I flew out of Knock yesterday and it was the busiest I have ever seen it. At the time I was in the airport there were passengers waiting on flights to Girona, Edinburgh, Lourdes, Manchester and Gatwick with passengers for another Lourdes flight starting to move in as I was leaving, meaning that the departure lounge was jammed. The Lourdes flights all seemed to be delayed which wasn't helping things.
With only three stands at the airport, the apron was under serious pressure with flights coming and going. Boarding for Edinburgh (which was from gate three to the remote stand across the apron) had to be stopped twice to allow the Girona flight to pull out from its stand and again to allow the Gatwick plane to replace it. Similarly, the Girona flight had to wait for the Manchester flight to depart before it could get to its stand and the Gatwick plane had to wait on the runway for the Girona one to move out before it could get its turn on the stand.
Long story short, the apron seriously needs extending, even as things are it is a tight enough squeeze getting planes on and off the stand nearest to the viewing lounge while the other two are occupied as they were yesterday - and that was with one of the stands occupied by a Dash-8, it would have been worse if there had been three jets on the stand at the same time.
Nonetheless, it was great to see the place so busy on a Tuesday. August will probably be a record breaking month for the airport, but it may be some time before this year's figures are broken again judging by reports of cuts to the European schedule.