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Belfast Airport Information

Facilities

Belfast International Airport provides a fair range of facilities for business and leisure travellers including those requiring special assistance.

Business Facilities - The Business Lounge in association with Bank of Ireland is available for all passengers and provides them with a peaceful, relaxing environment that offers every comfort and amenity to get their trip off to the perfect start. Guests can unwind with a cup of freshly brewed coffee or a choice of complimentary refreshments, and enjoy a range of snacks specially chosen from the Café Paul Rankin menu. The lounge is located centrally to the domestic and international boarding gates just past tax free shopping.

Mobile broadband is available at Belfast International Airport through the BT Openzone service. This provides passengers with the flexibility of mobile working with the power and speed of BTs broadband network, without plugging in to any phone lines. Users with a laptop and a Wireless LAN access card can access data at speeds of almost ten times faster than a standard 56k modem, enabling them to receive and send large volumes of data at broadband speed. The entire airport is now a BT Openzone area so passengers can access the technology from any seating area within the terminal building.

There are also Pay As You Go Internet access points located in the main departure lounge area provided by Boutye.

Leisure Facilities - Belfast International Airport has a fair range of shopping, eating and banking facilities which include Bar des Voyageurs; Burger King; Boots; Café Bar; Café Paul Rankin; Caffé Ritazza; Duty Free Shopping; Food Village; Starbucks; Taste of Ulster; The Change Group and W H Smith. There are airport information assistants; baby changing facilities; lost property service and a tourist information desk available in the terminal.

Special Assistance Facilities - Belfast International Airport welcomes passengers with reduced mobility and are able to provide assistance at the airport free of charge. Airlines are responsible for providing assistance when passengers are on board their aircraft. Belfast International Airport have appointed Interserve as their service provider who will ensure any assistance required is made available. They will provide assistance from passengers means of arrival at the airport out to the aircraft and from the aircraft to the passengers means of onwards transport. To contact Interserve please call 02894 484957 or e-mail: interserve@bfs.aero

If you have a disability or you experience any mobility difficulties and need assistance you should notify your Airline, Travel Agent or Tour Operator. You should also advise of any additional equipment required such as own wheelchair, mobility aids, scooters etc. Means of notification should be completed not less than 48 hours prior to your journey whether travelling on outbound or return journeys. However, if no notification has been made, Belfast International Airport will endeavour to make all reasonable efforts to assist you.

The airport's car parks have help buttons located at all entrance, exit barriers and pay stations. Clearly signed blue badge wide parking spaces are available opposite the terminal building and at the entrance to the Long Stay Car Park. Fully accessible bus transfers are available from the Long Stay Car Park. If you need to take your disabled parking badge onwards with you, present it to the car park supervisor who will supply you with a temporary badge for your car. Blue Badge holders are entitled to a discounted rate in the short stay car park. To receive these rates please make your way to the car parking office, situated in the main stay car park.

Low level kerbs are found at the front of the building for easy drop off and pick up. In the terminal there are lifts to all floors, which are clearly marked and available for public use. Wheelchair accessible toilets have been installed throughout the terminal and all of these toilets have emergency pull cords. If you have booked online and are not checking in baggage you should report to Interserve for onward assistance. The Assistance desk is situated at the left hand side of the Check-in hall.

A range of low level public telephones are situated throughout the terminal. Helplines are situated throughout the terminal building and are identified by yellow signage. If you require assistance please ask any member of staff on duty at the front of the terminal.

An Ambulift is available to provide access to and from the aircraft for passengers with reduced mobility; please inform the airline if you wish to use this facility.

Transport

Belfast international Airport has three car parks offering short and long term parking. Carparking.com can arrange off-airport parking for Belfast International Airport with our parking partners located less than 1 mile away. They provide an efficient, reliable and cost-effective Park and Ride service.

Train services to and from Belfast, Lisburn and Londonderry operate from the nearby town of Antrim, which is just six miles from Belfast International Airport. Passengers travelling to Dublin can connect with the high speed Enterprise train, which departs from Belfast Central Station. Antrim train station can be reached via taxi or the 109A bus service which departs from outside the terminal building hourly and terminates at Antrim bus centre which is adjacent to the train station.

For those wishing to travel by bus or coach, the Airport Express 300 operates a 24 hour service between the airport and Belfast with buses departing every 15 minutes for the majority of the day on weekdays, with reduced frequencies at off peak times and weekends. The bus leaves from the bus stop located opposite the terminal exit. The approximate journey time 30-40 minutes subject to traffic conditions. The Ulsterbus (109A) service operates hourly from 6am - 6pm, Monday to Saturday between Lisburn rail station, Belfast International Airport and Antrim bus centre which is situated next to Antrim train station. Airporter operate a scheduled coach service between Belfast International and the North West seven days a week.

The International Airport Taxi Company is the official taxi operator for the Belfast International Airport and are available for hire 24 hours a day 7 days a week, outside the right hand door of the airport exit lobby.

History

In 1917, during the First World War, the Royal Flying Corps set up a training base at Aldergrove. After the war was over Aldergrove remained open for use by Royal Air Force aircraft and for civil air traffic to and from Northern Ireland, which was starting to develop. In 1921 King George V and Queen Mary landed at Aldergrove on their visit to Northern Ireland. In May 1925 Northern Ireland's own Special Reserve unit No. 502 (Ulster) Squadron RAF was formed at Aldergrove and as civilian air traffic increased the first regular civil air service started in 1933 with a Glasgow to Aldergrove route operated by Midland and Scottish Air Ferries. By the end of the following year Aldergrove was regarded as Northern Ireland's civil airport, however the first regular service from London that commenced in August 1934 flew into an airfield at Nutts Corner a few miles away.

During the Second World War, Aldergrove continued to operate as an RAF base, particularly for the Coastal Command but after the war was over, civil flights began to return to Aldergrove due to less variable weather conditions than at Nutts Corner. Operations were officially transferred back to Aldergrove on 26th September 1963 and the HRH Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother reopened it as a civil airport on the 28th October 1963 and inaugurated the present terminal building.

British United Airways launched the first regular jet service to Gatwick Airport in January 1966 and by the end of the 1960's the number of passengers handled by the airport on an annual basis had reached 1 million. In 1970 a £3 million expansion plan for the airport was unveiled which included the extension of the main runway by over 3,000 feet. Operations at the airport were taken over by the newly formed Northern Ireland Airports Limited in 1971. British Airways launched the first Belfast-Heathrow shuttle service in April 1977 and in July of the same year, the first jumbo jet flew out of Aldergrove on a charter service to Toronto via Shannon in the Republic Of Ireland.

The 1980's saw some exciting developments at Aldergrove. The airport was renamed Belfast International in 1983 and in the following year the annual passenger numbers hit the 1.5 million mark. To improve facilities because of increasing demand a new Executive Aviation Terminal was opened in 1987 and by the end of the year an additional half a million passengers had been through the airport.

Expansion continued at the airport and a new cargo centre was officially opened in July 1991. Belfast International Airport was privatised three years later following a management buy-out resulting in the creation of Belfast International Airport Holdings Ltd. In August 1996 Belfast International was bought by TBI plc.

In recent years the airport has been the scene of some significant moments. On 30th November 1995 Air Force One landed there, carrying the US president of the time and First Lady, Bill and Hilary Clinton and on 21st October 2003 Concorde touched down at Belfast on its final farewell tour. By 2005 Belfast International's annual passenger numbers had exceeded 4.5 million mark and the TBI group were acquired by ACDL (Airport Concessions and development Limited), owned by Spanish companies Abertis and AENA.

The future is looking bright for Belfast International Airport. Continental Airlines started direct services from New York, Newark in May 2005. Annual passengers reached 5 million in 2006 and Aer Lingus have opened their first base outside the R.O.I. at the airport.