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Thousands Fly In . . . Thousands Fly Out

Posted on: Friday, 23 December 2005, 09:00 CST

WHILE Christmas signals the annual return of thousands of natives back to our shores, the Province's international airport is also set to fill with outbound passengers as a mass exodus gets under way.

Belfast International Airport said yesterday it was on target to at least equal the number of passengers who passed through its doors last year in the traditional Christmas traffic.

A spokeswoman for the Aldergrove airport said: "It's normally 60 per cent inbound and 40 per cent outbound and that's about 8,000 arriving in and 5,500 going out.

"There's a flight on Friday to Tenerife that's full of people going out for a week and another to Prague on Saturday morning that's also full, with passengers going for a city break.

"There's a Continental flight to New York on Christmas Day, going in and out again and it's also quite full," she said.

"It gets into New York at 11.30am so it's a good one if you're going to visit friends on Christmas Day."

The airport is offering a Christmas gift to all meeters and greeters using the airport car parks.

Each of the short stay, long and main stay car parks will be free of charge for the first hour for people leaving others off and picking loved ones up until Saturday.

Meanwhile, one airport manager is urging holiday travellers to use the web instead of the phone.

As Londonderry's airport prepared for one of its busiest Christmas and New Year holidays, airport boss Seamus Devine urged passengers to keep up to date with the latest arrival and departure times by checking on the City of Derry Airport website.

The website home page features two click buttons, arrivals and departures, on the right of the screen, which provide live information on all arrivals and departures as displayed on the information boards inside the terminal building. It wants travellers to use the website - www.cityofderryairport.com - rather than by contacting the airport by telephone.

Mr Devine said yesterday that he was expecting a significant increase in passengers flying in and out of Londonderry's airport over the festive season due to the increase in the number of flights being made available by the airlines.

Outgoing passengers, he said, are asked to make sure they allow plenty of time to check-in and to take into account any adverse weather conditions which may make travelling to and from the airport more difficult.

"We are expecting the airport to be exceptionally busy this festive season," he said.

"Some of the airlines have added additional capacity with the inbound Christmas rush due to get under way.

"We anticipate the days after the New Year celebrations to be exceptionally busy when passengers are returning home from the holidays."

Advising passengers to carefully plan their journey, Mr Devine said it is vital people make allowances for any traffic delays and adverse weather conditions.

"I would urge people to give themselves enough time so that they arrive at the airport and adhere to the airline recommendation of checking-in at least two hours before departure," said Mr Devine.

Source: Belfast News Letter, The

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