09/01/2003

Regional airlines reveal record NI passenger numbers

Two of the UK's leading regional airlines have revealed record passenger numbers for their Northern Ireland operations in 2002.

Both bmi and easyJet recorded an upsurge in passenger numbers flying to and from their Belfast operations throughout the UK.

The latest quarterly figure's for bmi's Belfast to London/Heathrow route saw a 33% rise in numbers compared to the same period the year before.

For the period October to December 2002, the number of passengers was one-third higher than in the same period in 2001 with more passengers being carried on the key routes between Belfast International and Belfast City Airports to London/Heathrow.

For bmi, the number of passengers travelling to Belfast makes this the biggest destination on their network.

Austin Reid, bmi’s Chief Executive Officer said that the steady growth in passenger numbers to Belfast being carried by his airline reflected the growing public demand for a full service airline in the face of stiff competition from low cost carriers.

Meanwhile, easyJet saw a 60% rise in the number of passengers who flew out of Belfast in 2002.

While more than 2.5m passengers flew with the low cost airline from Belfast last year, easyJet also reduced the cost of its seats for a fourth consecutive year.

Traffic to Scotland also doubled last year while London and Liverpool passenger numbers were up by 27% and 22% respectively.

While these figures include those who travelled with merged airline GO, year-on-year growth on easyJet's routes from Northern Ireland was 52%.

(MB)

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