I have to say fair play to knock for wangling aer lingus for the charter .all be it one flight it will prove they can handle 757 American flights. With a bit of luck we will see an increased service in 2016.
Birmingham route ending in march. First time knock is without a bhx link since 2003.It will probably be winter before we get a new bhx route!
I dont think the decision had much to do with Knock and Aer Lingus, although Im not educated enough in the matter to know whats what. Was Aer Lingus hired by a charter company for the Pilgrimage? Knock has already proved it can handle 757 american flights with Flyglopespan, this tbh proves very little.
BHX has ended in Shannon and will end in Knock, which I find unbelievably peculiar. Surely with the ending of the shannon service the Knock service would gain quite a few passengers? Shannon almost defiantly get a bhx route in September, its quite possible that knock may have to wait longer. There is a strong market for Birmingham, just no aircraft available to do it. EI regional have no spares, flybe obivously have a better use for the aircraft, and that only leaves ryanair, which in fairness isnt too likely until at least next summer. I hope im wrong though:P
I have came across slightly anti-knock in the past few posts, but Im not. Its great to have these 2 airports on the west coast as it brings employment to these Disadvantaged areas. I just dont see an airline doing a scheduled T/A service from knock. The aircraft is already being used on which is probably higher yield routes. If there was 100 more 757's in the world, I wouldn't doubt Knock would have one, but there is a severe shortage of these longer range, low passenger capacity aircraft.
If there was no 757's, Shannon would probably have a year round service to new york and a seasonal one to Boston, thats it. This is why the introduction of the A321 NEO is vital to the survival to thin t/a routes. In 10 years, the new A321 NEO will probably lead to plenty more thin long haul routes, but for the time being knock looks like it will be at a loss to a T/A service.