As widely expected, European low-cost carrier Norwegian will introduce its new Boeing 737MAX fleet into operation on flights between the UK and Ireland and the United States of America. The budget airline will offer 38 new weekly transatlantic flights this summer from Edinburgh, Belfast, Cork, Shannon and Dublin serving ten routes.
The new Belfast City route will commence from June 1, 2017 and will be operated using a 72-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprop. It will operate from Keflavik International Airport in Iceland, providing extensive connection options to the Transatlantic network of Icelandair from the mid-Atlantic island as well as support growing business and leisure flows into Iceland which is becoming an increasingly popular leisure destination.
A growing tourism industry and increased business investment make Northern Ireland’s capital city of Belfast an exciting destination for Routes Europe 2017.
Today (Tuesday, 26 April) the Routes Europe air service development forum was officially handed over from Kraków in Poland to Belfast in Northern Ireland – the destination for 2017.
The Northern Irish city will take on hosting duties for Routes Europe 2017. Hosted by Invest NI and Discover Belfast, they will show what the city has to offer as not only host, but as a destination.
Complementing its existing operations from London’s Gatwick and Stansted airports, Thomas Cook Airlines will introduce weekly flights from Luton Airport to Ibiza, Mahon and Palma in Spain and Corfu in Greece during the summer 2017 schedule. These flights will be operated using Airbus A321 equipment which will fly in and out of the airport on a ‘W’ pattern between Fridays and Mondays.
The low-cost carrier will initially position a single Boeing 737-800 at Belfast International Airport to support the London Gatwick operation, a route that it will directly compete with easyJet. A further two aircraft will be stationed at the airport later in 2016 to introduce five more routes for the winter season from October 2016.
The airline, which supports seat-only and package holiday demand between the UK and destinations across Europe, the Mediterranean and into North Africa, is believed to have secured significant discounts to take late production aircraft ahead of Boeing’s transition from ‘Next-Generation’ to ‘MAX’ series production.
Originally launched in May 2005 by Continental Airlines, United Airlines took over the link between Newark and Belfast International in April 2012 following the merger of the US majors and initially operated a full year-round offering. However, last winter it cut back capacity and suspended flights from early January and mid March this year. It had planned a similar capacity cut for the forthcoming winter season, but has now reversed this decision.
Belfast International Airport said it was prompted to ask Mott MacDonald to conduct an objective analysis of the NICEP report after the local administration, in marked contrast to Scotland and Wales, failed to support the case for seeking the devolved power.
It has been a busy few weeks at Belfast International Airport as leisure carrier Jet2.com, low-cost carrier Wizz Air and low-fare giant easyJet have launched new air services or expanded their schedules from Northern Ireland’s largest air gateway. But the airport is still working hard to further improve Northern Ireland access as its strong delegation at this year’s Routes Europe in Aberdeen, Scotland, UK showed.
The hosting of Routes Europe in the Northern Ireland capital, Belfast, in April 2017 will bring significant benefits to the city, country and entire Ireland, said Minister Arlene Foster, head of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in the Northern Ireland Executive at the formal announcement of the 2017 edition of the forum.
Just as its aviation heritage developed, Belfast has bloomed as a destination from very humble beginnings after starting out as a small hamlet with fertile land along the mouth of the Lagan. It is now emerging as a developing business and leisure destination as it moves away from its historic industries such as shipbuilding to develop as a centre for the arts, higher education, business, and law.
At Belfast in Northern Ireland, the airline’s winter schedule sees it increasing the number of seats for sale on routes to Gatwick, Luton and Stansted in London by more than 125,000, bringing the total number of seats to over 500,000 up to the end of February, 2016.
Thomas Cook Airlines will further expand its UK long-haul programme in summer 2016 building on the airline’s growing long-haul summer programme this year, which sees its first flights to New York and Miami from May 2015. Next year’s programme will see further growth at Manchester and more frequencies from Glasgow, London (both Gatwick and Stansted airports), Belfast and Cardiff.
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.
Thomas Cook Airlines UK is part of the Thomas Cook Group and operates over from 20 airports across the UK, carrying 6.7 million passengers to over 50 short-, medium- and long haul airports with over 200 holiday destinations including North America, the Caribbean Sea and India, as well as resorts across Europe.
easyJet launched flights from Belfast in September 1998 and currently operates a network of seasonal and year-round routes from Belfast to 24 different destinations. It will shortly introduce a new link to Keflavik International Airport in Iceland (from December 12, 2014) and will add a summer link to the Croatian city of Split from May 20, 2015.
The airline will offer four return flights in June and July 2015 through its joint venture with transatlantic partner Delta Air Lines, operated on Thursdays from June 25, 2015 using a Boeing 747-400 configured with 14 Upper Class seats, 66 Premium Economy seats and 375 seats in Economy.
As first revealed by The HUB at the end of last month, UK low-fare carrier Flybe is to inaugurate five new routes from London City Airport from the start of the winter schedules in late October 2014.
