Northern Ireland airports can “take advantage” of a cap on passengers at Dublin Airport to bring in more direct flights, MLAs have been told.
Tourism chiefs also said they would love to see a transatlantic flight from Northern Ireland, but added it had to be established on a commercially viable region.
Representatives from Tourism NI and Tourism Ireland, which jointly market the whole island to international visitors, gave evidence to Stormont’s Economy Committee on a new 10-year action plan for the sector.
Tourism NI chief executive John McGrillen told the committee that the sector wanted to see increased air connectivity with European routes.
He said: “We are very well connected with the UK…where we are not so strong is in links into some of the core cities in the populous areas of Europe.
“That is where we would like to see those routes developed.”
Alice Mansergh, the new chief executive of Tourism Ireland, said her organisation wanted to help to build demand for routes that come straight into Northern Ireland, referring to the current cap on passenger numbers in Dublin.
She said: “We do place emphasis within Tourism Ireland on helping to build demand for routes that come straight into Northern Ireland or come into the regions of Ireland.
“That has never been more important than at the current time, if you think about the Dublin Airport cap we want to do everything we can to stimulate direct access into regions and into Northern Ireland.”
She added: “Over the past year at the City of Derry Airport we’ve worked with Loganair, Ryanair to Manchester, easyJet to Edinburgh; Belfast City Airport we’ve been working with Loganair, British Airways and easyJet on campaigns in and Belfast International easyJet and Ryanair – actively working with those airlines to promote those routes in Northern Ireland and bring visitors in.
“I think we can play a very active role which benefits everybody as we have these discussions on greater air access.”
Alliance Party MLA David Honeyford asked if the tourism bodies were focusing on European connections.
Mr McGrillen said: “I wouldn’t say it is solely on European connections.
“If there is an opportunity to bring a direct route in from the US, that is something we would welcome but we recognise the challenges of those routes in the past.”
Northern Ireland has been without a direct transatlantic route for a number of years.
The power-sharing Executive’s draft programme for government, published in September, includes a proposal to work with the UK Government to support a pre-clearance facility at Belfast International Airport for direct flights to the US.
Mr Honeyford asked if the Department for the Economy’s “model” was to use Dublin airport as the hub for long-haul flights with passengers then travelling on to Northern Ireland.
Michelle Scott, the department’s director of economic partnership and delivery division, said there was “ongoing work” over a transatlantic flight from Northern Ireland.
She said: “We need to be realistic about what Northern Ireland can attract and what we can sustain in terms of those flights into America.
“We do hope to take advantage of the Dublin Airport cap, getting more direct flights into Northern Ireland.
“But it is really what we can sustain in terms of those long-haul flights.
“You will know the background of those flights from America, it was fabulous when we had them but we weren’t able to sustain them.
“It is getting us on a sustainable footing for that air access.”
Ms Mansergh said nobody was saying strategically there should not be a transatlantic flight from Northern Ireland.
She added: “But the heart of this topic is always what is profitable for the airlines, because ultimately they will go where it is profitable for them to go.
“Dublin is now the third-biggest European transatlantic hub.
“Given the size of this island that is quite remarkable, we are after Heathrow and Frankfurt.
“Part of it is you have a lot of transatlantic flights already coming into Dublin which makes it easier for those airlines to move on to wherever they want to move on to using Dublin as a hub.
“Secondly, if we were to get links into Belfast International, we need to be able to commercially fill those flights.”
She added: “It is definitely a topic we should keep open because everybody would love to see.
“To make it work there’s a number of factors we need to work through with the airlines and with the airports to see what would be the best bet to ensure that something long term, commercially-viable, could come into Northern Ireland.
“In the meantime, whilst Dublin is the hub it’s all about encouraging those visitors to spread out across the island.
“Thankfully, Americans don’t think two hours in the car is a very long journey.”
