule is now showing
5 times a week with a 16:45 dept
personally I think this looks like the 2nd flight of the day to compliment an early morning departure

So potentially 12 flights a week?

Are growth is good for NI but I wonder how EZY will react

Does make you think they as in klm may do a night stopper based on this later winter time

KLM
 

Checked their website and it appears only five weekly flights for the winter, no Tues or Sat

Winter schedule isn't complete yet
I think it's looking pretty obvious
That it will be 7 morning flights -most probably a night stopping aircraft
And then 5 afternoon flights a week,
Doing this would mean no inbound flights from AMS until afternoon, and the 2nd would arrive late in evening to be ready for first morning flight the following day