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BA CityFlyer expands at Belfast City Airport

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When the Air Lingus Regional franchise holder Stobart Air collapsed in June, BA CityFlyer stepped up to operate some of the services that the airline had been flying from Belfast City to the UK.

This was a smart move for both sides. IAG was able to keep the routes operating until Aer Lingus can arrange a new franchise partner, and BA CityFlyer was able to use some of the Embraer aircraft which were sitting idle whilst services at London City Airport remain depressed.

BA CityFlyer E190

BA CityFlyer was due to pull out at the end of October 2021, but it has now been decided that the airline will continue flying for another six months to the end of March 2022.

From 31st October, BA CityFlyer will offer the following routes from Belfast City:

  • Belfast City – Exeter (four flights per week)
  • Belfast City – Glasgow (13 flights per week)
  • Belfast City – Leeds Bradford (10 flights per week)
  • Belfast City – Birmingham (16 flights per week)

Birmingham is a new route and will be the only British Airways presence at the airport.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (31)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Phillip says:
    10 Sep10 September 05:15

    I was surprised to realise that the Doubletree in Brussels was in fact a Crowne Plaza up until 2019/20. It was certainly showing its age and in need of a renovation at the time. I guess with Indigo opening next door the owners decided to diversify their own management portfolio!

  • Michael C says:
    10 Sep10 September 07:16

    That BCN Hampton definitely not hot on location! It’s in Barcelona province, but actually in the city of L’Hospitalet.

    • ChrisBCN says:
      10 Sep10 September 07:58

      It’s in the industrial centre. Handy if you are flying in to visit a corporate HQ but not much else.

  • Chris says:
    10 Sep10 September 07:23

    Do GLA-BHD flights offer business class tickets? I can’t see any on search. Would be good for lounge and TPs but appreciate there’s not a lot they could serve you in such a short flight.

    • Rob says:
      10 Sep10 September 07:31

      Some of these Belfast routes are now Economy only.

    • Jm says:
      10 Sep10 September 07:39

      When I flew on Q409 it was a 25 min flight, I’m guessing the Embs for it quicker, hard to do CE when you don’t put the seatbelt sign off I guess! Would be good for TPS if it was cheap enough though

      • Andrew says:
        10 Sep10 September 08:03

        It’s a swift one.

        A Glasgow based mate had to visit Belfast for work recently. His academic employer has banned domestic air travel. Train, bus, ferry, 7 -hours…

        • Andrew says:
          10 Sep10 September 08:08

          Blimey, I would have just paid for myself and flown.

          • Andrew says:
            10 Sep10 September 09:00

            He’s completely demoralised anyway, then I had a brief points chat, and he decided to roll with it.

            Three days away from work politics, two nights in a hotel booked direct, points, £50 back on Amex, dinner on expenses. Sometimes you have to pick your battles.

        • John says:
          10 Sep10 September 10:13

          I’d happily do that on other people’s time/money…

          Unfortunately the only time I would have been paid to travel was when my supervisor tried to send me to Salzburg via Stansted and Ryanair… I said I’d use my own Avios

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:
          10 Sep10 September 10:41

          Short sighted travel policies are annoying. The train may be a comfortable and convenient option between Glasgow and London but there’s so many parts of the UK that are a pain to get to using land based public transport. Even worse when you have to cross the sea.

        • john says:
          11 Sep11 September 22:01

          Could he have flown internationally to Dublin and then got a coach?

      • Michael says:
        10 Sep10 September 19:26

        Ryanair used to do BHD – Prestwick in about 20min, quickest on easterly operations as you don’t have to backtrack round Belfast abiding by the noise restrictions.

  • J says:
    10 Sep10 September 07:40

    I flew London City to Glasgow last night (5pm) and it was a completely full flight. Any idea when the next schedule review is?

  • Andrew says:
    10 Sep10 September 08:01

    Great to see BA back at BHX – understandably configured as economy only – with pitiful lounge offerings and no middle seat on board, one really would be paying for a meal and TP (and being CityFlyer you still get a free G&T in economy anyway). I wonder if status passengers would be offered No1 lounge or just another airport where BA doesn’t offer lounge access.

  • Barnaby100 says:
    10 Sep10 September 08:20

    So BA back at LBA albeit city flyer.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      10 Sep10 September 10:30

      That’s not news, I flew LBA-BHD when I was over in August. The news is these routes are now running for longer than originally planned and Birmingham has now been added.

      The other news is business class has been abolished from these routes. This is down to catering supply issues in Belfast there were times when the regular catering wasn’t available. As the flights are short and the Aer Lingus Regional flights that used to operate this route were single class (and will be again once Aer Lingus is ready to take the routes back over) it was easier to make the routes single class. I was lucky when I flew LBA-BHD I got food and champagne. It was a really nice flight. Because of the short length of the flight economy did get a cut down service as it’s very quick to just hand out water and crisps rather than ask each person what they want to drink. This does seem crew dependent though as I’ve heard of people getting the bar service in economy on both LBA-BHD and even the very quick GLA-BHD routes so enjoy it if you get it but it’s not guaranteed.

  • Fiona McL says:
    10 Sep10 September 08:36

    Great to see BA expanding at BHD. Excellent service to LBA and back recently – on time and comfortable Embraer and yes you can have a free g&t even in economy. Wish they would do the same on BHD LHR service.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      10 Sep10 September 10:36

      Offering free alcohol on mainline BA would be undoing all the good work Alex Cruz did of narrowing the gap between BA and easyJet. Don’t forget BA CityFlyer also do BHD-LCY

  • Paul Brian says:
    10 Sep10 September 08:44

    I’ve just tried to book LBA-BHD with Avios and there are no reward flight saver fares. Is this standard for these routes?

    • Rob says:
      10 Sep10 September 09:22

      Should be there. May be economy only though on this route.

      • Stu N says:
        10 Sep10 September 11:31

        There’s availability for 14/17 Dec for example, looks wide open. Same on GLA/BHD.

        Have you qualified for RFS by earning some Avios in last 12 months?
        Are you clicking through to the final screen that shows the £35 plus 9-10k Avios option depending on peak or off peak dates?

        It defaults to £1 plus 20k Avios remember…

        • Paul Brian says:
          10 Sep10 September 13:59

          I’m being stupid. I’ve not earned Avios this last year. Not a problem. Delete comment!!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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