Jobs Fly Into City Airport As bmibaby Expands

Jobs are to fly into George Best Belfast City Airport next year with news that the low cost airline, bmibaby, is to open a new sunshine route for summer 2012.

The route from Belfast City Airport to Mahon in Menorca will commence on 15 June and will operate twice a week - on Monday and Friday - and there will be new cabin crew recruited as a result.

The flights will operate as part of the summer schedule, until 24 September 2012. In addition to this, bmibaby will also increase frequencies on some of its most popular summer routes.

Flights to Palma and Faro will now operate up to three times a week and flights to Alicante will operate up to four times a week.

The new flight to Menorca brings the total number of bmibaby European sunshine routes from Belfast City Airport to six. The low cost airline is currently on sale with flights to Malaga, Alicante, Palma, Faro and Ibiza for summer 2012.

In addition a new year round service to Amsterdam launched at the end of October, and a service to Geneva will launch in December 2011. bmibaby is the only low cost airline to operate these routes directly from Belfast City Airport. The low cost airline now offers 11 routes from Belfast City Airport.

In addition bmibaby is currently recruiting ten additional cabin crew from Northern Ireland for the new routes.

Julian Carr, Managing Director, bmibaby, said: "2012 will certainly be a year of growth for us from Belfast City Airport. We are delighted today to be announcing another sunshine route to Mahon, Menorca, for summer 2012. Mahon is situated on the smaller Balearic island of Menorca and will complement our route to Palma, Majorca by providing another sunny holiday destination direct from Belfast City.

"Our Mediterranean routes next spring and summer are already selling really well, as customers look ahead to next year's holiday.

"The new routes mean that we are recruiting additional cabin crew, which is great news in the current economic climate," he added.

"We have built up a strong portfolio of routes and we are proud to offer the people of Northern Ireland even more choice and flexibility plus great bmibaby service and low fares."

Welcoming the new route announcement, Brian Ambrose, Chief Executive of George Best Belfast City Airport said: "After recently launching our first European route to Amsterdam, we are delighted to be able to announce yet another European service with our airline partner bmibaby.

"The addition of Mahon further demonstrates bmibaby's commitment to flying from Northern Ireland and it's certainly encouraging to see positive booking figures on the European destinations previously announced from Belfast City Airport.

"We are excited about bmibaby's plans for 2012 and believe the product we have to offer here at Belfast City Airport, including our close proximity to the city, our customer services initiatives and our terminal facilities make flying from Belfast City to Europe the preferred choice for passengers in Northern Ireland."

(GK)