Fly Atlantic plans transatlantic flights from Belfast International

[egpffqtv]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-63709198

Fly Atlantic plans to launch a new transatlantic airline at Belfast International Airport in summer 2024.

It aims to fly to the US and Canada, British and European destinations and, once fully operational, plans to fly to 35 destinations.

This initial announcement is the first stage in its plans; the next steps will be securing aircraft and a licence.

Initially, the airline says it will employ 50 people at Belfast International Airport and 250 crew.

It plans to create 1,000 jobs in the first five years within the airline and indirectly create thousands more in tourism and support sectors.

The new airline says it will create a major hub linking Europe with North American destinations to supplement local passenger numbers.

It will initially operate six aircraft at its Antrim base, growing to a fleet of 18 by 2028.

Fly Atlantic's chief executive Andrew Pyne said: "The lack of direct transatlantic air services has clearly been an impediment to Northern Ireland's economic and tourism development, which we now intend to remove.

"We already have offices at the airport and will now be building out the infrastructure to support the airline's launch."

Managing director of Belfast International Airport Graham Keddie welcomed the announcement by Fly Atlantic.

"We look forward to them bringing this project to fruition as it would have very real economic benefits for Northern Ireland's economy and would further enhance our international connectivity," he said.

'Newcomers'

The airline has received support from Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council.

Mayor Alderman Stephen Ross said improving connectivity was a "key part of our economic development strategy and we are delighted that Fly Atlantic has selected Belfast International Airport to become a hub, offering direct flights to North America, UK and Europe".

The Independent's travel correspondent Simon Calder said there were still questions to answer over Fly Atlantic's plans.
Competition from Dublin Airport, which allows US-bound passengers to go through US immigration and customs checks before departure, is one factor to be considered, he told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

Going up against EasyJet, who run a number of routes from Belfast International, may also cause problems, Mr Calder added.
"Newcomers do not generally do well against well-established, low-cost airlines," he said.

[Ekally1]

Ideal for GLA .. think we would be a better placed than BFS tbh .. But you need to question if we where even up for it ..

[Clive]

Ideal for GLA .. think we would be a better placed than BFS tbh .. But you need to question if we where even up for it ..

I’ve done a wee mock up based on what Play do at KEF using real block times for GLA-Europe-GLA-North America-GLA-repeat over 24 hours with 4 aircraft serving North America daily and 8 European cities 3 and 4 times a week. My thinking is in the future we could have a state owned national airline and it could be initially set up in conjunction with Wizz Air UK using their AOC and leased aircraft and crews or something along those lines. It could even be a Scottish/European subsidiary of JetBlue or the likes.

It’s like what Aer Lingus and Icelandair do but on a smaller scale.

I might develop it more just for fun. I’d love to have the O &D figures if anyone has access to them?

[egpffqtv]

Ok here we go again - fantasy airport and airline ops seeing as we don’t have many actual real planes coming and going

[Clive]

Ok here we go again - fantasy airport and airline ops seeing as we don’t have many actual real planes coming and going

Right on cue. Someone’s serious about doing it at BFS but it’s ridiculous from GLA. Way to go egpffqtv.

[egpffqtv]

Ok here we go again - fantasy airport and airline ops seeing as we don’t have many actual real planes coming and going

Right on cue. Someone’s serious about doing it at BFS but it’s ridiculous from GLA. Way to go egpffqtv.

You must have way too much time on your hands.

[atuk]

Of course we could always revert to the 1970s and do the reverse of BOAC Viscount service which was a BFS to PIK feeder and use FlyBe to provide a PIK -BFS service instead to feed the new airline!

[Clive]

Ok here we go again - fantasy airport and airline ops seeing as we don’t have many actual real planes coming and going

Right on cue. Someone’s serious about doing it at BFS but it’s ridiculous from GLA. Way to go egpffqtv.

You must have way too much time on your hands.

Yes, I had half an hour to spare when I couldn’t sleep in Toronto and had just gone through KEF in the above sort of manner.

So you tell us - why would it be so ridiculous for GLA and not, say, BFS or KEF?

[egpffqtv]

Right on cue. Someone’s serious about doing it at BFS but it’s ridiculous from GLA. Way to go egpffqtv.

You must have way too much time on your hands.

Yes, I had half an hour to spare when I couldn’t sleep in Toronto and had just gone through KEF in the above sort of manner.

So you tell us - why would it be so ridiculous for GLA and not, say, BFS or KEF?

These flights are planned according to this article.

You’re a wannabe armchair CEO with way too much time on his hands if you can do something like this for something that’s never going to happen in our lifetimes

[buddyboy]

Obviously I am bias but you would think that GLA is physically set up far better for that sort of operation. Far more space is the main thing, BFS is a tiny terminal and it's not a great space to be in.