Aer Lingus Belfast Routes Perform Poorly

Newly arrived Aer Lingus has sold less than a third of its seats on its new Belfast International Airport flights in December.

According to the figures from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) there has to be serious question marks over Aer Lingus' commercial reasoning for the move to Belfast.

The CAA said that Aer Lingus filled just 32% of the 21,576 Belfast seats available in December.

The airline's route to Amsterdam, which has 14 weekly flights, was the worst performer, with just 27% of seats filled, with Barcelona the best performer, where 44% of seats on the five weekly flights were filled, while twice-weekly flights to Geneva were 39% full.

Aer Lingus' controversial Heathrow flight didn't start until mid January, and so is not included in those statistics, but rival airline Ryanair claimed that sales were equally bad on that route, at least on the inaugural flight.

However, the December performance may not be as bad as at first sight as routes like Amsterdam would have a heavy business element and there's a lot less business travel in December.

January figures, however, will reveal how well, or otherwise the newly established – flagship – route to London Heathrow has 'taken off'.

(BMcC)