City of Derry

Ryanair is resuming service on a UK domestic route after almost a decade.

UK regional carrier Loganair is moving two existing London services to Heathrow after securing slots.

Belfast’s senior aviation and tourism leaders agreed at a press conference that increased air connections are vital to the future of the ‘undiscovered part of Ireland’, and that route development is the key.

Europe’s premier route development conference gets underway on 23rd April 2017, bringing together airports, airlines and other key route development professionals from across the region.

Belfast will become the centre of the European aviation industry this weekend when the city hosts the three-day Routes Europe forum (23-25 April).

A new Live Content Programme will be introduced at Routes Europe 2017 in Belfast.

Belfast is hosting the Routes Europe forum next month (23-25 April) to bring new flights and improved international connections to Northern Ireland.

There are a limited number of places left on the Routes Europe 2017 tours – book quickly to make the most of your visit to Northern Ireland.

The £3.8 million UK government funding is a significant investment in supporting the Londonderry - London route. Based on bmi regional using a 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145 on the route and its 13 return weekly frequencies that will equate to 1,300 seats a week, 67,600 seats a year or 135,200 seats for the full two-year funding term. With 2,704 one-way flights scheduled to operate during this period that works out as over £1,400 of support per flight, or £28 per seat.

This ‘start up aid’ will be made available from the Regional Air Connectivity Fund which was announced by the UK government in June 2013 and is open to airports with fewer than five million passengers per year. This fund has already been partly distributed to support strategic routes to London from Newquay and Dundee but is now being extended to bids for more routes.