airport

The case for Kilroot International Airport…

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You might not realise it, but Northern Ireland’s air transportation links with the rest of the world are controlled by what amounts to a cartel. Cartels in the world of aviation are practically as old as flight itself. This cartel relies on regulation, restriction and operational inflexibility of aircraft type and the ability of airports to set uncompetitive rates. It is for example £28.99 per ton of aircraft and £20.30 per passenger plus security charges to leave from the City …

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Dealing with crisis: Stormont campbeds, staffing a post-nuclear government, & scramblers #20YearRule

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THE CAMPBEDS were brought out of the Stormont store in preparation for any disruption marking the first anniversary of the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. In a post-nuclear situation, civil servants without “abnormal domestic ties” would have helped run NI. And phone systems and scramblers occupied the NI Emergency Committee according to papers from the late 1980s released under the 30/20 Year Rule.

Aldergrove in the 1970s: no hand baggage, no overnighting BA crews, no aerosols #20YearRule

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ALDERGROVE SECURITY restrictions banned non-passengers from the terminal after terrorist attacks in the early 1970s. BA pilots and crews refused to stay overnight in Belfast and instead flew to Glasgow. BMI crews did sleepover. And journalist Chris Ryder’s letters of complaint about aerosol cans turn up in the recently declassified files.