In fairness, for a fairly rural airport they are doing quite well. What exactly else could they get? And from who? Was HHN 5pw last year in August? Lots of inbound tourism there!
MAN or BHX, although not Ryanair but perhaps a well marketed flyBE service.
The August HHN 5pw week is new. Until 2014, STN was daily in summer, FAO operated the whole season instead of 3 for months and ALC was 3 weekly for part of the season. HHN was also daily for a few summers but I don't remember until exactly when.
Here is what the airport route development manager Carol O’Donoghue said last year in an interview (Kerry Connect, produced by Anna.aero):
Q: WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 10 MOST DESIRED AIR
SERVICES IN FRANCE/EUROPE?
“With a focus on growing inbound tourism routes, we have looked at the demand for the region, both from tour operators and FITs, and this has led us to target routes connecting Kerry with Germany and France, as well as the UK, and to explore areas where there is room for passenger growth. We have also taken into consideration current access to Southwest Ireland from these tourism markets, leading to the following gaps (based on visitor origin, GDP in that region, age profile of potential passengers etc):
• Germany – Stuttgart (State of Baden-Württemberg); Aachen; Cologne
Bonn; and Hamburg.
• France – Lyon; Lille; Mulhouse (Basel); and Strasbourg.
In terms of the UK, we have two routes to London with Ryanair [London Luton and London Stansted]. When assessing which other routes would work well, we have examined a slightly different set of demographics given that we have a mix of VFR, inbound and outbound leisure, as well as some business traffic. With this is mind the targets are clear – Manchester and Birmingham.”
The answer for the UK is fine but the rest....
Aachen: doesn't have an airport (and can't see a KIR-Maastricht)
Cologne, Bonn: broad HHN catchment area (like Aachen actually)
Lyon, Lille, Strasbourg, Hamburg: cannot be serious