‘Thousands will fly from Belfast next month,' Irish travel agents warn

The Irish Travel Agents Association has predicted that 'thousands' will fly in the coming months. A quiet Cork Airport during the Covid-19 Level 5 restrictions. Photo: Denis Minihane

Thousands of Irish passengers are likely to avail of the earlier re-opening of air travel from Belfast in June and the Government must start moving to 'decouple' over 30 Covid-related travel laws to ensure Ireland is ready to re-open air travel from August.

That’s according to Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) CEO Pat Dawson, who said air travel from Belfast is likely to appeal to Irish travellers eager to get away for holidays, to see friends or family, or for business reasons.

The UK and Northern Ireland, Mr Dawson said, is around six weeks ahead of Ireland in terms of relaxing restrictions meaning that different travel rules will apply across the island of Ireland as both economies re-open.

While mandatory hotel quarantine is operating in both jurisdictions, Ireland currently has more countries (62) on its quarantine list than Northern Ireland (40), which may also be a consideration for would-be travellers weighing up the possibilities of flying from Belfast rather than an Irish airport, which may not open up until later in the summer.

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Mr Dawson pointed out that Ryanair announced 10 new routes from Belfast to sun destinations in recent months to deal with pent-up demand for travel, while other operators such as TUI and Jet2 Holidays had their engines ‘warming’.

“There will be thousands flying from Belfast. There is no question about that,” Mr Dawson said, noting that travel bookings from Belfast were always strong from border counties even before the pandemic.

While concerned about the business that will be lost to Irish airports he accepted it was a “fact of life” given the different Covid responses in both jurisdictions.

He doesn’t advocate a faster re-opening of air travel in Ireland but said harmonising travel rules would help and that Government departments need to start working on “decoupling” 31 pieces of travel-related Covid legislation to ensure the country and sector is ready by August.

“There are 31 laws or statutory instruments in place in relation to international travel. They all have to be decoupled and that doesn’t happen overnight. We need to be working around the clock to get all of the technology and regulations in place,” he added.

Travel agents are not selling travel for the months of July or August but are looking for some certainty on when air travel will open up, he said, urging the departments of health, transport, and foreign affairs to coordinate efforts to be ready by August.

“We’re not saying open up in June or July but we’re saying be ready by August. If it’s safe to go and restrictions are lifted let’s be ready to go in August,” Mr Dawson said.