Efforts begin to save Heathrow slots

Northern Ireland's Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson is to seek a meeting with the Irish Government to lobby for the retention of the Aer Lingus Belfast - Heathrow slots, should Ryanair's bid for Aer Lingus be successful. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Donaldson said “Certainly having worked hard to attract Aer Lingus to Belfast we would certainly not want to give those slots away again and we will be talking to the Irish Government — who were supportive of the Aer Lingus move in the first place — we would encourage them not to withdraw the slots.” A spokesman for Belfast International Airport said : "This is standard mischief making from Ryanair. The comments made are abit rich coming from an airline that is threatening to take out a significant number of services from Shannon itself. This situation is entirely hypothetical anyway."