Two Flybe routes connecting Belfast George Best City Airport to Great Britain are saved

Two former Flybe routes in Northern Ireland have been saved by another airline.

By early afternoon today, Loganair announced that it would take over Flybe’s old Aberdeen and Inverness routes, with daily services coming into effect on March 16 and 23, respectively.

For the calendar year of 2019, Belfast City Airport handled roughly 2.6 million passengers.

Flybe’s operations accounted for around 1.6m of those – or about 62%.

A spokeswoman for the airport said that in the early hours of today staff received a “communication” from the management of Flybe, notifying them that they were now redundant.

Flybe’s routes from Belfast were as follows:

Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Inverness, Leeds/Bradford, London City, Manchester, Newquay, and Southampton.

A new route to London Southend had been due to start in June 2020.

Prior to the Loganair intervention, the collapse of Flybe looked set to leave just five destinations from the airport: London Heathrow (Aer Lingus), London Heathrow (British Airways), Carlisle Lake District (Loganair), Dundee (Loganair – due to start from April), Amsterdam (KLM), and Teesside (Eastern Airways, due to start next week).

Brian Ambrose, Chief Executive of Belfast City Airport said: “We are extremely disappointed at this news.

“Our first thoughts go to the Flybe employees and passengers affected.

“From Belfast City Airport, Flybe had operated a strong and profitable base of 14 routes to key regional destinations across the UK.

“The airline was a significant economic driver for the region, carrying 1.6 million passengers to and from Belfast in 2019.

“I am confident that these well-established routes, coupled with our city centre location and recent £15m investment in terminal facilities, will prove an attractive option to airlines.

“Negotiations with a number of carriers are already underway.