Ryanair pulling out of George Best Belfast City Airport

[mournerambler]

The planners in the Greater Belfast area have excelled themselves once more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11139463

[supersarsfields]

Can't believe that. I'm over in Liverpool at the minute and this is going to make the travelling home a hell of a lot more expensive. Was getting return flights there for £26.

[Bogball XV]

Liz Fawcett, spokeswoman for Belfast City Airport Watch, which opposes the runway extension, said: "Residents are very pleased.

"They had a particularly unpopular 6.30am flight and certainly this will give some respite."

Unbelievable self interest there, probably didn't like the idea that a free state company was operating in east belfast anyway.

[maddog]

thats a pisser, the flights from east midlands suited me down to the ground. Wonder will they try and get into Aldergrove.

[pintsofguinness]

Surely birmingham to dublin would be better for you than Aldergrove?

[maddog]

Surely birmingham to dublin would be better for you than Aldergrove?

Not really, i can do east midlands in 45mins, bham airport is 20 mins, but East mids is only  £15 or so to park the car for a weekend and is dead handy whereas Birmingham and more especially Dublin airport i dont like one bit. As well as that you always seem to get better flight deals on the East mids to Belfast route rather than Bham to Dublin.
That said next trip home will be on the ferry courtesy of the old tesco vouchers.

[passedit]

[45 metres]

Liz Fawcett, spokeswoman for Belfast City Airport Watch, which opposes the runway extension, said: "Residents are very pleased.

"They had a particularly unpopular 6.30am flight and certainly this will give some respite."

Unbelievable self interest there, probably didn't like the idea that a free state company was operating in east belfast anyway.

Unbelievable assumption that they had it in for a "free state company".  The self interest from Fawcett is no worse than some of the posters on this thread.

I will make it clear that I have no time for O'Leary, a patronising one trick pony who has done very well for himself in one area of business, but he does not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Branson or Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Ryanair's problem in Belfast is that unlike the rest of Ireland, there is much stronger competition from other budget airlines like Easyjet, FlyBe and Jet2, they don't have a near monopoly like they do in Dublin. Also I would say that more cynical nordies don't put up with the level of being patronised compared to the rest of Ireland, Steilos might come across as a git but he doesn't carry a "fúck you" attitude around with him all the time. Issues like runway extensions hide other excuses, Ryanair could easily bag slots at Aldergrove if they were serious about expanding their Belfast routes.

It is disappointing that Ryanair are stopping these services as it will affect some people,  but other airlines cut and change routes and airports including the two in Belfast all the time without getting big news headlines. I'm simply not going to lick holes here. At least the staff working for Ryanair at the City will get the chance to work elsewhere and if there is real demand, other airlines will fill the routes.

[ross4life]

Shame Belfast airport is more user friendly than Dublin, Can't see myself using it now with the cheap flights gone 

[ziggysego]

Shame Belfast airport is more user friendly than Dublin, Can't see myself using it now with the cheap flights gone 

Agree, Dublin Airport is a freakin' nightmare. Haven't flown out of the City in years though.

[Bogball XV]

Liz Fawcett, spokeswoman for Belfast City Airport Watch, which opposes the runway extension, said: "Residents are very pleased.

"They had a particularly unpopular 6.30am flight and certainly this will give some respite."

Unbelievable self interest there, probably didn't like the idea that a free state company was operating in east belfast anyway.

Unbelievable assumption that they had it in for a "free state company".  The self interest from Fawcett is no worse than some of the posters on this thread.

Unless it was the only 6.30am flight and the rest don't start until about 8.00am what's unbelievable about it?  I'm only pointing out that ms fawcett saw the loss of 50 locally based jobs as a success, that's self interest to me.

[haranguerer]

Liz Fawcett, spokeswoman for Belfast City Airport Watch, which opposes the runway extension, said: "Residents are very pleased.

"They had a particularly unpopular 6.30am flight and certainly this will give some respite."

Unbelievable self interest there, probably didn't like the idea that a free state company was operating in east belfast anyway.

Unbelievable assumption that they had it in for a "free state company".  The self interest from Fawcett is no worse than some of the posters on this thread.

I think the same.

Look at Poots statement. Any time any company goes to pull out of OWC theres a hullaballoo, but not in this case, hes accepted it, even though its clearly avoidable. ****.

And yes, I may be bitter and twisted, but they're worse... 

[dublinfella]

Is there not a recurring theme here. MOL demanded x, in this case the taxpayers build him a longer runway or he would pull out lock stock. The airport faced him down and he is off.

While its not good for the travelling public of Belfast, its time more people stood up  to Ryanair's bully boy tactics.

[thewobbler]

I think it's more a case of MOL realising that the local folk of Norn Iron have too much sway in things that shouldn't be of concern to them - he'll never be able to build a hub out of Belfast City Airport, so he's getting of town.

Living in a flight path isn't that bad. I spent 3 summers living under a Heathrow route that went on more or less 24 hours a day, and you just learn to tune out. Unless of course, you think there's a chance you might be able to claim against someone, in which case your ears would obviously turn to muck and those planes would ruin your otherwise wonderful existence.

[Olly]

I say good riddance. Why do they need the extra runway? It's not rocket science. Their breaks are faulty and so they need the extra bit of road for breaking. Instead of O'Leary pumping more money into break pads and pilots who can put their foot really down, they wanted the easy way out with extra tarmac and then threw their bath water out of the pram. Give an inch and he'll be looking a couple of miles.