Flybe drops Belfast-Liverpool route
Published: 11/10/2011 - Filed under: News »
Regional carrier Flybe will cease flights between Belfast City and Liverpool from November 6, and will also cut its Belfast-Doncaster Sheffield route from the end of October.
The airline has begun contacting affected passengers, and its website homepage currently carries the following message: “Last day of operation for Belfast-Liverpool route is Sunday 6th November”.
Several customers have posted disgruntled messages on Flybe’s facebook page, including this left on October 6:
“I have just seen on the BBC website that Flybe is cancelling all flights between Belfast and Liverpool after October, but i am booked to travel on the 10th Nov and have not heard from Flybe about this. Surely it would be nice to hear from the airline you booked with instead of the media.”
Which prompted the following reply from Flybe:
“I'm sorry that you didn't hear about this directly from ourselves. Our call centre team has been busy individually contacting all affected passengers since Monday so please be patient - a member of the team will be in touch shortly to discuss your booking.”
The move leaves no carriers serving the Belfast City-Liverpool route, although Easyjet does fly to Liverpool from Belfast International.
Flybe is also cancelling its route between Belfast City and Doncaster Sheffield airport from the end of October.
Fellow low-cost carrier Ryanair previously flew five routes from Belfast City including flights to Liverpool, but pulled out last year citing delays to the airport’s runway expansion plans (see online news August 31, 2010).
For more information visit flybe.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
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COMMENTS »
BusinessTraveller - 12/10/2011 08:49
UPDATE: Flybe has sent Business Traveller the following statement regarding the cancellation of the routes:
"All passengers who have bookings on a Flybe route which is cancelled for commercial reasons are entitled to a full refund or can choose to be re-accommodated on another suitable flight where available at no extra charge; and Flybe can confirm that its Call Centre team has started personally calling every passenger affected in strict departure date order. Selected flights on the 4th, 5th and 6th November will continue to run for the Liverpool football match."
ConstantFlyer1 - 13/10/2011 10:35
I'm no great fan of Manchester Airport, but would choose it every time over Liverpool. I wish there were more options for scheduled flights into Chester/Hawarden, which is a far preferable gateway to North Wales.
Spineynorm - 21/10/2011 10:35
Wont miss Flybe a bit. Latest flight (18 Oct) belfast to Liverpool cancelled so reallocated to Manchester flight then coach back to Liverpool ..3.5 hr joke
We were told that change was due to repair part not arriving (curiously there were only about a dozen passengers on the coach so this smacks of cancellation for flybe economics rather than customer service.
Please come back Ryanair... you were brilliant
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