Aer Lingus suspends flights on five Belfast routes
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
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Aer Lingus today confirmed that it will be reducing its service from Belfast International Airport this winter but said the suspended flights would return for passengers within four months.
The company said that flights to five destinations Faro, Barcelona, Milan, Rome and Paris will stop between September 21 and October 24.
One aircraft will be removed from Belfast for a four-month period.
Aer Lingus also confirmed that flights will be reduced from Dublin with a number of aircraft taken out of the fleet.
However, the company said that the move was not out of the ordinary for airlines at that time of year.
Enda Corneille, Aer Lingus Corporate Affairs Director, told the Belfast Telegraph the five routes were “never planned” to be operational during the winter months.
But added that the company had to be “prudent” as winter approaches to make the right decisions so the airline remained in a strong position to continue to offer low fares in the future.
He added: “It’s a temporary reduction for four months.
“We also have a new maintenance programme, we are doing a little bit less flying in the winter, both from Dublin where a number of aircraft will be taken out of the fleet. And at Belfast one will be taken out for four months only.
“When we get through the winter, get through the maintenence programme and we are back to full steam very early in March 2010.”
He said the company remains postive about Belfast as a base.
“There is a lot of life in the Northern Irish market, but we have to be prudent as we get into the winter to make the right decisions so that the airline remains strong and remains in a position to be able to continue to offer low fares into the future. That’s really all this is about.”
Mr Corneille said the airline will be opening a new route to Tenerife in addition to Lanzarote as a winter destination.
“Reductions in schedules by airlines for the winter period are fairly common place and what we are doing at Belfast this winter is launching a new route to Tenerife. That’s in addition to Lanzarote.
“Those two routes are about four hour sectors so it eats up aircraft resources, so we’ve had to make some cuts.
“If you look at the ones we are taking out they are pretty short sectors, they are about an hour and a half two hours.
“And the ones we are bringing in Tenerife, and Lanzarote they are four hour plus. You simply couldn’t operate the same number of routes.”
Aer Lingus also denied reports that the company board will scale back the operations due to competition from other carriers.
Mr Corneille said they are “happy” with Belfast.
“The base is performing very well. For the month of April we’ve had an 80% load factor across all the bases.
“Bookings are up 17% on last year. We remain very committed to the market place.
“At the end of this week we will announce our one millionth passenger from Belfast International.
“We remain very encouraged by the performance from Belfast.”
The airline will be offering five flights this winter, Heathrow, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Malaga and Munich.
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Aer Lingus are much more superior than that of other carriers at Belfast Int, however lauching a base in direct competition with a low cost carrier on nearly all of their routes was not a good commercial decsion by Aer Lingus, however that said - people voted with their feet and flew with them 1 million so far in little over 1 year. So there is a place for Aer Lingus in Belfast, they need to capture popular routes that are not already being operated from BIA and commit to them.
Posted by Zack | 18.05.09, 08:03 GMT
There is a place for Aer Lingus in BFS but it was never as a direct competitor to Easyjet. The launch of a base which concentrated almost entirely on the network of an already established operator was at best 'ill conceived'. The wording of this article can only be read as standard airline spin for large scale retreat. I hope they return with some new ideas but there is carnage in the airline industry at present with ruthless cost cutting across the board, pretty much without exception.
Posted by Pete | 15.05.09, 01:04 GMT
i read with real dissappontmnt the scale back this winter of aer lingus routes from belfast international.the airline is by any standard excellent but surely we could keep the one aircraft out of their n.i.fleet and they could afford to drop one more from their
h.q.base at dublin airport without much notice i bet.i understand the argument on routes during the winter but what about exploring new routes within ireland like belfast to galway,shannon,knock or donegal as cork is well served by aer arran.i mean who wants to drive to these places in this day and age and we still have pilgrims going to knock shrine by coach thats 5/6 hours.lets see as well as prudence some imagination come on aer lingus are you reading all these comments?we are your customers and glad you here but we want stability and committment!!
Posted by frank | 14.05.09, 00:50 GMT
The writing for Belfast was on the wall when Aer Lingus opened their Gatwick hub earlier this year. Their numbers and yields from there will be far greater than Belfast. I think that their interest in Belfast is diminishing with an eye to the greater opportunities that the Gatwick market offers!
Posted by Mike | 13.05.09, 12:25 GMT
i am in italy now working for a italian airline , i have worked for many over 22 years around the world , this is similar to 91 gulf war 1 sep 11 , it will be bleak fior a year or so yet but his rides not on confidence to fly of a attack but world econemy , when it picks up more routes from more airports,
Posted by paul | 12.05.09, 21:15 GMT
It is only really tourists from Northern Ireland who use these routes. There is very few business links between the likes of NI and Barcelona. Although some tourists are coming here this will stop as other places make there name- remember when everyone was going to Prague?
Posted by conor | 12.05.09, 17:58 GMT
Aer Lingus came to Northern Ireland and offered something a bit different and I like them for that. I've used the Munich route a few times and the service has always been great so I'm pleased to see this route staying. It's a shame about the other routes but this winter will be tough for many airlines and the routes that are staying look very good. I'm booked on Lanzarote this August as well so really looking forward to that! I'm sure Aer Lingus will return with more routes next summer and I look forward to seeing what they have on offer.
Posted by Tanya | 12.05.09, 15:35 GMT
Well, it was only last week when there was going to be £10m spend on refurbing the airport - sorry adding more shops, maybe some of the money should be spend on retaining the few airlines which currently through the airport.
Posted by Wazza | 12.05.09, 14:53 GMT
Much as I really appreciate the superior service offered by Aer Lingus from Belfast, I have now started to book with competitors as I cannot rely on Aer Lingus operating the route. They seem to change schedules and axe routes left right and centre. Firstly they axed Nice, then Amsterdam and now many other routes. I cannot plan ahead and book Aer Lingus as they chop and change so much that you can't actually be sure that they will be operating when you want them.
Posted by Mike | 12.05.09, 12:23 GMT
I am deeply disappointed in the suspension of the Belfast-Milan flight. I've used the flight numerous times and staff have commented that seat occcupancy is good. Travelling around the North there are any number of billboards advertising flights to Milan - these will reach an audience of a few hundred thousand people. Where have the efforts been to entice the 20 million or so people who live in Northern Italy? Northern Ireland is supposed to be THE place on the tourist maps but the majority of Italians look no further than Dublin airport and still stop short of the border.
I hope Aer Lingus or some other carrier will take advantage of this huge market potential and do the exPats of Northern Ireland a favour into the bargain.
Posted by Fiona Johnston | 12.05.09, 12:01 GMT