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Vueling to return to Belfast City Airport with new Barcelona service

Vueling will return to Belfast City Airport for the first time since 2015.
Vueling will return to Belfast City Airport for the first time since 2015. Vueling will return to Belfast City Airport for the first time since 2015.

LOW cost Spanish Airline Vueling is to return to Belfast City Airport this summer with a new service to Barcelona.

The flights, which begin on July 2 2021, have already gone on sale.

It's the second new service announced for the airport in a matter of days.

Aer Lingus Regional added Newquay to its Belfast City schedule on Wednesday.

Barcelona-based Vueling last flew to Belfast over the summer of 2015.

The service was dropped from its summer schedule the following year.

Ryanair has already announced plans to operate a Belfast City to Barcelona service from June 1, one of eight new flights it will launch this summer.

The Irish carrier hasn’t operated from the airport since 2010.

Ryanair will initially run three flights per week to the Catalan city before increasing it to five flights per week in July.

Vueling’s current plans involve just two weekly flights between the cities.

The airline’s last attempt at the route involved three weekly flights launched in May 2015. It’s understood just under 10,500 passengers flew over the summer of 2015.

Vueling is part of the same IAG group as Aer Lingus and British Airways, which already operate from Belfast City Airport.

The latest CAA data showed just 14,559 passengers used Belfast City Airport during February, 90 per cent down on the same month last year.

Spain remains off the red list for overseas travel, but travellers are required to self-isolate at home for ten days.

Official government advice remains that only essential travel is permitted.