From the BBC, it seems that FlyeBe and the remains of BMI mainline will have done competition at George Best Belfast City Airport.
Aer Lingus is on the verge of moving its Belfast International Airport operations to Belfast City Airport which will be confirmed
Now whilst this sounds great in theory, there are some pluses and minuses
Firstly, Aer Lingus will have to plan a bit better due to noise regulations in place at City – due to its location near the city centre. Similarly, they may not be able to run all the services it likes due to a much shorter runway than at Belfast International.
For passengers, it’s a major boon, as it’s a 10 minute hop to Belfast City Hall and the Europa bus Centre as opposed to the 30 minute hop through the back end of Belfast via the M1.
For British Airways, it will represent opposition – and a chance to code share with Aer Lingus on the new routes, which would allow IAG to put its ex-BMI London to Belfast slots to better use rather than just use them for domestic hops.
Aer Lingus currently operates from Belfast International Airport to Alicante, Barcelona, Faro, Lanzarote, Las Palmas, London Heathrow, Malaga and Tenerife, but could use the slots at Belfast City for other uses – such as a “Regional” attack on Flybe services.
Of course, there’s no comment at this stage, but this could be *very* interesting to watch….
