Aer Lingus chief 'ill informed'

Belfast City Airport is hoping to expands its runway

The chief executive of Belfast City Airport has said the remarks of the Aer Lingus chief were "ill informed".

Christoph Mueller, from Aer Lingus, which flies from Belfast International, said it did not make economic sense to have two airports in the Belfast area.

He said Belfast International, which has a longer runway, offered a better service.

Brian Ambrose said people had in "increasing numbers" chosen to fly from Belfast City.

Belfast City is planning to extend its runway.

In an interview with the Newsletter, Christoph Mueller said that given Northern Ireland's size "it is not the right resource allocation to have two airports".

"It is economically not very sensible nor meaningful to invest in two half airports rather than one real one," he said.

"Where there are two airports you always have a tendency to operate a smaller size of aircraft - it means that resources are not properly allocated."

'Monopoly'

However, Mr Ambrose said Belfast City did not seek public funding, and private investment by the airports successive owners had made a "significant contribution to the region's economic success".

"For years Belfast International has competed with Belfast City on domestic routes," he said.

"Now that we seek to capture 15% of the European market and break their current monopoly, Mr Mueller and his friends at Belfast International seek to complain."

Competition between the airports has begun to increase with Easyjet deciding to move one of its routes from Belfast International to the City.

A twice-daily service to London Luton will leave from the city airport from 7 January 2010.

Mr Mueller was appointed to the Aer Lingus job in July.

He replaced Dermot Mannion who resigned in April, a month after the group reported a net loss of 108m euros for 2008.