Belfast City Airport have enlisted some the airlines operating from their base to gather support for the runway extension they've recently submitted to the Planning Service.
Ryanair cabin crew passed out postcards on tonight's flight back from Stansted to gather signatures in support of the extension that would allow Ryanair to take off and land with fully loaded Boeing 737-800 aircraft, and stop the current restrictions that stop people sitting in some of the front rows and limit the amount of fuel they can fill up with.
The postcards were airport-branded - not Ryanair - but curiously featuring a picture of a Flybe aircraft on the back ... an airline which has been particularly vocal in their lack of support for what they see as a needless extension.
(Updated with scan of postcard.)
Update - Thu 26 Feb - The airport explain that the postcards were printed quite a while ago, reusing images that had been taken for other airport publications, and about two months before Flybe came out against the runway extension.
6 comments:
I should have added. I completely disagree with the City Airport extension, when there is one of the longest runways in Europe just 15 miles up the road.
It would be nice if the two airports agreed that all flights to destinations within the British Isles departed from the City Airport, and all flights outside the British Isles departed from the International.
I doubt that will happen though.
It wasn't a rival ... they are BHD-branded cards, no mention of Ryanair. But it's a bit naughty of BHD to use Flybe's image given that they oppose the runway extension.
Added a piccie of the postcard
Naughty...and as Stephen says possibly illegal since it includes a substantial portion of the flybe logo as it used "in a way that can cause confusion regarding the affiliation of the trademark owner to the image"
But it would be doubtful if flybe takes any action against (especially if it turns out that 'pubic opinion' is in favour of the extension).
As for the extension, makes no odds to me, it's not on my doorstep, and Aldergrove ;) is closer for me.
Steve ... Flybe were in touch to remove the name in your first comment as the role was inaccurate. Since Blogger comments aren't editable, I've removed your original comment, but reproduce the rest of your comment below since it still stands.
Stephen Barnes said:
I would suggest that this is commercial and advertising use of an image featuring a rival and is ILLEGAL (unless the rival has given their permission) as it implies that the rival is condoning the petition.
Have you kept the postcard?
I suggest you pass it onto FlyBE. If not, contact FlyBE and tell them about this underhanded and sly act - they'll be very keen to know about this (as will their lawyers).
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 10:53:00 PM
check out S A E N (southend london airport uk) you will see what we are about ,an area you may like to look into is the relationship between the stobbart groupe and tesco some findings around here look suspicious ( for legal reasons i am stating that this is only my opinion) stobbart has won huge contracts with tesco to do air freight there may be an angle to exploit
happy hunting
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