THE thriving Northern Ireland tourist market is to set receive another major boost with six new flight routes set to land at Belfast International Airport.
With hotel room sales up by a third, a record number of cruise ships setting sail for Belfast this summer and a record-breaking 7.8 million passengers welcomed through the two main airports last year, the tourism sector is flourishing despite the political uncertainty at Stormont and Westminster.
The six new international flight routes, to be announced by an existing operator later this week, are to create around 50 jobs for the local economy.
The deal was agreed at the Route Europe aviation conference, which being held in Belfast for the first time.
The three-day event, which began on Sunday at the Waterfront Hall, is expected to attract around 1,200 delegates, including 114 airlines and representatives from 270 global airports.
Graham Keddie, managing director of Belfast International Airport, said confirmation of the new flight routes would be made on Wednesday - and he hinted at a further announcement "expected within weeks".
He said: "On Wednesday we will make our first announcement, our final shaking hands on the deal. It's quite a good one, quite a few new routes and good growth by an existing carrier. Fingers crossed we could have another in a couple of weeks.
"Things are really positive. We've just updated our forecast in passenger numbers from 5.4 million to 5.6 million and that could be conservative if we get a fair wind through the summer. It's all flowing in the right direction."
In terms of future growth the airport has also earmarked Canada and the Middle-East as future destinations.
Already the airport is home to major budget airlines Ryanair, Easyjet and Jet2, with Norwegian Air set to begin two new flights between Belfast and the US from July.
Belfast City Airport also expects to benefit from the conference and hopes to announce new routes in September.
Commercial and marketing director Katy Best said she was "confident" the conference would bring new investment.
"A lot of the airlines that we would work with, that aren't necessarily low-cost, they work in a more cyclical fashion and they tend to firm up their summer schedule in the autumn period," she said.
"Our focus is very much Europe. We've been quite candid about the three pillars of route development strategy. The first being to fill some of the gaps that we have in the domestic market.
"We don't have a Newcastle or Bristol service at the moment and we would like to put additional capacity into London. And then secondly we're looking at the key city pairs that we don't have from Northern Ireland, we are very much lacking in German connectivity and the other key hubs around Europe.
"And then the third key piece is European leisure, which is your sunshine routes and your charter activity," she said.
The positive news comes as both airports renewed calls for air passenger duty (APD) to be scrapped. Currently passengers departing or arriving in Belfast on short-haul flights must pay a £13 each way - a tax which isn't forced on passengers to and from Dublin.
Mr Keddie described the duty as an "anchor" on tourism growth in the north.
