Sir, – Some years ago Easyjet operated a direct flight from Belfast International Airport to Berlin. I regularly travel to Berlin on business and would make seven or eight return trips per year (sometimes more). For reasons best known to themselves (probably financial) Easyjet withdrew the flight and now I have to make a “through the night” trek by bus from Letterkenny (there isn’t a bus from Derry that would get me there in time for the 07:20 Aer Lingus flight to Berlin Schönefeld). I have no gripe with Dublin Airport – in fact I am very impressed with Terminal 2– but I do resent having to spend twice as long in the bus getting to the airport than on the plane! A direct flight from Belfast International would be of great benefit to me.
So much for my vested interest! Now let us consider the tourist potential of such a flight. If we are to attract greater numbers of European tourists to the north of Ireland we must give them ease of access. I would submit that we lose many potential visitors from Germany to the south and west simply because they fly into Dublin and don’t come north.
My many Berlin friends keep saying they would love to visit Belfast and Derry and the Antrim Coast and Glens and Donegal, but when they get to Dublin they tend to stay there or take the well-worn routes to Cork, Kerry and Galway. A direct flight from Berlin to Belfast International would solve that one.
We must stop thinking of our airports as merely starting points for destinations we want to go to and think a little more of the tourists that we need to bring here.
Reciprocity! Since Easyjet withdrew its flight many things have changed for the better. The north of Ireland is now a much visited tourist destination and we have cities and scenery and people second to none. Berlin is one of the top long weekend city break destinations in Europe. To link these tourist destinations seems to me essential.
Many names in the travel and tourism industry both here and in Berlin – as well as senior officials of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board – have given their support to the campaign to reinstate a direct flight. Recently the minister responsible for tourism in Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster MLA, gave the campaign her backing.
I am convinced that even a weekly flight would sell well and we could take it from there. (Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus fly from Dublin to Berlin on a daily basis and their flights are always well booked). So come on airlines – any airline! Give it a go. Link Belfast to Berlin and do everyone a favour. – Yours, etc,