Air France-KLM’s Irish subsidiary CityJet is to begin a three times daily service from George Best Belfast City Airport to London City commencing 26 March.
Cityjet has announced a total of eight new routes from London City Airport, serving destinations in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France and the UK.
Under the brand-name ‘CityJet for Air France’, it will serve Geneva, Madrid, Milan Linate, Nice and Zurich. It will also open routes to George Best Belfast City, Dundee and Edinburgh in co-operation with ScotAirways.
Brian Ambrose, Chief Executive of George Best Belfast City Airport said: “We’re delighted with this announcement and look forward to welcoming CityJet and the London City to our expanding route portfolio.
“From summer 2007 the total number of scheduled destinations served from Belfast City Airport will be 23 including the recently announced routes to Rennes and Cardiff. Travellers now have now a choice of daily services to four different London airports.”
Starting on 26 March, the new routes will take the total number of destinations CityJet serve from London City to 10. It currently serves Paris Orly and Dublin.
CityJet CEO Geoffrey O’Byrne White said: “We are pleased to underline our commitment to London City where we have had a presence for many years while simultaneously pursuing our development with our revamped fleet.”
CityJet, which operates three BAE Systems Avro RJ85ERs, 19 British Aerospace 146-200s and two 146-300s, is expanding its fleet with the addition of 23 ex-Mesaba Avro RJ85s. In total Air France-KLM and CityJet will operate 86 daily flights from London City.
By: chrism20 - 28th March 2007 at 22:05
Mind you ive not seen any NI advertising yet!
Has anyone seen any advertising for it yet?
There was press releases in most major newspapers regarding the expansion, however since then all has been quiet.
There is a box in the corner of AF’s website advertising new rouotes for Cityjet.
It was about a fortnight after the routes were announced before it was possible to book.
You can’t book at all on Scotairways website, although there is now something on their website saying that they operate the flights and that they are bookable via AF website, surely it would have made sense to be able to book seats on both websites OR Scotairways to have a link through to the AF site to book.
By: andrewm - 28th March 2007 at 20:14
My exact thoughts. I wonder if there will ever be a successful service from dockside to dockside? Or are companies more interested in paring back costs over such a short sector?
I think this one comes down to the employees views more than employers if you take aside the £100 difference.
(bmi)8 flights a day-> flexible ticket -> can change for free and backup if flight missed
(cityjet)3 flights a day -> little backup
(bmi) decent ff scheme in Star Alliance group
(cityjet) “fly blue” – only KLM, AF and partners
(bmi) large lounge with free food for Silver/Gold members at both ends
(cityjet) shared lounge at bhd and as far as i can tell on their site no LCY lounge or possibly shared lounge access
(bmi) extensive connection oppertunities at end destination
(cityjet) restricted connection oppertunities at end destination
People have already voted with their feet it would seem. Mind you ive not seen any NI advertising yet!
By: eastern wiseguy - 28th March 2007 at 19:38
less of a “product” in terms of ff scheme, lounges etc
My exact thoughts. I wonder if there will ever be a successful service from dockside to dockside? Or are companies more interested in paring back costs over such a short sector?
By: BFS - 28th March 2007 at 17:10
Definitely was just the two. I heard it over the City Handling frequency on the scanner.
By: andrewm - 28th March 2007 at 16:50
I heard that the first LCY-BHD only had two onboard, unconfirmed though.
Heard similar “rumors”. Dont think big threat to bmi as £100 more expensive than their business with less of a “product” in terms of ff scheme, lounges etc
Can also be quicker than the 1hr 30min flying time to fly into LHR and get Heathrow Express depending on time of day and traffic conditions.
By: David2386 - 28th March 2007 at 15:35
I heard that the first LCY-BHD only had two onboard, unconfirmed though.
By: eastern wiseguy - 28th March 2007 at 14:12
Well it is up and running….anyone have any idea of the loads?
By: caz66 - 18th February 2007 at 14:34
Will be great to see more traffic at london city
By: allmcc - 17th February 2007 at 11:53
Any new route news out of BHD is good news – however, no schedules or fares yet published and it can’t be booked – with a start date of 26 March, only 5 weeks away, someone would need to get their finger out!
p.s I assume the BHD service will be operated by Scot Airways Do328s
By: Manston Airport - 16th February 2007 at 14:16
Great news for LCY 😎 And good to see a route to Spain aswel.
James
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February 16, 2007 at 1:11 pm