New International Route BFS - BRU

[ALLMCC]

New service announced to be operated from 01 Mar by Primeflight twice daily using Piaggio P180 - www.primeflight.co.uk

[10 DME ARC]

Mmmm Could only get a booking in March, day return £716!

[jetstream7]

Fair poiint 10 DME, but...... is there any other way to fly from Belfast to Brussels and fit in a full days work in Brussels?

Suppose it depends on the value put on your time

However, is there a market in Northern Ireland to make this route feasible at these prices?

[eastern wiseguy]

Well done BFS .....just for fun I checked from BHD ...Bmi can offer a day return cheaper ...but you have less than three hours from arrival to departure in Brussels.
Hope it works for them ...good news for ALL travellers in NI .

Any idea of the timings?

[jetstream7]

From the website..

Belfast International Airport to Brussels National

Twice daily service Monday to Friday

Flight Time: 1hour 35minutes

Depart Arrive
Belfast to Brussels 0705 0940
Brussels to Belfast 1020 1055
Belfast to Brussels 1745 2020
Brussels to Belfast 2100 2135

[Tower Ranger]

You could go Flybe for a fraction of the price via Gatwick. Or if you want to blow £700 you could go to London the night before, get picked up by limo, dropped off at your Park Lane hotel, have a nice meal and a bit of craic, limo back to the airport, off to Brussels and back to Belfast that night!
Who is really gonna pay £700 to go to Belgium.........Ah of course ........we will, the tax payers!!!

[glynn-kayes]

Excellent news for Northern Ireland and Excellent choice of airport to serve Brussels from,lets have some more.

[BRUpax]

I'll give them a week or two tops!

[glynn-kayes]

Personally I think the route will be well supported by MP,S and eurocrats who always pay the highest fare going,I have had personal experience of MP,s travelling on house of commons travel warrants and the highest fare is always charged to the warrant even if a lower business class fare is available...and all us mugs pay for it,so good on an airline if can make people pay massive high fares and make a profit, obviously they found a niche in a market and now filling it.Good luck to them.................

[eastern wiseguy]

Tower

You could go Flybe for a fraction of the price via Gatwick ???


Flybe don't fly to Brussells from Gatwick ...apart from that the plan is perfect!!:E

[BRUpax]

:hmm: not too sure that MPs, Eurocrats etc. will fancy 90 minutes plus in a Piaggio 180. We'll see.

[glynn-kayes]

Im sure we will,but its a step in the right direction for Northern Ireland plc so we should all do our best and support an airline which is serving the Belfast business community,creating jobs and basing in Belfast,I wish them all the best and I hope it works for them.

[GrahamK]

Pretty sure EZY to NCL and then SN to Brussels would be cheaper than that. :cool:

[Flightmapping]

At that price, no-one will be buying their own tickets. If MEPs use it, they will have half a plane load of entourage following, not to mention councillors etc. too on "fact finding" missions.

I once heard of a prominent city councillor travelling by train with an assistant, who was entitled to a railcard discount. He insisted on buying the ticket on board, because he was "beyond" walking up to the ticket window like everyone else does. Naturally, no discounts available on the train - full fare paid at taxpayers' expense.

Then you have the journalists following them - I know the BBC pay top whack for their train fares, I would expect they do the same on flights too.

Personally, I'd do EZY to AMS, then take the train. 2 hours 35 from AMS direct to Brussels Midi every hour. I doubt any air-air connections would be quicker than this, especially as many of the other options would need 2 sets of check in / baggage reclaim

[mysecretsmile]

I hope the service works well for this new airline. Its good for NI PLC to have another destination available directly without having to interline via mainline UK. However this service seems very much to be targeting a niche market - lets just hope the market is there for them and the likes of the MEP's use the service.

I'd query how well this business service will work from BFS, when the location of BHD would seem a more natural choice because of its close location to Belfast City Centre. But I understand the airline's aircraft needs to be based at an airport with 24/7 access due to its dual role as an air ambulance and BHD can't offer this.

[lowfaresbuster]

from belfast telegrap 26 Jan:

PLANS were unveiled today for an ambitious new VIP airline service between Belfast International and Brussels.

Instead of using a 737 or an Airbus, the company behind the project said it intended to operate a seven-seater aircraft.

With tickets on offer at £695 return, 'primeflight' is aiming at a niche market of business class passengers.

Giles Atkinson (40), a commercial pilot who is managing director of the company, said he was confident there would be sufficient demand.

He said: "We can offer a flight time of 90 minutes and a morning and evening departure, which makes a day return trip a practical possibility.

"Our price is designed to match business class fares and we will offer passengers full business class facilities.

"But our chief attraction is the time saving. We are aiming at people to whom time is more important than money."


As a further attraction, pre-ordered inflight catering will be provided by Paul Rankin's Café Rankin in Belfast.

The Piaggio P180 turbo-prop aircraft will travel from Aldergrove to Brussels National Airport, which is a 20-minute taxi ride from the city centre.

At both airports primeflight says it will offer its passengers fast track check-in and access to a business lounge.

Mr Atkinson said: "Around 60,000 people a year travel between Belfast and Brussels.

"At present such a trip involves a connection via England and a night in a hotel, even if the business can be transacted in a few hours.

"We aim to make life easier for such passengers, cutting down on the time they waste waiting in airport lounges in England."

The plan is to have departures from Aldergrove at 7am and 4.30pm, returning from Brussels at 10am and 7pm.

The flights will be advertised on the Aldergrove departures board and tickets will be sold through high street travel agents.

"We know there is demand for a direct service to Brussels, and we believe that our service will fill a gap in the market," he said.

Uel Hoey, business development manager at Belfast International, said primeflight's new service would doubtless appeal to the captains of Northern Ireland commerce and industry."

[BRUpax]

"We will provide a full Business Class service". On a P180??!!:hmm:

[ALLMCC]

What an entertaining post! A diatribe of mis-spelling and mis-punctuation if I ever saw one. More to the point, most of it had absolutely nothing to do with the post topic - simply another pathetic side swipe at BHD - your dislike of BMI is only surpassed by mine of Easyjet - you would almost think they had offended you in some major way! There is simply no way BMI would consider moving back to BFS unless there was a complete change of management there and the recent withdrawal of the "German" interest has put paid to that! And where did the Aer Lingus rumour come from - wishful thinking I presume and what ever happened to FR? - last you (and a few others) told us they were starting ops from BFS in February! - presumably that was THIS year you were talking about!

Anyway, back to the topic, this service (if it ever gets off the ground) will not be an airline operation, more a glorified air taxi and a prohibitively expensive one at that! If it lasts beyond the summer I'll be amazed! One can only hope that it will not benefit from an ARD subsidy - why should taxpayers be expected to pay for a venture like this which has little or no chance of being successful?

[Tower Ranger]

Oh Glynn you never disapoint , you really shold drink less of an evening. The A321s will be back on the service very shortly EMA went to BMIBaby which has the same chance of moving to BHD as BMI has of returning to BFS. As for the late night flight it`s only a matter of time.

However back to the subject in question if a couple of the Mep`s got together and could fill seven seats it wouldn`t be much more expensive to charter a citation jet to take them there and back at whatever time of day they wanted, why , they could even fly out of the City!!!

BTW Eastern well spotted I was thinking Strasbourg

[controller friendly]

TR....u can talk....how long ago were you at school with that spelling...?

I post on here like i text...thats my excuse & I'm sticking to it..lol..;)

Glad to see someone at last picked up on that Aer Lingus rumour I tried to start....ages ago...
:O

To be honest I don't really think its a great idea...is that the best they can do....?

Anyway TR if you fancy goin out for a beer on Wed nite it'll b the usual place...text me if u wanna go....x:)

[Tower Ranger]

Thanks CF might take you up on that , I always spell one word wrongue when I catch Glynn out so that he doesn`t feel too bad.

BTW if any of the negotiating team fancy a bit of extra work can you send them down town and sort us out with the same deal including the drink, sorry , meal vouchers !!!!!!!! CYA mate

[glynn-kayes]

Sorry to disapoint you Allmcc,but I dont hate bmi at all.I actually am quite fond of them,after all,they paid my wages for the last seven years so I think I know the company a lot better than you my friend.Also to address Towers point.Whats wrong with working a sixteen hour shift,having six or seven large vodka and diet cokes and making a few spelling mistakes???.I hope all my puntuation is correct and my spelling is spot on.Ive only had two so far.