The CEO of a busy Belfast airport has stressed that they have the facilities in place to avoid queues and delays for customers travelling this summer.
Matthew Hall, Chief Executive of Belfast City Airport, has seen the airport transform into a "far more balanced portfolio" of choice for customers since taking on his new role almost a year ago.
With 30 years of experience in the travel industry, Matthew could see the potential that Belfast City Airport could offer to the people of Northern Ireland.
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Speaking to Belfast Live, Matthew said: "It has been really fascinating taking the business over when one foot was definitely still in the pandemic.
"One of the reasons I was interested in the role was the business was clearly going to recover and it has proved itself to be very resilient through the pandemic - we are at around 65 per cent of our pre-pandemic passenger volumes now and we will be up to 100 per cent or more by the end of the year."
He explained that they have seen "a good trajectory of recovery" and that busy periods such as the Jubilee and Easter weekends were managed successfully.
"Our industry as a whole is challenged at the moment but we are doing ok relatively and are looking forward to demand increasing. We our managing our capacity in a graduated way so we can actually manage it smoothly.
"A lot of people have got out of the habit of travelling and probably need a little bit of extra help reminding them what they need to do to ensure the operation can run smoothly," he added.
The average security time is currently around six minutes which Matthew hopes to improve moving forward to ensure that passengers can get a slick and hassle-free service when they chose to fly from Belfast City Airport.
Matthew explained: "Everyone's lives changed and like all businesses, we worked with the government and worked across the community to ensure we were operating in as responsible a way as possible.
"Our experience is as people tentatively move back towards doing things such as going out or starting to travel again, people are growing their confidence over time and that is representative in the volumes that we've seen come back gradually and steadily now.
"It says a lot about our business and the resilience of it because the demand for travel hasn't gone away and we've worked with people along the way and be the responsible partner that we should be."
He continued: "We are quite a different airport now in terms of the offer we have than we were pre-pandemic - we had one big airline customer serving the travelling public.
"Things have changed considerably and we now have eight airline customers serving a total of 21 destinations this summer. It is a far more balanced portfolio of airlines which gives travellers choice, flexibility and value."
Around 70-75 per cent of all journeys coming to and from Northern Ireland are to the rest of the UK.
Belfast City Airport now has 19 routes to the UK this summer.
Despite the news being filled with stories about cancelled flights, hours-long queues and staff shortages, Belfast City Airport ensures that they have systems in place to avoid similar scenes, with their recruitment set to match demand as they "responsibly grow back".
His advice for the public adequately prepared and equipped before coming to the airport to keep operations running as smoothly as possible for all travellers setting off on their journeys.
"Be aware of the terms and conditions around people's travel patterns and what the airline is advising in terms of what time to get to the airport and so on," he said.
"It is really important for people to remind themselves about what you can and can't take through security, just a little bit of refreshing just to make everything work far more smoothly.
"We are looking forward to welcoming people back as they return to travel."
As he approaches one year in Northern Ireland, Matthew hopes that they can continue to build on the network they have worked hard to establish.
He continued: "We want to enhance our network over time - International travel is the fastest-growing sector and we aim to add that sort of facility for people moving forward in terms of summer sunshine flying, city breaks and so on.
"We also want to improve our proposition. It is pretty good today in terms of where we are located but we can improve that further."
He told passengers to "watch this space" as Belfast City Airport will make improvements to security and check-in while also increasing their concession offering both land and airside.
"We are trying to think slightly out of the box as people are coming to and from the airport because they have a core reason to travel but while they are there, what other facilities can we provide to make their life a little bit easier."
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