Northern Ireland

Ryanair drops plans to resume flights from Belfast International to Barcelona

Ryanair has blamed the Irish and EU governments as it announces further cuts to its flights in October. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire.
Ryanair has blamed the Irish and EU governments as it announces further cuts to its flights in October. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire. Ryanair has blamed the Irish and EU governments as it announces further cuts to its flights in October. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire.

RYANAIR appears to have dropped plans to resume flights from Belfast International Airport to Barcelona as the budget airline confirmed it will cut further flights from its October schedule.

The carrier announced on Friday that due to coronavirus restrictions, it expects to fly just 40 per cent of its normal schedule in October, a drop from the 50 per cent it previously predicted.

Ryanair is currently operating eight routes from Belfast International and one from City of Derry Airport.

It is due to resume flights from Aldergrove to Alicante and Berlin during October along with a route between Derry and Edinburgh. But the airline has said it remains too early to make the final call on its winter operations.

Ryanair last year dropped Barcelona and Faro from its summer 2020 schedule at Belfast International. But amid the upheaval of the coronavirus pandemic, it revisited the decision, listing flights to Barcelona Girona from the end of August.

The listing is now gone from its website.

The airline yesterday blamed Irish and EU governments for what it called “excessive and defective” travel restrictions over the prevalence of 14-day quarantines.

"While it is too early yet to make final decisions on our winter schedule (from November to March), if current trends and EU governments' mismanagement of the return of air travel and normal economic activity continue, then similar capacity cuts may be required across the winter period," said the airline.

The Civil Aviation Authoirty confirmed this week that the number of passengers passing through Belfast International Airport during July was 84 per cent down on the same month last year.

Belfast City Airport was down 91 per cent, while City of Derry was down by 65 per cent.

Meanwhile Loganair launched its twice-weekly service between Dundee and Belfast City Airport on Friday.

It’s the fourth Scottish route operated by Loganair at the airport.