George Best Belfast City Airport

Early years

Sydenham Airport was established by Shorts beside its Belfast factory at Sydenham in 1937. This became Belfast's main civilian airport from 1938 to 1939. The airfield was requisitioned by the Royal Navy during the Second World War and named HMS Gadwall. RAF Nutts Corner then became Belfast's main airport (while Aldergrove would later become the primary airport in Northern Ireland). The Sydenham airfield continued to be used for military purposes until the 1970s, including use by the Fleet Air Arm as a naval aircraft storage unit, after which it was used solely by Shorts.

In 1983, following interest from airlines and customers, the airfield was opened for commercial flights as Belfast Harbour Airport (subsequently Belfast City Airport and now in its current guise).

Development from 2000 to 2010

Following major capital investment Bombardier sold the airport in 2003 for £35 million to the Spanish company Ferrovial, the owner of BAA Airports. Ferrovial re-sold the airport in September 2008 for £132.5 million to ABN Amro Global Infrastructure Fund.

In March 2006, it was announced that the airport would be renamed in memory of Northern Irish footballer George Best. The new name, George Best Belfast City Airport, and signage were revealed at the renaming ceremony attended by Best's family and friends on 22 May 2006, which would have been Best's 60th birthday. The renaming of the airport caused controversy, with many articles in local and national print media highlighting the mixed feelings of Belfast residents. Also in March 2006 Flybe announced that it would be naming its Belfast City – Manchester service after the footballer, dedicating a plane to him.

On 30 October 2007, Ryanair established its 23rd base at the airport. The newest route was between Belfast and London Stansted, following Air Berlin's announcement that it would discontinue the route on 31 October 2007. On 31 August 2010, Ryanair announced it would close its Belfast City base, meaning all Ryanair services were lost from 31 October 2010. Five routes and 800,000 passengers per annum will be lost at the airport as a result. The closure of the base was due to the planned runway extension being delayed for a further two years. The airline had stated it would fly to European destinations from the airport if the runway was extended.

Passenger numbers increased by 4.5% from 2,621,763 in 2009 to 2,740,341 in 2010, the highest total on record at the airport. Figure for 2014 is 2,555,111 passengers, up 0.5% on 2013's figure and 2,692,729 for 2015, up 5.4% from the previous year.

In late 2010 Manx2 moved its Isle of Man service to the airport. Many airlines followed the Manx airline in moving to the City airport.

Development since 2011

In early 2011 Easyjet operated its London Luton route from the airport. This was to see if there was any benefit to the airline and its customers. The airline noticed no difference and moved the route back to Belfast International.

In January 2011 Bmibaby moved to George Best Belfast City Airport in order to keep its operation under one roof with sister company BMI. In June 2012 Bmibaby ceased all routes from Belfast City, prior to its total cessation of operations, leading Flybe to increase schedule frequency on some routes. The carrier added routes from Belfast to Málaga, Alicante, Palma, Faro and Ibiza for summer 2012, in addition to a new year-round six-times weekly service to Amsterdam from October 31, 2011, and a twice-weekly winter service to Geneva from December 17, 2011. They all ceased in summer 2012.

In October 2012 Aer Lingus moved its services from Belfast International to the Airport. They launched flights to London Heathrow and London Gatwick and summer seasonal destinations that included Faro, Málaga and Palma. In late 2014, they also hinted that they were considering launching further routes.

In November 2014, Spanish airline Vueling announced that it was going to launch summer-seasonal flights to Barcelona from May 2015. Vueling cancelled the route in late 2015. Flybe also announced that it would commence flights to Liverpool in February 2015. Both of these new routes would be in direct competition with easyJet, who flies from Belfast International.

In January 2015, Dutch carrier KLM announced that it was going to launch flights to Amsterdam from May 2015 using Fokker 70 aircraft. This will be the first time the airline has flown to Northern Ireland since it suspended flights to Belfast International in 1999. The route will be in direct competition with easyJet, who flies from Belfast International.

In October 2015, Brussels Airlines announced that it was going to launch year-round flights to Brussels from March 2016 using Avro RJ100 aircraft.

In December 2016, Icelandair announced that it was going to launch thrice weekly flights to Reykjavik Keflavik from 1 June 2017. The flight will be operated by Sister airline Air Iceland using Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft

Expansion plans and objections

As the airport is adjacent to residential areas, the issue of noise pollution is a major one and a source of public debate. The airport has developed a noise management strategy following a planning agreement, under which the airport operates, and has established operational noise abatement procedures.

The airport has recently applied for a complete removal of the limit on the seats it can sell – a key element of the 1997 planning agreement, which guards against over-expansion of an airport which is sited in a densely populated location. As a result, numerous residents' groups have formed a coalition – The Coalition Against Belfast City Airport Expansion – to protest against the airport's proposed expansion plans, and to represent the views of residents at the Examination in Public held during 2006.

Restrictions applied to the airport include:

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Belfast City Airport:

Rail

Sydenham railway station is adjacent to the southern perimeter of the airport, across the A2 from the old passenger terminal. It is served by frequent Northern Ireland Railways trains between Bangor and Portadown. Trains towards Portadown call at the Belfast Central and Great Victoria Street railway stations. With the construction of the new passenger terminal further northeast, passengers arriving or departing by train can request an airport courtesy bus to take them to or from the terminal.

Car

The airport is located on the A2, Sydenham by-pass road between Belfast and Holywood.

Bus

Translink Metro route 600 is the Belfast City Airlink service, from the terminal to the Belfast Europa Buscentre adjacent to the Europa Hotel and Belfast Great Victoria Street railway station. Buses run up to every twenty minutes throughout the day. In addition Metro bus 3A operates every 10 minutes from Sydenham to Belfast City Hall. The Airporter service operates 12 coach services to the airport on weekdays as well as 5 coaches on Saturdays and 8 coaches on Sundays to Derry.