Aer Lingus announces a big expansion at Belfast City Airport

Both British Airways CityFlyer and Aer Lingus have stepped up at Belfast City Airport after the collapse of Aer Lingus Regional franchise holder Stobart Air in June.

As we covered in early September, CityFlyer has already announced increased frequencies to

• Exeter (four flights per week)
• Glasgow (13 flights per week)
• Leeds Bradford (10 flights per week)
• Birmingham (16 flights per week, a new route)

Aer Lingus has now announced increased services on the routes it picked up from Stobart. From 31st October:

• Manchester will go from daily to twice daily
• Heathrow will go from 19 to 21 flights per week, returning it to pre-covid levels of service
• Edinburgh will go from daily flights to 11 per week

Flights will earn Avios, but not British Airways Executive Club tier points, when bought for cash and will also be redeemable for Avios.

The increase in Manchester services will support the new long haul routes to Barbados, New York JFK and Orlando which launch across November and December.

You can confirm timings and pricing on aerlingus.com here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2023)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 13th June, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card is doubled to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – and you get £200 to spend at Amex Travel too! Apply here.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.