Travel watchdogs have welcomed the announcment of new flights to Northern Ireland.

Last week EasyJet said it would start flying twice a week between the Isle of Man and Belfast International Airport in the summer.

TravelWatch says this should bring some ’attractive fares to reduce the costs of travel to Northern Ireland’.

But a spokesman said: ’This could possibly lead to the weakening and even withdrawal of the current daily service to Belfast City Airport, only recently commenced by Flybe/Eastern, which would be a significant loss to some sections of our community, and decrease still further the communications between the island and other centres of business.

’To date, EasyJet has not committed, we understand, to this becoming a year-round service, leading to the possibility of no air connections at all with Belfast for five months of the year. We look forward to clarification on this point.’

The spokesman added that in the light of the current problems being experienced at Ronaldsway over the past months, the group ’fervently’ hoped that ’sufficient lessons have been learned’.

He said the timings should be approved by the airport only if they avoid any further peaking of passenger numbers to a level which is ’outside the capability of the airport infrastructure to cope with’.

In recent weeks there have been long delays at Ronaldsway at security.

The TravelWatch spokesman said: ’We have asked the airport for assurances. Even cheap fares may not attract ongoing or repeat business if security problems continue to cause customer dissatisfaction and delays.’