Possible new Irish airport!

[PPRNkof]

Just saw this in the Irish Independant.
Ambitious plan to build new airport in midlands - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie (http://www.independent.ie/national-news/ambitious-plan-to-build-new-airport-in-midlands-1510798.html)

I'm surprised at the location (approx 20 miles East South East of Athlone).

Apparantly MOL doesn't reckon it's viable, but he has been known to flip flop.

[irish lad]

interesting but don´t see why they wouldnt just develop weston or maybe open baldonnel

[Bearcat]

i think it's a runner especially for uk and near european flights. Dont know the length of rwy proposed but there are a lot of boggers that commute to dublin airport and would the relish the chance to fly out of the midlands.....

[Charlie Roy]

Good idea.
I suppose a few routes to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham,Barcelona, Rome and a few charters to sun destinations.

PS - Never gonna happen.

[840]

Look at how few routes are operates from Waterford and that has a sizeable enough city next to it. As proposed, they'll get a London flight and maybe an occasional Manchester flight and that's it.

It would need to be substantially closer to Dublin if it were to win passengers over.

[Just a spotter]

Has James Horan been reincarnated and sent to a parish in Offaly?

James Horan (Monsignor) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsignor_James_Horan)

JAS

[EI-BUD]

About time something happened around the idea of an airport in the Midlands. All of our airports are along the coast and having an midland airport will be very convenient.

I suspect that if momentum got going it would be a bit of a serious headache for both Shannon and Galway.

But as convenient as it is one cant but help but feel that there are so many airports adding 1 more makes it all more marginal...

With Aer Arann scaling back scheduled services, that would lead me to think that Ryanair will be the only airline looking at it?

Aer Lingus wouldn't. So assuming that the runway can accomodate a 738 that the airline identified already!

EI-BUD

[brian_dromey]

Someone mentioned the 'boggers'. The boggers (like most of the country) would drive to DUB if they thought they were going to save a tenner. The frequencies, fares and choice offered by BIFFO airport could never match that of DUB and I think that would make DUB more attractive for most.

I just don't see it working. WAT, SNN, NOC, ORK, have hard enough times attracting and keeping service and some of these airports have relatively decent catchment areas.

On the bright side, the NIMBY's should not be a problem - they can only baa or moo their objections!

[PPRNkof]

I dunno, they may be onto something. Despite the proposed location being a little too far west, the catchment area for this airport would include the commuter belt west of Dublin, which is massive. This will become more important as Dublin continues to choke (with no real relief in sight).

If I remember there are plans for an outer orbital motorway from Dundalk, which might help too (eventually). If you're sitting on some lolly (which I certainly am not:{), it might be an idea to buy a few acres around there and sit on it for 5 - 10 years!

[Charlie Roy]

Wouldn't Portlaoise be a better location.
Catchment of Midlands, Dublin, and even all the Cork people who usually drive Cork to Dublin to fly to Madrid, or the Limerickers who drive Limerick to Dublin to fly to Amsterdam would prefer that they only needed to drive to Portlaoise instead...

[Shamrogue]

Portloaise.

Have you seen the X country roads into Portlaoise. It would take forever to get there.

Open Baldonnel far more like common sense or add a few extra yards to Abbeyshrule. "Sammy International".

Shamrogue

[Hobby Flyer]

I can't see many people from Cork driving to Dublin to catch a flight to Madrid. Especially when you can get a spin to Cork airport, and catch a ryanair flight to Dublin for less then the cost of the fuel, tolls, and parking costs involved in driving to Dublin. Tolls for the M8 at Watergrasshill and the M50 round Dublin would cost almost €10 return, and then there is the car park fee of around €8 a day, plus fuel costs of about €40. €58 return for driving up and down to Dublin?
If your destination in Dublin is the airport or anywhere near the airport, you'd be mad to drive.

Better, quicker, and cheaper to fly. Alternatively fly to Barcelona direct from Cork and connect by AVE to Madrid which will take you about three hours.

I prefer to fly into Cork at the end of a trip rather then have to face a drive from either Dublin or Shannon.

[Charlie Roy]

I can't see many people from Cork driving to Dublin to catch a flight to Madrid.

Ya, but they do.
For Madrid and Brussels, and Düsseldorf, and Frankfurt, and Scandinavia, and the Baltics, the list is very long....

The problems with flying to Dublin are:

The flight is delayed, you miss your connection and you're fecked
The Ryanair schedule is changed, that complicates things
There are cheap flights from Cork to Dublin today, but maybe not forever...


Many expats and tourists with a destination in Munster fly into Dublin and then rent a car. Flying into an airport near Portlaoise would be a lot more attractive for this people.

[Hobby Flyer]

Interesting point. But according to both Aer Lingus and Ryanair, the amount of credit card bookings on aerlingus.com and ryanair.com with Cork addresses for flights out of Dublin are quite small.

Lots of Cork passengers connect via LHR or STN, but rarely from DUB because of Traffic difficulties, expense, and hassle.

I'm not saying that there are no exceptions, obviously, seeing as Cork has a population of half a million people, just that maybe not as many people as you may be implying. You also seem to be implying that an airport near Portlaoise would somehow offer destinations not currently served by Cork or Shannon, but that sounds a bit off the wall frankly.

Two hours to Portlaoise, or two hours to Shannon from Cork, so frankly, what would be the point?


If you want to drive two hours, then why not go to Shannon? It's there already, with real runways, real terminals, and real aeroplanes to real destinations. Why dilute that by setting up yet another airport down the road? This country has about 4.5 million people, yet we already have three state owned international airports and waterford, kerry, knock, galway, sligo and donegal regional airports, not to mention Belfast's two airports two hours drive from Dublin, and Derry airport as well.

The island is coming down with airports. What we need now is a decent road and rail network linking them together.

Not another airport in the taoiseachs constituency so that some property developers can try and make a killing.

[Sikpupi]

How is the development to be funded??? Do they know the cost of building an airport???

Gone are the days of EU monies and grants of 100%!!

They must have watched that Kevin Costner film of 'Build it and they will come" !!

Also...do any of the major players have any experience of negotiation with Lo-Cost airlines. Jeez...they are in for a bit of a fright if they think that everyone loves them!

Cuckoo land stuff!!

[left bass]

Looks like a load of nonsense.

But maybe we could banish the WT/ME operations to Tubber...

Hmm

[CCR]

Most people fly between Cork and Dublin these days. It's cheaper than going by car or rail and great for making onwards connections from Dublin.
I do it all the time, flights are packed. With 2 carriers on the route, and 10 flights a day between Aer Arann and Ryanair, its the best way to travel:D

[riptack]

I do fly a lot from Dublin/Cork from/to international flights, althou it is stressful as regards timing etc. it's easier than renting car or dragging into hueston to get the train.

Ireland can't manage the airports it has does it really need another mess? I don't think so... we already have the white elephants of Shannon, Cork's ridiculously designed terminal and Dublin's T2.

[Dash-7 lover]

They could call it 'Dana International' !!

[Just a spotter]

An application as been lodged with An Bord Pleanála (the Irish Planning Board).

Pleanála: PC0074: in the Tubber/Horseleap area, County Offaly. () (http://www.pleanala.ie/casenum/PC0074.htm)

JAS

[Aisle2c]

There's a rumour that it will be in the shape of a banana, to reflect the achievements of this great republic ..... :ugh:

[Just a spotter]

Yez can all stop laughing :} just long enough to express shock :eek:

Offaly airport plan clears first hurdle - The Irish Times - Tue, Aug 17, 2010 (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0817/1224276972609.html)

Then resume laughing :}

Ireland Central, Brian 'BIFFO' Cowen International Airport and Technology Park, Tubber, Offaly ... anyone? EIFO maybe ...

JAS

[The 5Q]

North Wexford Airport could take off | Munster Express Online (http://www.munster-express.ie/local-news/north-wexford-airport-could-take-off/)

The 5Q

[heidelberg]

1st April anyone!!!!!!

[double_d]

Anyone think that demand would exist for EI to tea up with RE to offer short haul interline conx from ORK via DUB through EI Regional, with a very early departure ex. ORK and a late evening return ex DUB? There's no evening return flight at present, plus the interline could differentiate the product to FR's service and may allow EI to charge a higher fare price for the offering?

[Angry Rebel]

Why are you posting this on multiple threads, especially those that aren't relevant to what you're asking (eg this one). You might get an answer if you focus it and don't annoy people.

[airnoc]

Hi Might ask why is there need for airports in Ireland when the ones that are there are more than able to cope with the amount of pax that are traveling and some airport with reduce airlines useing them?http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/infopop/icons/icon9.gif

[Jamie2k9]

I don't see the point but if one is to be build it won't be open until at least 2015 or 2016. Who is going to pay for the airport because don't think the Goverment are going to.

Once T2 in Dublin opens the airport will be able to hadle 45million passengers a year. 20.5million used Dublin in 2009. This year its going to be around 17million. In 2011 passenger numbers will be about 17million or slightly lower.