Air Travel, Belfast

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Or Belfast City Airport. For those who don’t know the name, George was the best football (soccer) player to emerge from Northern Ireland. Drank himself to death.

It is definitely preferable to the city’s International Airport, 20 miles north of town. City Airport is in the city’s dockland area, only 15 minutes by bus from the city centre.

On arrival I was on the bus to the city about 10 minutes after landing (no bag to wait for). The airport is small but spacious in the departure hall. Plenty food and drink outlets. Security was quick. Boarding as easy as arrivals.

It reminded me a bit of London’s City Airport.

I’ll do a separate tip for the bus connection to the city.

I’ve used FlyBe a few times for other destinations, but this weekend was my first for their Belfast service.

I booked truly last minute - Friday morning for a Saturday morning departure. About £90 return rom Glasgow (Glasgow Airport is only 30 minutes further from my home by car than Edinburgh, so if the flight times are right it is an option.)

Having no bags to check in certainly kept the price down. So did not paying extra to choose my seat.

It was all very smooth and pleasant. Both flights on time. Both flights less than half full. They use a Dash 8 (70+ seats) turboprop on that route.

FlyBe has a big negative. Its website booking. The site has a big panel under the price announcing boldly that this is the price you will pay. Then on the next page you find that they add £11 for paying by credit card. Misleading, or just a lie?

The photo is one of their Embraer 190s - not the Dash.

FlyBe uses Belfast City Airport.

The Airport Express 300 operates a 24 hour service between the International Airport & Belfast Europa Buscentre. Depending on traffic the journey takes 30 - 40 minutes.

The service is hourly during the night. Monday to Friday daytime every 15 minutes. Saturday daytime every 20 minutes & Sunday daytime every 30 minutes.

Tickets can be bought from the info desk or the driver. A single ticket is £7.00. A return ticket which lasts 1 month costs £10.00.

Flew to Belfast for the 1st time (4th visit) in April 09, using easyJet both ways.

The airline uses Belfast International, which is about 20 miles from the city centre. We rented a car, so it didn't matter to us.

Both flights were on time, and check in etc was fast and easy.

Ticket prices were excellent and made it cheaper to fly and rent a car than to take the ferry. £62 each return from Edinburgh.

Useful links:

www.flybe.com

www.ba.com

www.flybmi.com

www.aerarann.com

www.euromanx.com

www.flybnwa.co.uk

www.airberlin.com

www.flyzoom.com

www.bmibaby.com

www.continental.com

www.airtransat.com

www.easyjet.com

www.Jet2.com

www.manx2.com

www.ryanair.com

www.ba.com

Many daily flights link Belfast's two airports with the four London airports, with worldwide connections.

Regular scheduled flights also operate from many British regional airports, the Republic of Ireland, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Nice, Paris, Prague and Rome.

George Best Belfast City Airport (www.belfastcityairport.com) is 3 miles from the city centre. There's a direct City Airlink bus service from the Airport terminal to Belfast city centre every 20 minutes (8.15-22) Mon-Fri. It's advisable to check the timetable for services before 8.15 and at weekends.

Belfast International Airport (www.belfastairport.com) at Aldergrove is 20 minutes drive via the M2 Motorway. The Airbus service operates between the Airport and Belfast city centre every 10 minutes (7-18.45) Mon-Fri. Check the timetable for services before or after these times and at weekends.

I recently posted a similar tip on my Hamburg page, and I thought it was just something that was peculiar to Lubeck airport, but apparently it isn't. Today, whilst flying out of Belfast International Airport (Aldergrove) I was told that I could not carry my Zippo lighter with me.

I put it into my checked baggage, walked through to the airport shop and bought a gas lighter. Now, if someone could explain to me the difference between the flame from a gas lighter and a Zippo lighter, I'd be very interested. This was on a domestic flight to London. The lady in the shop mentioned in passing that boxes of matches were also not allowed on flights. It's not as if you can even smoke on domestic flights anyway.

If there was some way I could post this as a general Europe thing I would, but it looks like I'm going to have to put it on every page I construct.

Be aware, if you are a smoker (and there are still a few of us about) don't carry a Zippo or you're liable to lose it.

Easyjet fly to Belfast International (15-20miles outside belfast - £5 bus to city) from all 3 london airports and several other uk airports. Head to www.easyjet.com and have a look. I recently flew return from Belfast to Liverpool for £32.

Belfast City Airport (2 miles from City Centre) is served by British European and BA and Easyjet plan to be there soon.

We flew in on United Airlines and BMI to Belfast from the United States. Every leg of the flight was on time or early. Heathrow Airport is a little difficult to navigate. But, we managed! Fly into Belfast City Airport, if you can, because it is much closer to Belfast, much smaller, and very easy to get in and out of.
Taxi and bus service are easy to obtain and very inexpensive. Everyone uses them. Or, walking. We walked a lot, and the distances are not far between each other.

There are 2 airports, Belfast City Airport located 3 miles from the city center and Belfast International Airport located 40 minutes away. City airport has a rail link to the city centre and the international airport has regular Airbus service. You can also get there by ferry/high-speed catamaran from Stranraer, Scotland. It's 3 1/2 hrs on ferry + under 2 hrs by high-speed catamaran. I've flown in to Belfast City Airport and taken the ferry, I much prefer the ferry. The flight was on a little propeller plane from London that bounced along in the heavy turbulence with 5 of us suffering the wonderful effects of all-night drinking party and no sleep. The plane then descended onto a runway covered with bunny rabbits that were getting smushed as the plane landed. UGH!!