Aer Lingus hopes to make profits of approximately £6 million in its first year of operations at Belfast international airport, according to figures provided yesterday by the airline.

Despite the continuing anger in the west over Aer Lingus's decision to move from Shannon to Belfast, its commercial manager, Enda Corneille, insisted in Belfast yesterday that the relocation was the "right decision".

Mr Corneille said Aer Lingus hopes to carry 500,000 passengers in its first year of operations out of the airport, which is 18 miles from Belfast, flying initially to eight European destinations and then to a ninth, Nice, in late spring of next year.

Mr Corneille said that, on average, each flight would be worth between £50 and £100 for Aer Lingus, and that the company expected to make a profit of 15 per cent on its turnover. Allowing, therefore, for an average figure of £75 per flight, this would mean annual profits for Aer Lingus of £5,625,000.

"We are committed to this operation," said Mr Corneille. "We believe it will be profitable within the first year.

"Belfast is a critical extra string to our bow. We are not considering failure and we feel it is the absolute right decision," he added.

The routes served will be London Heathrow, Amsterdam, Geneva, Barcelona, Faro, Malaga, Budapest and Rome.

A daily flight to Amsterdam and a thrice-weekly service to Barcelona begin on December 10th, with the thrice-weekly Geneva flight starting the following day.

These flights initially will cost £24 one-way.

There will be four flights daily to and from London Heathrow beginning on January 14th, costing initially £23 one-way.

Thrice-weekly flights to Rome, Budapest, Malaga and Faro costing £39 one-way begin on February 25th.

Flights to Nice are due to begin in April.

Three Airbus 320 aircraft will serve all these flights. Aer Lingus said the aircraft will be named after Irish saints.

Aer Lingus will employ 30 pilots at Belfast International - 15 captains and 15 co-pilots - and 60 cabin crew.

An outside company using Aer Lingus livery will run ground operations.

The captain posts attracted 130 applications; the co-pilot positions 283 applications; and cabin crew posts 650 applications.

Aer Lingus believes that the first eight routes have the potential to attract one million passengers annually.

This would bring passenger numbers to 6.5 million at Belfast international, compared with more than 20 million at Dublin.