John Montgomery

Lunch today at Cafe Brazilian, q outside door all the time we were there.

Hannah graduation today,  Adult Nursing.

Save the Ulster Special Constabulary
Save the Ulster Defence Regiment
Save the Royal Ulster Constabulary
Save Drumcree
Save the flag
Save Twaddell
Don’t know how many I have missed but the theme is the same, perhaps remembering 1690 is the only option left to us!

Belfast City Airport is able to report a between 2 and 3 % increase in passenger numbers to date this year. This remarkable performance is achieved by a 70% load factor, planes are flying with greater numbers on board so no increase in numbers of flights.

Also reported was investment in x-ray equipment leading to faster throughput of luggage.

British Airways now flies into Terminal 5 which leads to better connectivity with it’s international and other domestic flights.

Aer Lingus now flies into the new Terminal 2.

HM The Queen arrived at Belfast City Airport for her Northern Ireland visit. She was welcomed to the Airport by Brian Ambrose CE BCA.

Lovely coffee, pastries and service.

Letter to Council from the IRA Education Minister states he has asked for an extension to Education and Library Board members appointment until 31 March 2015 as opposed to their replacement by democrats. This letter at DUP request is simply a matter of choreography between themselves and their IRA partners in Government, a sort of political line dancing. The DUP know the answer already but want to be seen doing something even if it is nothing. The Minister has no interest in democratic governance within education and will also do nothing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-27801890

The suspension of the United flight between Belfast and New York, 6 January 2015 and 11 March 2015, can hardly be welcomed. Northern Ireland airports are already losing passengers in their millions to Dublin Airport, this development can only acerbate that situation. We have, unfortunately, a government of two halves. One half impotent the other, their IRA partners have no interest in the advancement of Northern Ireland and are entirely happy to see Ulster folk traipsing down to Dublin.

United are hardly blameless if passenger numbers is the issue, although perhaps a flag of convenience. Booking cattle class on United means a penalty of unfortunate routing. An economy flight to Orlando might find the passenger routed through Newark to Orlando, but, on the return journey routed to Houston Texas then Newark before the flight to Belfast. This together with punitive stopover times hardly leads to a comfortable journey. On the comfort theme the journey from Houston to Newark on 737 is more comfortable than the 757 transatlantic flight. Boeing 757 aircraft were used by BA on flights Belfast to London.

All in all, this now part time schedule is perhaps more akin to a charter offering rather than a global airline. Let’s hope that continuity of service returns, or perhaps, another operator steps forward.