IRELAND WEST AIRPORT KNOCK

[Jamie2k9]

73,237 passengers used Knock in July, up 4.5% on last year.

For the period Jan-Jul 2011 more than 52,000 additional passengers have used the airport compared to the same period last year. Each of the seven months has seen a passenger increase compared to the same month last year.

Think we will see slower growth for the next while and possible slight decline over the winter.

[Kinocker]

Looks like a small reduction in total seats available this winter compared to last then although a better winter weather wise, particularly pre-christmas, would perhaps offset the drop in numbers. November may be the only month this year to show a passenger drop.

Nov/Dec 2011 schedule compared to 2010

Stansted - no change (daily flight)
Luton - no change (daily flight)
Gatwick - up 3pw (from 4pw to daily)
Liverpool - up 1pw (from 6pw to daily)
Birmingham - no change (4pw)
Manchester - change from 733 to dash-8, no change to frequency (4pw)
East Midlands - down 1pw (from 4pw to 3pw)
Edinburgh - up 3pw (from 0 to 3pw)
Leeds - down 3pw (from 3pw to 0)
Bristol - down 3pw (from 3pw to 0)
Tenerife - up 1pw (from 0 to 1pw)
Lanzarote - up 1pw (from 0 to 1pw)

Also the little used Dublin service is of course no longer in operation. 97 people used it for the whole of December last year (it was almost always cancelled).


Busy looking day tomorrow though with 27 movements on the boards. Probably the busiest of the year.

[airnoc]

Busy day though with 28 movements and no sun route. Was this busiest of the year or busiest than 28/08/2009 with 4,500 pax? How is aug overall with pax number. thanks in advance

[Kinocker]

Impressive...

06/09/2011 - Knock's busiest year ever!


This August 84,000 passengers used Ireland West Airport Knock showing a 5.9% increase from August 2010, and recording the busiest month in the airport’s history, surpassing the previous high of 2006. It has also been the busiest year in the airport’s history with a total of 451,186 passengers using the airport between January and August inclusive, a 14% increase on 2010 levels.

August traffic from the UK was up 5% on 2010 levels, while overall passenger numbers for year to date January to August increased by 10%. The latest figures also show that Ireland West Airport is fast becoming a departure point for sun and continental holiday makers. Over 94,000 passengers made mainland European and sun holiday trips between January and August this year, a 41% increase on 2010.

Commenting on the results, Joe Gilmore, Airport Managing Director, said: “New routes this year to Lanzarote, Las Palmas and Tenerife added to the other sun destinations in Spain and Portugal have proved a success with families in particular finding the ease of access into and through the airport very convenient.”

August 2011: 84,052 pax
Jan - Aug 11: 451,186 pax
% change v 2010: +14%





Hopefully with these numbers and all those extra E10 departure fees in the bank they can look to extending their opening hours to accommodate better timings and double daily services on busy routes at peak times.

[sawtooth]

Great news on growth and success of new European routes, UK numbers may be slightly skewed by the previous years ash disturbance for some months. Hopefully increased frequency on London routes offsets the other decreases over the winter season.

Article on 2010 financials in today's Irish Times:

Accounts just filed at the Companies Office show the company behind the airport – Connaught Airport Development Ltd – recorded a pretax profit of €293,960. That was down 48 per cent on 2009, with directors attributing much of the reduction on the impact of the ash cloud which impacted on Irish airspace. Without the Department of Transport grant of €760,948 the operation would have recorded a pretax loss of €466,988 despite a fractional increase in revenues last year to €10.3 million from €10.1 million a year earlier... On the company’s revenues for 2010, the directors say that although both aviation and commercial income incurred a significant decrease, an increase in fuel sales helped offset the shortfall.

Irish Timesl

I'd imagine the significant cost cutting highlighted earlier this year coupled with increased fuel and pax revenues will improve the 2011 figures. But loss of PSO revenue and reduced OPEX have to be factored in, not leaving much scope for planned capital developments.

[Knock63]

Quote:

"Hopefully with these numbers and all those extra E10 departure fees in the bank they can look to extending their opening hours to accommodate better timings and double daily services on busy routes at peak times."


Extend their opening hours Don't make me laugh!!! The rumour I'm hearing for the winter schedule is that the 'management' are trying to convince FR to move their one and only early flight, STN on a Mon @ 08.05 to 13.05 in the afternoon. That REALLY helps the workforce let alone the Business people looking for early flights to the Metropolis. They're supposedly offering FR a free flight, ie no landing fees etc.... in exchange for the slot change. The next earliest flight is at 10.40 on a Weds and latest departure time is 16.15. International Airport, you're having a laugh.

[NorthernCounties]

Although it is laughable, at least the airport is trying to economise and safe costs. I doubt though that it well help passenger numbers on that route.

[sawtooth]

That's really worrying. I didn't believe earlier rumors that NOC were behind the current FR schedules. But either financial situation is poor enough to warrant limiting growth through awful schedules, or after a few good years NOC management are heading back to the bad old days.

I try to use NOC for all my travel, but for the last year I've had to use DUB more and more rather than lose 3 days downtime for a few hours business meeting due to in-frequency or late flight times. As I've said many times on this thread you can't even do a weekend trip to most of the current destinations and London ends up requiring a long weekend and back early on Sunday, the Monday morning offered some respite.

This is exactly the time NOC should be bending over backwards to facilitate a double daily or at least early morning schedule. GWYs well timed LTN services are gone, GWY/SXL/NOC PSO is gone, GWY airport may soon be gone, the opportunity is there to establish itself as viable option for anyone connecting or doing work in London.

[Jamie2k9]

Knock 63 you were right about both ACE and STN

STN Mon flight departing at 13.45
STN Wed flight departing at 13.25
ACE Thur flight departing at 11.55

[Kinocker]

Crazy. So the airport will only be open for six or seven hours a day from November until March at the earliest. Mornings and evenings should be the busiest times of the day for maximising footfall, but the airport will be shut. This is lunacy.

[sawtooth]

Bus Eireann advertising additional services via NOC in local papers today, shame they will find the doors locked for most of them.

[Kinocker]

Had a search through the Knock winter timetable there, snug doesn't begin to describe it. Plenty of flights alright but there won't be many airports to be found with as limited opening hours as Knock will have.

Six of the seven days the airport will have its first arrival scheduled for no earlier than 10:40 and on all seven days there are no departures scheduled for later than 16:15. If you were to assume that an airport needs to be open two hours before the first departure and can shut half an hour after the last arrival, the opening hours of Knock this winter would be as follows:

Monday - 7hrs 15mins (12 movements)
Tuesday - 7hrs 45mins (10 movements)
Wednesday - 7hrs 35mins (16 movements)
Thursday - 7hrs 45mins (10 movements)
Friday - 7hrs 30mins (16 movements)
Saturday - 9hrs 5mins (9 movements)
Sunday - 7hrs 15mins (17 movements)

There is one early(ish) flight on a Saturday arriving from and departing to Liverpool but I wouldn't be surprised if the timings were changed for that one too. Saturday is the quietest day but has the longest operating hours. Are the airport management's backs really this far pressed up against the wall in financial terms or are they just being tight?

[ryan2000]

Opening for a few hours is shortsighted and will make it harder to attract new business. Airlines will think twice about investing in an airport that doesn't allow them flexibility with their schedules. I still think there's room for a sevice to a hub airport from Knock.

[Knock63]

Their backs can't be that hard up against the wall, especially as 'the wall' has just been freshly painted. The Airport has just been whitewashed, by outside contractors, and to make things worse I heard they even used their OWN in-house painter to just sit and keep an eye on them, for security purposes!!!! If money was that tight wouldn't they have used their own painter with a couple of young lads to do the job, even if it took them all summer to do it ?????

All the workers will be struggling to get hours this winter judging by the flight times, and struggle with their mortgages and other bills but I bet the management are all salaried.

[iwak]

At the end of the day any business needs to be run prudently.staff have got to be productive and big gaps during the day result in staff not being productive .

I totally agree that London should be double daily however summer might be the best time to introduce this.

With lba and brs gone from October the winter months will drag down passenger numbers. They will have to attract mainland Europe routes e.g Germany/France as mentioned by management previously to bulk up passenger numbers for 2012.

Manchester will also take a dip in passenger numbers with the loss of ww.

However going forward the airport seem to have a good relationship with fr and now flybe of which one may introduce brs again for summer 2012 .

[Roll to the end]

Well I was shocked to hear what's been going on in iwak. But I understand that these measures need to be taken to secure the survival of the airport.

BUT to prospective "new" airlines that maybe looking at whole setup it isn't that attractive. I do agree that the management are ill sighted, a double daily to london is needed to build a strong network..

From what I can gather from the previous posts is that the management/ops have very little if any experience in aviation and perhaps its time to really structure the whole company into a competitive force. It may be time to get rid of long standing locals and replace with people with experience that can deliver strong strategic growth.

A sitting duck will not achieve anything in the long run.

[sawtooth]

Well I was shocked to hear what's been going on in iwak. But I understand that these measures need to be taken to secure the survival of the airport.

I think the reason many are surprised is that the management seemed to have the right strategy for most of the last decade. Through the early 90s it was 'managed' by local counsellors and vested interests with no clear vision. Lets not forget you would have been laughed at if you suggested NOC would have 25 destinations and year round scheduled sun routes.

But after 2000 a new chairman was appointed and a seemingly strong management team assembled with key skills in business organisation, marketing and operations who:
- Reorganised business divisions and modernised operations
- Developed a sustainable low-cost base
- Developed a 20 year strategy and vision
- Conducted market research and data gathering to support the strategy
- Differentiated and raised profile through well executed, consistent visual branding
- Invested a lot in marketing campaigns including UK press and TV at the peak
- Developed a business case for investment and capital development
- Commissioned an independent 20 year development master-plan
- Delivered several key infrastructure projects to cater for expansion

Much of that seems like common sense but not easily delivered successfully or funded. I think they were well ahead of many other small airports in this regard as we see from the panic when state supports were cut elsewhere.

Yes survival is probably the new strategy in light of funding cuts, PSO cut, declining passenger spend, increased energy costs etc. The economic fundamentals are now very different from the years of double digit GDP. 2010 ash and winter weather problems must have been a shock driving extra caution. NOC have done well to maintain and add services, I just hope they aren't too aggressive in scaling back their strategy.

[RE-tard]

I think they were well ahead of many other small airports in this regard as we see from the panic when state supports were cut elsewhere.

lol, i can guarantee you that you would seem the same panic if Knock had its funding cut...

[Fresh_air1]

Excellent post Sawtooth, fully agree that the approach in recent years has been agreesive but given financial state of economy and airports reported debt situation and aviation sector in Ireland in general Knock airport cant afford to maintain 12-14 hour opending days for what is essentially a threadbare schedule. Double dailys to London would be great but no airline will introduce these in whats essentially a leisure market during the winter season when they already have 3 daily london flights - Id imagine management will be pushing hard for these for summer 2012. As Galway have found out to their cost maintaining 14 hour opening days for half full flights is no longer sustainable given diminishing Govt funding which appears will diminsh even further next year. Roll to the end, the management team at the airport are all relativley new, all the longstanding members are now gone so your post isnt valid whilst Knock63 you seem to have a vested interest in that you would rather see airport open at 6am to midnight to keep 12 hour days for staff when in reality 6 of these hours they will be twiddling their thumbs! what type of business can sustain this type of operation I wonder without haemoraguing cash? I would be of the opinion that managements strategy is spot on and hopefully they are preparing for growth and longer hours for summer '12 when airlines are more open to expand.

[Mayfly1]

Freshair, good to see some balance brought to this discussion. There has to be a sence of economic reality brought to the fore here and your post higlights
some of it. The aiport will deliver a 10 % Pax increase this year which will be a record, have added 4 new services, and also welcomed Europe's largest regional airline Flybe as a flag ship carrier!
The reduced operational hours for winter is a reality, the majority of traffic is Vfr and leisure and will work within these hours.
Yes business schedule/ traffic and opening hours are not user friendly and I'm sure mangement are working on this but as you have pointed out key hub business connectivity is the ideal target here in the medium term however the unprecedented economic climate makes this a very challenging target to achieve.

I say well done to IWAK they have their strategy correct to ensure longer term survival and I'm sure also we may be surprised what 2012 will bring in more new services