Aer Lingus from Belfast

[Buc Driver]

The Belfast Telegraph reports that the CEO of Aer Lingus is interested in operating from Belfast. Would be nice, but from which airport and where to.

[BFS/BHD]

It is most likely going to be BFS. They might operate to JFK via SNN but i would say that this would be unlikely because of COs announcement. Possibly to BOS aswell as LHR which has been romoured in the past.

[mysecretsmile]

Any long haul intentions would have to be from BFS.

Can't really see where they would intend to operate to on the domestic front as all destinations seem to be pretty much covered from BFS & BHD by existing operators ?

LHD out of BFS a possibility but if BA couldn't make it work
in the past what makes Aer Lingus think they can with so many low cost operators serving all the other London airports and BD already operating the route from BHD ?

[richardnei]

I would say a BFS-LHR route in competition with bmi

after all aer lingus have now turned low-cost.

brgds

richardnei

[ALLMCC]

"BFS TO LHR" - and where would the slots come from? Unless they are prepared to give up some those used for DUB, SNN & ORK which is unlikely.

[CaptJ]

Secret_Smile,

"BA couldn't make it work" WRONG! BA needed the slots to move Long Haul out of Gatwick to Heathrow. lets not rewrite the history on that. bmi would never have left BFS if they had known that BA would leave. BA would never have left BFS if that thought that bmi would leave. Thats all history now.

There is a massive market to LHR that is only suppressed by high prices and charges out of BHD. (and the runway is shortish for the winter) Interlining to One World is also an issue for us. With IE pulling out of One World that seems to be an opportunity missed. Perhaps they would do a codeshare with BA? certainly if bmi falls to Virgin, as it certainly must, it will provide a spur to that.

Sadly, methinks that Aer Lingus have left it a bit late to be interested in servicing the North of Ireland. They had their chance and chose to ignore us.:{

[controller friendly]

Capt J

My thoughts exactly...or sort of....!

Mostly right about the BA pullout of BFS...but bmi had already announced they were going when BA pulled out. The talk at the time was it was all to do with staffing costs but the more cynical of us would think they had stopped getting handouts from the government as we were all peaceful so lets use the slots for elsewhere!

Aer Lingus leaving one world is a funny one though. Whilst at Heathrow last week I enquired when it would finally happen, to be told at the ticket desk that they were not sure and that they had already backed down on some things that had already been announced. Also a relative of mine got his brand new gold circle card this week and it still has one world on it so who knows....?:O
I had always thought it would be a great idea for competition on the heathrow route...but might just have lost my soul due to diamond points......!Vegas here I come....!:cool: :cool:

[CaptJ]

controller friendly

yes you are correct about the sequence.

easyjet BFD-LGW has somewhat taken the sting out of the loss of the LHR routes. Its cheap, convenient and reliable.
Of course there are times when it just has to be LHR, for which we have to pay through the nose to bmi. Now £43 for taxes/charges alone!:*

The bmi/Virgin talk we've seen is a cause for concern as the slots are not ring-fenced.
It just a shame that Aer Lingus didn't take advantage of the BA pullout, they would have been most welcome at BFS. I'm sure they would have got a good deal from TBI.

I do prefer flying from an airport with a decent length runway (and a crosswind runway!):}