The never ending Brexit departure day, EI and all other airlines will have access, if they don't UK ones will be cut out and the Goverment cannot afford to let it happen.

It would be difficult for VY to capture the EI customer base if there was a switch.

As with Brexit everything is unknown but EI might have to get an UK AOC to operate from the UK. Why would IAG bother with that when they have airlines that could cover those routes.

The more likely problem for Aer Lingus , as an EU based airline , is being able to operate a UK domestic route i.e . Belfast to Heathrow ,rather than a route between a UK point to anywhere in the EU.

Having said that the simple solution for IAG ,would be for BA to take over the
EI services on BHD/LHR.

EasyJet are securing the Austrian Aoc to allow them to operate intra EU ,not to secure the rights between UK and EU countries which I guess are assumed will be reciprocally allowed.

Q200 aka DHC-8-200 subbed in on the Air Iceland run from Keflavik today, I think that's a first. Didn't realise they even had the range for it.

Belfast City Airport baggage handler strike suspended - BBC News

Whats that all about I wonder? I'm sure the Harbour management wouldn't be keen on that kind of publicity! A few words to Swissport to get their house in order asap I would bet!

CAA stats for August are finally out.

Icelandair carried 1,232 passengers on their KEF route, which gives an average load of 47 pax (64%). The average load since the route began in July is a modest 59%.

AMS is continuing to benefit from being operated by Cityjet's RJ-85s (95 seats), with 22% growth over the last year (same growth as in July 2017). 5,227 passengers used the route, giving an average load of 85 and load factor of 89%. As I mentioned with the July stats, KLM would be silly not to put the E-190 on the route next July and August, as the demand is clearly there for growth on the route.

Aer Lingus' summer routes are all down given the reduction in frequencies. FAO (-20%), ALC (-42%), AGP (-21%), PMI (-30%). Aer Lingus carried 8,787 fewer passengers on its summer routes this August than in 2017, and 17,311 fewer passengers over both July and August.

Overall, 264,928 passengers used BHD in August, down 5% on last year.

Does anyone know what the loads have been like on T3's IOM and NCL services

Its been operated on a J31 for a while so if numbers are lowish yield is probably okish. Not sure of exact numbers

July:
BHD-IOM 360 pax - average 9 pax
BHD-NCL 432 pax - average 10 pax

August:
BHD-IOM 435 pax - average 9 pax
BHD-NCL 499 pax - average 11 pax

The average load does of course assume that no flights were cancelled during the periods in question.

CAA September stats are out. Here are the most important points;

227,691 passengers used the airport in September (-6.9%). The rolling passenger figure is 2,556,420 (-5.2%).

Minor growth on domestic routes.

Stable growth on KLM's AMS route (+11%).

Big drop in Aer Lingus' summer routes due to a reduced schedule, with both ALC and PMI dropped during September, and FAO (-14%), AGP (-14%).

Icelandair's KEF route is still performing poorly (LF 52%), but it should be noted that it's doing much better than Icelandair's other UK Q400 route, ABZ. The average LF for BHD-KEF since July is 57%.

ABZ figures aren't setting the heather alight, but your comment still leaves me sratching my head :confused:

July - 84%
August - 70%
September - 61%

Apologies, I was under the impression that ABZ was still operated x4 weekly. Lack of demand on the route has evidently led to a reduced schedule - x3 during summer and only x2 during winter.

Some news for Belfast City...

Belfast City Airport - Newcastle and Isle of Man | Sunday Flights

Talk on another website that there is going to be more Bucket and Spade routes announced next week!

Any idea what airline is doing the routes and what the routes are?

Maybe someone taking on the routes dropped by EI. Had heard seadlings of a potential chat that could be considered as a posible rumour of BE doing some charter work ex BHD next summer. Maybe something to do with that

Duno if Flybe have spare ejets as I think they are going to fill some gaps left by monarch

Maybe ba cityflyer?

Fly be have a spare dash at bfs

PMI..........maybe?

Relatively new niche tour operator JetsGo who serve Manchester, flying once weekly to Majorca in peak summer holiday season out of BHD. Don't know the airline being used.