09/01/2003

Regional airlines reveal record NI passenger numbers

Two of the UK's leading regional airlines have revealed record passenger numbers for their Northern Ireland operations in 2002.

Both bmi and easyJet recorded an upsurge in passenger numbers flying to and from their Belfast operations throughout the UK.

The latest quarterly figure's for bmi's Belfast to London/Heathrow route saw a 33% rise in numbers compared to the same period the year before.

For the period October to December 2002, the number of passengers was one-third higher than in the same period in 2001 with more passengers being carried on the key routes between Belfast International and Belfast City Airports to London/Heathrow.

For bmi, the number of passengers travelling to Belfast makes this the biggest destination on their network.

Austin Reid, bmi’s Chief Executive Officer said that the steady growth in passenger numbers to Belfast being carried by his airline reflected the growing public demand for a full service airline in the face of stiff competition from low cost carriers.

Meanwhile, easyJet saw a 60% rise in the number of passengers who flew out of Belfast in 2002.

While more than 2.5m passengers flew with the low cost airline from Belfast last year, easyJet also reduced the cost of its seats for a fourth consecutive year.

Traffic to Scotland also doubled last year while London and Liverpool passenger numbers were up by 27% and 22% respectively.

While these figures include those who travelled with merged airline GO, year-on-year growth on easyJet's routes from Northern Ireland was 52%.

(MB)

Related Northern Ireland News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

08 April 2002
EasyJet report increase in passenger numbers
No frills airline, EasyJet has reported an increase in passenger numbers for March. The company said, on Monday April 8, that it had carried 839,472 passengers in March, up 39 per cent up on the same period last year.
08 October 2003
Belfast City help boost bmi passenger numbers
Belfast City Airport has helped leading UK airline, bmi record a 21% increase in passenger numbers for the month of September. The company's Belfast route saw passenger numbers rise by 14% with the overall number of passengers flying on bmi airlines in September rising to 881,189. The overall monthly load factor also grew by 1% to 74%.
08 July 2011
Call For NI Air Passenger Duty To Be Scrapped
Air Passenger Duty on all flights from Northern Ireland's airports should be scrapped, according to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. The report by the group of MPs said that the tax was much higher in Northern Ireland than in the Republic of Ireland which was ultimately damaging to the local economy.
27 November 2002
NI passenger numbers soar for easyJet
Northern Ireland gave out-going easyJet chairman Stelios Haji-Ioannou a farewell to remember with news that the airline's passenger numbers were up by over 100% on last year. Over the year to September 2002 easyJet's Belfast operations at Aldergrove carried almost 2.
21 January 2008
Irish Airline's Lock Horns On Passenger Numbers
Irish airlines Ryanair and Aer Lingus are both said to have 'suffered' falling numbers on two of their respective services.