UKC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-29412152

Thank goodness we fly back on the 12th!

Obviously the recession has played its part in its demise ( bums on seats and all that), but it will be a shame to see it close - as getting there and parking is a lot less hassle than Manchester or Liverpool for people to the north of the M62 corridor - especially for a quick business trip to Dublin or holiday flights with Jet2.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

It's strange, Cardiff Airport is in decline as well - there are loads of fields nearby that were set up to provide off site parking for passengers that just haven't materialised. If Ryanair and Easyjet pass you by, I guess you're doomed.

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Ryanair used to fly from Blackpool to Dublin but now Aer Lingus operates that route.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

I was shocked to find out about this when I walked into my local post office and saw the front page of the local paper.

I'm sure I read somewhere that this was the first airport in the country too. But I could be mistaken.

In reply to The Lemming:


Sad indeed but I guess many of the people who are shocked by this news are the same people who don't use it. Personally I only ever flew out of it once but that was on a leisure flight. With Manchester and Liverpool an hour or so down the road, I don't know how it can compete.

In reply to The Lemming:


When I clicked this thread I was shocked to find out Blackport had an airport!

In reply to Removed User:


I crack up laughing when I see it call itself an International Airport.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

I've used it a couple of times when I used to live in Blackpool on the odd occasion I could fly out to where I wanted to go from there. Nothing quite like landing, walking off the plane, getting your case then just walking home.

In reply to The Lemming:


Not only international - intercontinental!! (They have one flight a week to Dalaman, Turkey).

In reply to Lord_ash2000:


Its a great feeling, I grant you. However for me, living in Blackpool it was always cheaper to fly from Manchester or Liverpool, even after taking into account transfer fees for taxi's or trains.

It was always too expensive to fly from Blackpool for anywhere useful other than Dublin.

Blackpool was too short sighted with its £10 TAX and eventually pushed out Ryan Air.

In reply to The Lemming:



The £10 per head 'tax' but free on site parking is cheaper for a couple than a weeks car parking at Manchester or Liverpool or return taxi fares from the Central Lancs area. Flights with Jet 2 are no more expensive than from Manchester or LPL - and actually have better departure and arrival times!

I thought the Ryanair / Aer Lingus change was more to do with Ryanair's 30% stake in Aer Lingus falling foul of the Irish monopoly rules.

The fact that there's a direct rail link from Blackpool to Manchester Airport probably has more to do with its demise.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

How sad
I used to work out of Blackpool and have probably logged over 1000 flights out of there.
I still have a few friends who work there, especially on engineering, only recently started up their own company too, I hope they can find a new location.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

Easy Jet used to fly to London from Blackpool.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

Its sad but the way of the world. There just isn't the demand to operate the flights to the same places from multiple airports so close together. Only a limited number of people wanting to fly to Alicante from North West England on any given day etc. The sad thing is Liverpool will more than likely go the same way, making a loss year on year, falling passenger numbers, reduced airlines operating out of the airport in the last year or so KLM pulled their flights same for Norwegian. Ryanair are developing more flights out of Manchester over Liverpool. Easyjet don't seem to be developing anything at all recently. Air blue only operating to Romania over the winter. No flights to London at all out of Liverpool very few connections to other UK towns other than Newquay and Belfast. No connections to North America after the airline went bust.

We will all have to go to Manchester soon!!

In reply to Alan M:

Crumbs - I had no idea Liverpool was on the straight and narrow. I used to fly down to London from Liverpool and remember that you could park next to the terminal building in the "Long stay" car park very cheaply.

Alas, they canned the London service and it was back to Manchester although Manchester to City no longer exists either.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

Flew from there for the first (and I guess last) time last month. It was a last minute booking to get to dublin for a funeral, but over £250 for a seat on a very small plane that was half empty tells it's own story. Didn't need free parking, but the £10 "development charge" or whatever they called their hidden tax was one of those nasty stings that just annoys you.

In reply to Alan M:




And that's a bad thing, especially comparing it to its grubby neighbour, Heathrow?

In reply to The Lemming:

As airports go I would much rather fly from Heathrow than Manchester. 3 times I've been in Manchester airport this year the terminals aren't big enough for the numbers of passengers going through them. Terminal 1 especially is a disgrace and should be bullozed. The check-in arrangements at terminal 2 are insufficient same for security arrangements etc

Heathrow not perfect at least terminals like terminal 5 etc are modern, clean and spacious.

In reply to Alan M:

I've not been through Heathrow for many years - but when I was travelling from the Northern Wastelands ( Scotland & Cumbria) to and from the Gulf in the 80's and 90's, I used to try and avoid Heathrow like the proverbial plague. Getting to and from the old T1 from T3 or T4 was a proverbial PITA. T5 had not been built so I cant comment on it.

I'd invariably fly via Schipol from either Glasgow or Newcastle which meant I didnt have to lug my bags between terminals.

Once Emirates started flying direct to Manchester I switched to that route - however getting home to West Cumbria took just as long as from Newcastle.

Since moving to Lancashire, I'm now fairly handy for Manchester - which is not that bad compared to some large airports I've used - though it could learn some lessons from the likes of Vancouver and Barcelona!

Liverpool is no handier for me than Manchester - and to be honest is not a patch on Newcastle in terms of facilities.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

We used it all the time to fly out to the Penrod 80, during the exploration phase of the Liverpool bay drilling campaign for Hamilton oil in the early 90's. The security guys were all up for a bit of fun - one guy brought his chainmail making kit with him and the security guard made him unpack it all and give us a demo on how you made chain mail. Another time the camp boss was stopped and on his way in because the catering crew had stuffed his bag full of root veg and tipped the security guys off - they were threatening him with the police for theft ... it lasted 15 minutes before they came clean about the wind up.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

I once flew Blackpool to Barcelona (well, Girona...) on a Friday evening. It was like being in a particularly rowdy pub

On the way back, hand luggage for some people appeared to be a 5 litre bottle of bell's whisky.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

Blackpool has an airport?????

In reply to Alan M:


They've just reopened T2 as well, and it's along the same lines. I wonder if they're going through all their terminals and modernising them?

If so it's a really good thing - Heathrow is the first impression most foreigners get of Britain.