BBC report Aer Lingus BFS announcement scheduled for tomorrow

The Irish pilots union is called IALPA (Irish Airline Pilots Association), which is a branch of the trade union IMPACT.

The news has constantly involved Aer Lingus for the past week, first the good news about the new BFS base, then the uproar about the dropping of SHA-LHR and now the strike, all with a bit of Michael O’Leary included. Even the church has stepped in to complain about the end of the LHR service.

I was listening to the news reports about the Aer Lingus strike. They seem to be striking for two days next Tuesday and Wednesday due to Belfast pilots being paid less than Irish ones.

I was more amused to hear of the Irish pilots union name….. “impact”

Amesterdam U2 oparate’s on that route(no more can be said).

And it always seems like there is the potential for more than one a day.I think Easyjet are just letting that route drift:mad: 😡

Rome again U2 oparate this route

But are pulling it

They are a strange selection…we will soon have as many flights to BCN as there are from Belfast(both) to the Isle of Man:D 😀

The first flights will begin in December to Amsterdam, Barcelona and Geneva, followed in January by London Heathrow.

In February, the airline will commence services to Budapest, Faro, Malaga and Rome.

Amesterdam U2 oparate’s on that route(no more can be said). BCN and GVA is a good choice and if they keep GVA on all year that will be even better than just seasonal. LHR is great one beacuse they could have a codeshare with BA for connecting passengers onto Long Haul Service’s to West Coast of North America South America and Canada and the Middle East/Asia/Austirlla.

Budapest is a great one i can see this one working if all flights are full and with no competers that will make it even more worth while in taking the risk.
FAO i can see working with only one low cost competer to beat but Malaga is taking a little bit of a risk as both U2 and LS oparate this route with both carriers offering low fares if you book in advance.If they want full loads the only way they are going to beat them is offer really low fares.

Rome again U2 oparate this route so if they have full loads aer lingus are taking a bit of a risk

Maybe if they got a Alliance with Continental American Airlines and Delta as all have big presence at EWR/JFK and could offer loads of onward connections.

I think Aer Lingus will do very well on these routes. The London times are certain to pick up a shed load of business travellers from City. The very fact that they are using BA as a partner for onward connectins coupled with the sensible late arrival time into International will surely tempt. The ones that should be worried is Easyjet. The Amsterdam has been left to bumble along and Aer Lingus having KLM as a partner ,coupled again wioth the early departure ,will turnit from a smokers special into a sensible business option.This will also eat into Bmi,s customer base. Interesting times:)

Spot on – BMI had better look to their laurels, on which they have been resting complacently for far too long.

I think Aer Lingus will do very well on these routes. The London times are certain to pick up a shed load of business travellers from City. The very fact that they are using BA as a partner for onward connectins coupled with the sensible late arrival time into International will surely tempt. The ones that should be worried is Easyjet. The Amsterdam has been left to bumble along and Aer Lingus having KLM as a partner ,coupled again wioth the early departure ,will turnit from a smokers special into a sensible business option.This will also eat into Bmi,s customer base. Interesting times:)

I think AMS may yeild well if prices kept low ish as Sabena always filled a 737 on that route. Pitty they cant offer a business product like Sabena did!

I think you are getting your countries a bit confused…

The LHR flights will be sold as a codeshare with BA so they should pick up a good bit of onwards traffic.

This will be especially welcomed by a lot of people in OW. I wouldn’t be surprised if AA didn’t add a codeshare too, as they currently do on all of the other EI routes to DUB and ORK.

The first flights will begin in December to Amsterdam, Barcelona and Geneva, followed in January by London Heathrow.

In February, the airline will commence services to Budapest, Faro, Malaga and Rome.

I think AMS may yeild well if prices kept low ish as Sabena always filled a 737 on that route. Pitty they cant offer a business product like Sabena did!

Budapest will be popular, Malaga won’t be easy at all, if Rome departure is mid morning will be the more popular service as current dep from BFS is 0600 ish.

LHR as my comments above. Rest of routes are all direct competition also seems odd.

Also ORK is in no danger of being cut as an EI base.

The LHR flights will be sold as a codeshare with BA so they should pick up a good bit of onwards traffic.

Even some of the star alliance airline sell EI flights between LHR-Ireland which is surprising as BD are a * airline. (eg SQ)

It will be interesting and Im sure they will give BD a run for their money just like they do in DUB.

The flight timings will be interesting to see.

Enjoy it while you can Belfast, as they dont take tradition onto hand anymore, you’ll probably keep it for a few years and they’ll drop it again.

For BFS passengers and myself as a once stupidly loyal BA customer, reminiscent of the British Airways school of thought… :rolleyes:

Incidentally, on the same subject I hear Willie Walsh in his new position claims that BA are of the opinion that they never axed the BFS-LHR shuttle… merely ‘suspended’ it 🙁

Regards

John

Only a departure pre 0700 would make people switch from bmi to Aer Lingus as it would get them into LHR sooner than the first 0700 departure from Belfast City. They may benefit from providing a say 2200-2300 arrival from LHR into BFS as bmi are limited by BHD opening hours.

Yes, I agree 100%. As an occasional traveller to LHR with BD, it never ceases to amaze me how many people still wish to travel Business Class for a 1 hour flight… including our Deputy First Minister 😮

Still surprised though that nobodys started a route to Brussels which to me seems like a much more obvious choice than somewhere like Budapest :confused:

There’s a plane load of people each and every day from Northern Ireland who are happy to contend with poor car parking and organised chaos at Dublin airport, or who fly across to England and connect with either Eurostar or a connecting flight. Even when charging return fares of up to £600 Sabena managed to achieve loads of 80% on their Avro RJs from BFS up to 2003.

Regards

John

Is this likely? EI have just set up a crew base at Cork rather than hotac the crew. This will save a lot of euro thus making yields higher and costs lower.

I hope they don’t but from a friend that works at the airport that there is 2 routes under review at the moment. How true it is I don’t know but he’s normally good with info like this.

Cork is next on the list for EIN cuts,

Is this likely? EI have just set up a crew base at Cork rather than hotac the crew. This will save a lot of euro thus making yields higher and costs lower.

Only a departure pre 0700 would make people switch from bmi to Aer Lingus as it would get them into LHR sooner than the first 0700 departure from Belfast City. They may benefit from providing a say 2200-2300 arrival from LHR into BFS as bmi are limited by BHD opening hours.

I would add that bmi are at no risk of loosing business or premium economy passengers as the benefits and schedule outweigh anything EI offer. I think maybe they will pick up economy passengers from the likes of the more northern or western counties but this is not a threat to bmi.

I think their EU routes are a bad selection and they would possibly be sucessful in long haul routes esp a West Coast USA link given that is where we have the most amount of business links to outside of Europe!

Yup great to see Aer Lingus opening new markets and bases.
No cost really except at the traditional Irish bases, ie/ Shannon.
Going to be announced tomorrow that the Shannon Heathrow flights are to be axed.
Cork is next on the list for EIN cuts, leaving us with Ryanair as the major airline in the munster area.
Enjoy it while you can Belfast, as they dont take tradition onto hand anymore, you’ll probably keep it for a few years and they’ll drop it again.