[textarea]Ryanair admits volcanic ash in Belfast engines

Ryanair has denied ash was found in any of its planes

Ryanair has said that volcanic ash has been found in the engines of two of its aircraft at Belfast City Airport.

Four Ryanair flights to England were cancelled at the airport on Sunday, leaving dozens of passengers stranded.

Initially, the airline said the planes all had separate technical problems unrelated to the Icelandic eruption.

But after further tests on Sunday, the airline confirmed that two of its aircraft at the City airport showed small traces of ash in their engines.

A Ryanair spokesman said the planes would return to service later on Monday.

"These aircraft will return to service once the manufacturer's approved procedures for return to service in such cases has been completed by Ryanair's engineers," he said.

'Trace elements'

He added that there "was no risk and no cause for concern."

The planes had flown in UK airspace which was open and unrestricted at the time.

The spokesman said Ryanair cannot explain why there was ash in the engines other than there are trace elements of it in the atmosphere.

UK airspace was closed for six days in April because of the ash cloud from Iceland's volcano.

The ash cloud has continued to cause disruption to flights in Europe.

Airports in Portugal, France and Austria have all been forced to ground some flights overnight, while some airports in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland had restrictions placed on them over the weekend.

Travellers from Northern Ireland are continuing to experience difficulties as a result.

Orla McCabe from Dunmurry is stranded at Faro airport in Portugal.

She is pregnant and her party of eight contains three children and a disabled person.

She said their Easyjet flight was cancelled on Monday morning and all other flights back to Belfast with that airline are full until Saturday.

She said she has been told they will need to pay for additional food and transfers and claim the money back later.

The Met Office has also warned that the ash may return to UK airspace in the coming days.

Source[/textarea]
 
Galaxy said:
Ryanair pulling out of Belfast City due to runway extension not going ahead as planned. 50 job losses, one aircraft to be re-loacted elsewhere: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11139463

I have to admit, this one came out of the blue.

I have a feeling they are pulling out because of poor loads rather than the lack of expansion by the airport, but you can never tell with Ryanair. It sounds like a good excuse by the airline.
 
[textarea]Ministers get roasting from Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has launched a stinging attack on Northern Ireland politicians’ failure to reach a decision over a runway extension at Belfast City Airport.

The outspoken airline boss announced he was withdrawing services from the airport at the end of October following confirmation that a public inquiry into the planned runway extension would be further delayed.

Ryanair has been operating from George Best Belfast City Airport since 2007.

The airline currently flies from the City Airport to five locations in the UK — Bristol, the East Midlands, Prestwick, Liverpool and London.

The airline flies about 800,000 passengers a year from the airport.

O’Leary’s decision comes after a planning application which was made two years ago to extend the runway, thus allowing in larger aircraft from further afield, was referred to public inquiry by the Stormont government.

But, with no sign of progress on the inquiry, O’Leary yesterday declared: “Frankly, I’ve had enough.”

However Environment Minister Edwin Poots blamed delays in the process on lawyers.

He told the BBC: “We are very happy to make decisions but there are processes to go through. Ryanair would have had this runway by now if it had not been for lawyers holding up applications.

“We want to make decisions but they are continually being judicially reviewed.”

Other politicians said they would not be sorry to see the back of O’Leary.

Employment and Learning minister Sir Reg Empey said: “Michael O’Leary thought he was more important that everyone else — but I’m afraid he’s not.”

East Belfast MLA Dawn Purvis accused the businessman of throwing a ‘hissy fit’ and UUP Environment Spokesman Roy Beggs said O’Leary “appears to be throwing a tantrum”.

O’Leary said the current runway is too short for the largest of the airline’s 737s, which means they have to fly with a restricted payload of 129, rather than at their capacity of 189.

“We’ve soldiered on for three years and that’s enough,” O’Leary said.

“We have a far better use for the aircraft if Northern Ireland doesn’t want us. There will be a drop of one million passengers a year and one thousand jobs between the airport and local tourism support, over the next 12 months.”

Ryanair services to and from City of Derry airport will not be affected.

He said that 50 Ryanair jobs will be directly affected but that all staff will be offered relocation elsewhere in the UK or Europe.

But he did not close the door completely. “We will be delighted to come back. Give us a runway extension,” he said, adding: “If I get a phonecall saying that there will be a runway in place next March, will we stay? Absolutely.”

He denied the decision was prompted because the five routes from the airport were making losses.

“Belfast City is in the lower half of our profitable airports but it is nowhere near the least profitable,” he said.

“Other airlines are happy to fly from Belfast to the rest of the UK and do a couple of holiday destinations at relatively high fares, to not grow and to put up prices.

“We want to grow. We’ll take our toys and go elsewhere.

“We always blame politicians, but people elect politicians to make decisions and we are waiting three years for this decision.”

Mr O’Leary said he had no interest in taking his business to Aldergrove, which he referred to as “Lough Neagh International Airport”.

The Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau — the body tasked with visitors tourists to the city — said Ryanair’s decision was “disappointing”.

Sir Reg Empey said that he hopes that a new or existing airline will fill the gap left by Ryanair.

“To be honest, Michael O’Leary and his attitude towards local people was part of the whole problem,” he said.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/ ... z0yIdI6pS8[/textarea]
 
On the other forum there is chatter that Ryanair could leave BFS and return to BHD. Subjecting to keep an eye on!
 
Ryanair are launching 8 new routes from BHD.

Malaga (7 weekly), Mallorca (7w), Faro (7w), Alicante (7w), Barcelona (5w), Ibiza (2w), Milan Bergamo (2w) and Valencia (2w)

It remains to be seen if they plan to leave BFS or operate from both.


 

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