Airline Changes For Belfast Travellers

The budget airline Easyjet will add more flights from Belfast International Airport as of October 28.

There will be an extra Edinburgh flight on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and an extra Manchester flight on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Numbers of flights to four London airports will also increase on weekday mornings and evenings.

It is thought the boost to Gatwick, Southend, Stansted and Luton flights are designed to target business travellers.

Uel Hoey of the airport said: "We are delighted that the airline is again demonstrating a willingness to explore new horizons in support of Northern Ireland's economic growth."

The changes follow Friday's news that Aer Lingus is planning to cease operations at Belfast International Airport.

Instead, the Irish airline will operate its flights to eight destinations from Belfast City Airport.

It may manage to capitalise on the loss of BMI Baby, which carried 400,000 passengers a year but stopped flying from the City Airport last week.

A spokesperson for George Best Belfast City Airport told the BBC: "Following the announcement of the departure of BMI baby we stated that we were confident that we would attract new airlines. This position has not changed and we expect to make several announcements in the coming weeks. We are certainly not in a position to comment on speculation regarding specific airlines at this stage."

The move would make the City Airport Belfast's only Heathrow connection.

Aer Lingus currently operates flights to Alicante, Barcelona, Faro, Lanzarote, Las Palmas, London Heathrow, Malaga and Tenerife.

(NE)