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'George Best Belfast City Airport' (Irish: '''Aerfort Chathair Bhéal Feirste''') is an airport in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The airport has a single runway operation, situated in East Belfast only 3.2 kilometres (2 miles) from Belfast City Centre. It shares the site with the Short Brothers/Bombardier aircraft manufacturing facility. It began commercial operations in 1983.
The airport was formerly known as Belfast City Airport until it was renamed in 2006 in memory of George Best, the famous footballer associated with East Belfast.
The airport handled 1.2 million passengers in 2003, a 3.5% increase than the previous year. A subsequent program of building and refurbishment has further increased its passenger and plane capacities. Passenger numbers in 2004 were over 2 million.

Contents

History

Expansion plans and objections

Renamed in memory of George Best

Airlines and destinations

External links

References

History

An airfield was established by Shorts beside their Belfast factory in 1937 as Sydenham Airport (Sydenham, Belfast). This was Belfast's main civilian airport from 1938 to 1939. The airfield was requisitioned by the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Nutts Corner, a former RAF base, later became Belfast's main airport (Aldergrove would later become the primary airport in Northern Ireland). The Sydenham airfield continued to be used for military purposes until the 1970s, after which it was used by Shorts. In 1983, following interest from airlines and customers, the airfield was opened for commercial flights as 'Belfast Harbour Airport' (then 'Belfast City Airport' and now in its current guise ). Following major capital investment Bombardier sold BCA for £35 million to the Spanish company Ferrovial.
Ferrovial is one of Europe's leading construction groups and a growing airport management group. It also manages 13 airports: Sydney in Australia, 2 in the United Kingdom, including Bristol Airport, 9 in Mexico and one in Chile.
On Thursday the 6th of September Ryanair announced that is will establish its 23rd base at the airport. The newest route was the London Stansted after Air Berlin announced that it will axe the route on the 31st of October. Also Ryanair thinks that the Stansted route will compete with the also newly announced Aer Lingus Heathrow route from Belfast International Airport.All Ryanair routes will start on 30th October.

Expansion plans and objections

As the airport is adjacent to residential areas, the question of noise pollution is a major one and a source of public debate. [1] The airport has had to develop a noise management strategy due to a planning agreement, under which the airport operates, and operational noise abatement procedures.
The airport has recently applied for a complete removal of the limit on the seats it can sell (see external link below to Belfast City Airport submission to Planning Department - 'Additional Information Provided', p.6) - a key element of the 1997 planning agreement, which guards against over-expansion of an airport which is sited in a densely populated location. As a result, numerous residents' groups have formed a coalition - The Coalition Against Belfast City Airport Expansion - to protest against the airport's proposed expansion plans and to represent the views of residents at the forthcoming Examination in Public [2]. The dates of the public hearing are 14 and 15 June.
The number of residential areas of Belfast affected by large low flying aircraft has increased substantially, particularly with the introduction of larger aircraft, (for example BMI Airbus aircraft).
Restrictions applied to the airport include: flights have to operate between 6:30 am and 9:30pm, but extensions may be granted in exceptional circumstances to operate delayed flights up to midnight; there can only be 45,000 commercial aircraft movements in the year; airlines are supposed to offer no more than 1.5 million seats for sale on flights from the airport and the majority of flights must approach and depart the airport over Belfast Lough (currently only 54.8% in practice), rather than over the city of Belfast.
The airport owners are studying providing access to the airport through the adjacent Holywood Exchange retail development. This would take advantage of the high capacity flyover serving that site and reduce congestion at the existing entrances.

Renamed in memory of George Best

In March 2006, it was decided to rename the airport in memory of the late Belfast footballer George Best. The new name, 'George Best Belfast City Airport' [3], and signage were revealed at the renaming ceremony attended by Best's family and friends on May 22, 2006, which would have been Best's 60th birthday.
The renaming of the airport caused considerable controversy, with many articles in local and national print media highlighting the mixed feeling of Belfast residents. While many residents supported the move, an equal number of citizens felt that a more appropriate Belfast figure could have been chosen for the honour. [http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=447492006 [4]
In March 2006 Flybe, the airport's biggest operator, announced that it would be naming its Belfast City - Manchester service after the late footballer, dedicating a plane to him. Sadly this aircraft, a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, G-JECL does not serve this route on a regular basis and rarely makes an appearance in Belfast City.

Airlines and destinations

★ Aer Arann (Cork)

★ Air Berlin (London-Stansted)[ends 31 October 2007]

★ Air France

★
★ Air France by CityJet operated by ScotAir (London-City)

★ bmi (London-Heathrow)

★ EuroManx (Isle of Man)

★ Flybe (Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, Doncaster-Sheffield, Edinburgh, Exeter, Galway, Glasgow-International, Inverness, Jersey, Leeds/Bradford, London-Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle, Newquay, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Rennes, Southampton)

★ FlyWhoosh (Dundee)

★ Manx2 (Isle of Man)

★ Ryanair (Glasgow-Prestwick [Starts 30 October], Liverpool [Starts 30 October], London-Stansted [Starts 30 October], Nottingham-East Midlands [Starts 30 October])

External links

★ Belfast City Airport

★ Belfast City Airport Watch

★ Review of Current Belfast City Airport Planning Agreement

★ Examination in Public Belfast City Airport Planning Agreement

★ Ferrovial

References

★ United Kingdom AIP