15.08.05
A group of Northern Ireland's businessmen are said to be planning to launch a new airline, that will be based at a Belfast airport. The revelation comes in a report in today's Belfast Telegraph.
The newspaper quotes 'sources close to the group' throughout the article. It says that the businessmen has secured financial backing for the project and the airline will take off next summer. It will offer flights from both Belfast and Dublin to destinations in the UK and throughout Europe, and the group have already signed a memorandum of understanding with an aircraft company for the provision of aircraft.
The businessmen involved have signed a confidentiality agreement which does not allow any of them to go public on the group's plans until schedules are firmed up, so none are named in the article.
The new airline will pitch its services at the no-frills end of the market, competing with easyJet, who currently dominate this segment in Northern Ireland. easyJet currently have 5 aircraft based at Belfast International, and operate 9 scheduled services to Britain and 10 to European destinations from the airport.
The newspaper says that the airline will be based in Belfast, but says that the entrepreneurs are undecided as to which of Belfast's two airports it will make its home. The newspaper suggests that it is likely to be based at Belfast International, which has embraced no-frills services, rather than Belfast City, which largely concentrates on full service flights, but the story can't hurt their negotiations with both airports.
Even though Belfast City is the base for low cost airline Flybe, which last week revealed that 111,529 passengers flew with it to and from the city in June, City Airport is currently subject to strict flight restrictions, including a passenger limit of 1.5 million outbound and 1.5 million inbound per year. This which would limit the airlines growth potential, but the limits are currently under review, and could be lifted by the time the group launch their airline.
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