Belfast city to be 3rd biggest airport in Ireland?
Belfast City was 5th biggest airport in Ireland in 2008.
Rank Airport .................... Passengers
1 ....Dublin ..................... 23,500,000
2 ....Belfast International .. 5,262,354
3 ....Cork ....................... 3,250,000
4 ....Shannon ................. 3,100,000
5 ....Belfast City ............. 2,570,742
6 ....Knock ....................... 630,170
7 ....Derry ........................ 439,033
8 ....Kerry ........................ 420,000
9 ....Galway ...................... 270,000
10 ..Waterford .................. 144,000
11 ..Donegal ....................... 65,537
12 ..Sligo ........................... 44,500†
† Latest available figures are for 2007 (How do you format a table on this forum?)
However Ryanair are virtually pulling the plug on Shannon next Easter if there is no resolution of their dispute leaving only 2 daily flights (about 200,000 pax p.a., down from 1.8 million) which will reduce Shannon to about 1.5 million pax.
O?Leary plays his ace in Shannon costs wrangle | The Post
Cork are predicted to loss 500,000 passengers this year due to the recession reducing ORK to 2.75 million.
Irish Examiner - 2009/04/25: ‘No re-negotiation’ of Cork Airport’s €113m debt
Belfast City however has been bucking the trend with an 8.3% increase (well in August at least). If this increase was reflected on the annual figures then Belfast City would carry some 2.78 million passengers this year.
If the cuts at Shannon go ahead that could therefore mean that in 2010 Belfast City would be the 3rd biggest airport in Ireland.
