As stated earlier passengers and the market decides which airport they will use and Knock despite all the "negatives " being portrayed here by some contributors defies the critics with strong growth .
I wonder why?
Our European friends don't have the same view as us Irish, wonder why?
This compares with €1.6 billion yes billon spent by the state owned DAA on the 3 state airports or 100 times what was granted to Knock. And as part of this €160 million was spent on the terminal and US border post in Shannon, or more than 10 times what was spent in Knock in the same period. To further compound this gov has now decided to bail out Shannon further with another €300m to ensure its survival .....and pay Knock lip service and tell them as recently quoted by minister Varadkar on mid west radio that its a "model airport" and that he uses it as an example to other airports on how they should run their business....if only this was true and gov would take on the DAA and now SAA monopoly in regard to running of airports. At the end of the day gov will ultimate decide on what happens Knock through aviation policy and mgt can only do what it can to try and present the facts to the region it serves
State owned DAA airports who are not looking for handouts from the Government, so they are intitled to spend it on improving facilities and most of it was badly needed.
Still on the bailout SNN news story, they would of received this 100 million over a few years if under the DAA, same difference when you think about it. If it wasn't for the DAA NOC would not be where it is today with the level of Ryaniar passengers. FR didn't want to know NOC back in 2006/7 compared to today.
So its fine for the DAA to give SNN millions yearly but its not for the Government.
I know for a fact that some pax are driving from Dub to IWAK to save money. I was talking to some people quite recently that said they saved €600 (between 3 of them) by flying from IWAK.
Its very few and that story seems a little far fetched in my book and it could be seen as a negative to NOC as carriers need to charge low amounts to get people on seats which won't be sustainable long term. and does that 600 saving include price of fuel to NOC, parking at NOC and ADF fee.