Chaps.

I think this talk of BFS being NI's main airport is a bit misleading. As the BE ads at LHR say: it's 14 miles from the city centre and the connections to/from it are atrocious. I think BMI will win big style from BHD when people realise how much more convenient BHD-LHR is.

BFS still thinks it runs a monopoly and I'm glad it's had the kick in the teeth from BMI.

I think BA's withdrawl is invidious in the least - all the BA staff are being offered redundancy payments BELOW statutory minima.

Truthsayer. Sorry to jump down your first post-lurk but...BA is NOT 'the flag carrier' (Virgin took that honour 3 years ago). It is just another airline that's all. You comment about NI being part of the UK and havina a need for the flag carrier etc etc is not relevant. To paraphrase Don Corleone (??)"It's not political - it's business".

Finally, regarding landing fees: TBI will just up the landing fees to the boys on the south side of the runway and everyone will be happy (aprt from the taxpayer)...

And just to finish - good luck to all the BA check-in staff and thanx for all the jump seats...

[ 05 October 2001: Message edited by: Dunhovrin ]

Takes more than painting the union flag on your winglets to be called the flag carrier! When Virgin start serving the nasty destinations as well as the nice ones they might have a shot at it. Haven't seen the Queen or Tony charetering a Virgin aircraft lately!

Parcelpuppy,

Your rumour regarding getting rid of 3000 pilots.EOG,757,767 and 747 classic fleet.

Well that would leave just 500 of us (or 1/7 of the pilots.) So are they also going to remove 6/7 of the rest of the workforce? (49000 of them).

Not likely in the short term I believe. However anything is possible in the long term given the fallout from Sep 11th.


Regards
Exeng

I find the fact that BA have reportedly lost £38m on the LHR-BFS route over the last 4 years very difficult to believe.

That said it is the BA's perogative whether or not they operate the route. Their decision to discontinue must have been influenced by TBI's attitude towards their long-established customers. In my experience short-term greed seldom works.

BFS has gone from a thriving regional airport with a strong and growing network to a low-cost back-water and they only have themselves to blame.