hi timuk, let us know if you have anymore info on blackpool airport ,this would be great for me as i live in sunny fleetwood......tracy

Tim thought you had vanished

Your postman is very helpfull

Blackpool hey ooo near enough for me for a change

Thats fantastic news.......No more long trips to Manchester (I hope it happens soon)

I'll keep you updated no probs

Colette I'm still here and there {things to do of late though}

Regards,

TIMUK.

I am flying to Dublin from Blackpool Airport on 4th August, and just wondered what facilities it has got.

Thanks.

lainey, it small, but does the job. there are more check in desks than there will be flights at any one time, so no worries there. as far as food and shopping goes, there is a small WH Smith selling the usual papers, magazines, sweets and a small selection of books adjacent to the check in area. once you are checked in and through the security area it is surprisingly spacious and modern. i think there are actually some photos on the forum somewhere, although not quite sure where exactly...anyway, there is plenty of seating whilst you wait at the gate, well there are about 3 gates actually, but only 1 seems to be used at any one time. by the seating area there is also a small but well stocked duty free area with your usual perfumes and the obligatory giant toblerone (would anyone buy one of those in their usual supermarket shopping???!!!) in addition to a coffee shop with further seating. if you are flying ryan air, as we did, there will be the ususal circus at boarding time. you will see your plane land about 30 mins before your departure loaded with other passangers who are yet to get off-and people at the gate will get up out of their seats ready to charge as soon as the wheels hit the runway!!!! but other than that it is quite organised and we found it fine for the purpose of getting from A to B

Darren flew from there recently......
You'll find his photo's of Blackpool Airport in this link HERE
Click on the jet2 link Malaga - Blackpool
I must agree that it looks a modern, cheerful little place and I love the colour scheme........

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiii

Seven-night package holidays in Benidorm from as low as £74 are being offered by Jet2Holidays.com for those wishing to escape Blackpool this winter ... click here for more details.

David

Thanks for the links to the reports!

I thought I was flying from a little beach hut when we booked the flight, so am quite pleased!

I thought I was flying from a little beach hut

No, you have to go to Coventry Airport for that privilege

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Blackpool is a great little airport but with its small catchment area and Manchester only 1.25 hours drive away, it'll never be a major player. I have a copy of the booklet Tim refers to but I would take things with a pinch of salt at the moment until routes are confirmed for summer 2008. It'll be a quiet place from the end of October when the winter scheduled kick it. Chances are, Jet2 will announce new destinates for summer 2008, Ryanair will continue Dublin and Gerona, Manx2 continue their operations to Belfast and Isle of Man and Thomsonfly to indroduce Alicante (probably using a 737-300). Newmarket have some interesting destinations which should see an airline chartered in to cover. There's no mention of Turkey as yet as far as I know. I hope it's not Onur Air if they do introduce a charter service! It's a dream to fly out of though and the photography oportunities are pretty good as well! For more information, visit Blackpool International Airport website. For anyone interested in aircraft movements at the airport, have a look at Blackpool Spotter.

Darren

Warning. If you look at their web page to verify that planes fly on your dates,
DO NOT book on that page. Contact the airline direct or your travel agent.

On their web page is a line saying
To book all flights and holidays from BLK - Click Here

I did that, I got a booking page coloured in Jet2 Orange and completed the booking and payment as we do. Then I got a message onscreen 'We've taken your money and we'll let you know later if you have secured a booking , if a response is slow contact this 0871 number or this 0909 number'
I'd got an agency called Airport Direct Travel at Chester.
2.5 hours later and several worried phone calls later they confirmed the booking by email giving the Jet2 Booking Ref.
This time the company title was Calls Online. Nuff said. I'm still waiting for their call charges to appear on my home phone bill.

I did my seat reservations, luggage payment and boarding card print direct with Jet2. Whilst there I checked the prices I would have paid IF I'd gone to Jet2 direct and their prices were cheaper than what the agency
charged.

The nice lady at the airport says one has a choice, you can deal with their agency or deal direct with Jet2. That instruction above does not give anyone a choice.

Several days later I got mail from the agency to say they enclose my travel tickets for my holiday, but we don't have tickets. Followed by another letter giving me an itinerary and an ATOL Receipt. Never had those before for these flights. Then another letter demanding that I say who my insurers are and that I wont claim on the agency, plus 8 pages of Terms and Conditions for which they demanded my acceptance in writing.
No Frills.

Plans for a second Terminal at Blackpool International Airport - read more about it here.

Darren

We first flew from Blackpool a couple of years ago as we booked a package that left from there. We were really pleased with it and since then have always used it when we can. We enthuse to anyone who will listen about how good it is and so handy for parking. We timed getting off the plane and onto the dual carriage way to get home at 20mins! in Manchester we would still have been at baggage reclaimation! As we live near Rochdale it takes us about 40mins at best to get there...I wish we had discovered it sooner.

I am not too sure if a second runway would spoil its intimacy

starkeybabe wrote:

I am not too sure if a second runway would spoil its intimacy

No chance of that!! They're still debating a paralel taxiway and 400m extension of 10/28! Balfour Beaty recently purchased the airport and surrounding land (more here) so we'll have to wait and see what their plans are. They've been quiet on that front. If the figures being banded around are true, the airport is making a loss of approx. £20,000 per week. There aren't enough flights (commercial) operating out of BLK at the moment to make the airport viable. With only Ryanair, Jet2 and Manx2 operating scheduled services, and Monarch and Thomsonfly pulling out because their routes weren't commercially viable, it's difficult to predict the future of the airport. Even at this time of year, ie peak season, there is little traffic operating out of BLK. Load factors on the flights operating aren't too bad though. In winter, the airport almost grinds to a halt. Jet2 have announced a ski charter, we'll have to wait and see how this goes but as of October, many Jet2 staff will be made redundant (I know someone who's just left). I suspect Balfour Beaty aquired the airport for the land rather than the airport itself, but that's just a suspicion.

BLK is a great little airport to go from, but it's future hangs in the balance.

Darren

Perhaps Tiger Woods could be persuaded to buy it and keep it open as an airport so that he'll have somewhere to park his private jet next time the Open is played at Royal Lytham and St Annes! Quite handy for Royal Birkdale too if he'd been fit to play this year! Whenever the Open has been played at either St Andrews or Carnoustie he's managed to persuade the MOD to let him park it at RAF Leuchars. And when played at Carnoustie he always stay at the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews and flys across the Firth of Tay by helicopter! Golf clearly pays

SM

I've been surprised, there haven't really been many private jets inbound to BLK over the last few days relating to the golf. I think most travelled by helicopter and landed locally. I know there was a temporary helipad made for the event.

Darren

Wonder then if the jets for the transatlantic players are all lined up on the apron at John Lennon or Manchester then and they're using helicopters between hotels and the course? It's what tends to happen up here in Scotland - brings the plane and celebrity spotters out in droves! Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta leave the jet at Leuchars too and then hop backwards and forwards by chopper. how the other half lives eh?

SM

Hi

I have booked flights from Blackpool to Faro next June and was looking for recomeendations on hotles that do park and fly deals.

Was saving at least 500 pounds flying from there as opposed to Glasgow or Edinburgh so now looking for somewher to dump the car.

Cheers

David