Aer Lingus celebrates 500,000th booking in Belfast

Aer Lingus today celebrated reaching its 500,000th booking for flights from Belfast International Airport less than nine months after the first aircraft took off.

The milestone came on the first anniversary of the announcement they were making a £100m (€123m) investment in setting up their first base outside the Republic in Belfast.

The decision to open in Belfast caused controversy as it involved the airline dropping its Shannon-Heathrow route and using the London slots for flights from Belfast in direct competition with the BMI service from George Best Belfast City Airport.

The airline insisted the decision to locate a base in the North was the right one and that business was going as anticipated.

Enda Corneille, the airline’s corporate affairs director, said: “We’re delighted to have reached the half million mark and growth continues to be in line with our expectations.

“The support from the travelling public in Northern Ireland has been fantastic, and with a growing selection of routes on offer to popular sunshine and city break destinations, we hope to build on this success in the months ahead.”

Since moving the airline has added a number of routes – there are now 11 - including three recently announced winter additions of Lanzarote, Munich and Milan.