IRELAND WEST AIRPORT KNOCK

[iwak]

Good to see brs back for summer 12. I see flybe have released their summer timetable and man is still 4 weekly . I would imagine knock will benefit from galways closure over the winter months particularly man and edi.

Looking forward to seeing what routes fr will announce over the coming weeks.I would say Malaga,Hahn and maybe Milan or Rome as the 3 European and an extra stn as the uk route.


P.s best of luck to all staff at Galway airport and the aer arann staff.

[Kinocker]

63,852 passengers used Knock in September, an increase of just under 6% from last year. I would say that is probably the busiest September ever at the airport, certainly busier than any of the previous three at least.

Knock will probably pick up some additional traffic from Galway over the winter months, however if the post on the Aer Arann thread about winter bookings is correct there won't be much impact at Knock from that decision.

[PPRuNeUser0176]

NOC - DUS start date has being moved form 5 May to 12 May.

[iwak]

1056 passengers on the edi route for the month of sept. I make this out to be roughly 50% load factor. I would imagine this to improve with the introduction of a Friday flight instead of a thurs making it better for weekend breaks and also the termination of aer aranns Galway edi route for winter.

I think this is pretty good for a tues,thurs and Sunday schedule.

[sawtooth]

STN now loaded for 2012, mostly early morning flights, very early from STN side. With the closing of RE Carnmore base there's no London connection later than LGW 15.00 outside SNN or DUB most days.

STN-NOC (M-S) 06:25 06:25 06:25 14:55 08:15 06:35 14:55
NOC-STN (M-S) 08:15 08:15 08:15 16:45 10:05 08:25 16:45

[Fly_bill]

EI its on sale from 5th May - where you see otherwise?

[iwak]

First flybe man flight today anybody know what numbers were like? Sad to see ww finish the man route however hopefully we will get a jet upgrade before too long from flybe.

I believe the main launch will be tomorrow when local radio will be doing an outside broadcast from the airport.

Any news on new fr routes?

[Kinocker]

Hopefully the first step from flybe will be to make the service daily for the summer season. I don't think there is a possibility of them putting a jet on the route any time soon. Four weekly on the Dash 8 seems to be enough for the winter months, but if they are going to take on Ryanair at Liverpool they will need more than that from March to October. Liverpool is daily all year round now and seems to be going from strength to strength and the weak competition to Knock from the north of England this winter will only re-enforce this.

It doesn't look like there will be much charter action at Knock next year, it has been mentioned that Europe Airpost to Faro might not be back and according to another thread on this site Dubrovnik Airlines has gone bust. That would just leave Lanzarote as the only sun charter unless something new is announced. I think there might be potential for sun destinations that the scheduled operators don't go to, like Cyprus, Greece or the Balearics. It would be a pity to see Ryanair gain a monopoly on sun routes from Knock.

The timetable looks a bit bare now for the winter compared to what we've been used to in the last six months, just six departures tomorrow and five on Tuesday, with nothing going any further than London either day.

Leeds/Bradford is still showing on the Ryanair website with crossed out planes for next summer, similar to Alicante and Reus. Maybe they are thinking of bringing it back seasonally like they did with Bristol, the loads might just about be good enough in the summer months to justify retaining it together with having the benifit of putting some additional pressure on flybe at Manchester.

Flybe's Edinburgh flights have gotten very expensive all of a sudden, it looks like they might be planning on taking full advantage of the closure of the Galway route by hiking up their prices as much as they can get away with. Flybe's prices on routes where they have no competition tend to be on the high side.

[Jamie2k9]

It doesn't look like there will be much charter action at Knock next year, it has been mentioned that Europe Airpost to Faro might not be back and according to another thread on this site Dubrovnik Airlines has gone bust. That would just leave Lanzarote as the only sun charter unless something new is announced. I think there might be potential for sun destinations that the scheduled operators don't go to, like Cyprus, Greece or the Balearics. It would be a pity to see Ryanair gain a monopoly on sun routes from Knock.

Thomas Cook have 2012 on sale and no KOC - FAO flights on sale and not in the brochure.

As DUB has no scheduled operators flying to Cyprus and Greece I think it will be a while before NOC gets them.

Leeds/Bradford is still showing on the Ryanair website with crossed out planes for next summer, similar to Alicante and Reus. Maybe they are thinking of bringing it back seasonally like they did with Bristol, the loads might just about be good enough in the summer months to justify retaining it together with having the benifit of putting some additional pressure on flybe at Manchester.

Each season is loaded the same as the previous season. So summer 2011 is loaded as summer 2012. They the changes are made.

I would nearly gaurntee that ALC will be back and FR are just holding out to get there own way. If some ALC routes don't return I would say that the UK and Ireland won't be affected regaurdless of air bridge usage.

As for Reus would say its the weeker of the sun routes from NOC and can't say if it will be back.

On another note with EI base in LGW almost certain to close where does it leave NOC.

AGP being dropped in JAN. Fares gone form £30.00 to over £250.00 just like EI did when they reduced the base before. Don't see them basing aircraft to operate NOC, DUB and ORK.

Currently DUB aircraft are operating LGW - ORK this winter will they do this with ORK and NOC next summer. What are laods like on NOC - LGW? and how profitable is the route?

If the base closoure happons its because the base in not profitable or EI may be getting rid of the one or two of the A320 as the 4 A319 will be joining the fleet instead.

[Kinocker]

As DUB has no scheduled operators flying to Cyprus and Greece I think it will be a while before NOC gets them.

That's a fair point, I was thinking of the Scottish airports where charters to Greece are common, didn't realise that wasn't the case at Dublin. I just think the charters need to offer a bit of variety in terms of destinations, taking on Ryanair head to head at a small airport like Knock is not the way to go.

On another note with EI base in LGW almost certain to close where does it leave NOC.

Hopefully EI will keep the route as a W route from another base. I figure if they were cutting it they might have hiked the prices similar to what they have done with Malaga. The loads have been steady and the decision to keep it daily this winter had suggested that EI were happy with it. It would be a disaster to lose it unless EI fancied giving Knock some Heathrow slots instead (no chance) or Ryanair saw the opportunity to go double daily to Stansted or Luton (small chance).


Hopefully the hints about new Ryanair routes come to something in the next few weeks as it looks like there will be a few losses next year - Leeds, Dubrovnik, less capacity to Manchester and Faro, and possibly Reus and/or Gatwick too.

[sawtooth]

Good launch:

Ireland West Airport (@Irelandwest)
10/31/11 1:34 PM
Sir Alex ferguson launches new Flybe service from ireland West Airport Knock to Manchester pic.twitter.com/bXCS30Bc

[Kinocker]

Very good. Press release says there will be additional frequency in the summer months but doesn't go into any more detail than that.

[PPRuNeUser0176]

NOC have updated there timetable says that ALC starts 30 March, LPA 27 March, BRS starts 25 March.

LBA completly gone and Reus still there showing the current summer timetable but it does not say it will restart in March.

They also updated summer 2012 charters.
FAO dropped
ACE operating
Dubrovnik TBC (the day it operates) but sure nothing set in stone about that one)

[PPRuNeUser0176]

NOC-LGW being kept by EI next summer. New times

Depart LGW-10.50 - Arrive NOC 12.20
Depar NOC-12.55 - Arrive LGW 14.25

[iwak]

Good to see aer lingus remain at knock for summer 12 .obviously they are happy with the routes performance. By keeping the base they enable an early arrival in dub from lgw giving advantage over fr.

They say most leisure passengers prefer to travel out in the morning however returning at lunchtime from noc on a Sunday might be a bit early for weekenders

[PPRuNeUser0176]

Knock - Reus now not showing as operating for summer 2012. All the crossed out planes gone.

[Jamie2k9]

It seems to be NOC with one or two others that are gone with the rest remaining.

Looks like anything over two hours from Reus to a non base has being dropped.

[Kinocker]

It seems to be NOC with one or two others that are gone with the rest remaining.

Looks like anything over two hours from Reus to a non base has being dropped.

The new sun routes did take a chunk out of the numbers flying NOC-REU in the key mid summer months this year, the route was 500 pax down in July and 400 down in August. Nonetheless the loads were still decent and I'd expect that (if it is gone) an alternative sun route will be installed in its place in the coming weeks as the issue seems to be moreso at the Reus end than at Knock.

--------------------

Its mostly old news at this stage but I stumbled across this article in the Western People from a couple of months ago when Varadkar and O'Leary were at Knock. A few interesting references other than what has been discussed already - O'Leary apparently claiming he will add another 12 routes from Knock in the next five years, Varadkar promising to continue to fund airport improvements and Joe Gilmore saying that the search for a carrier to operate US flights continues. It was probably one of those events where a lot of loose talk was flying about that might ultimately amount to little of substance but I thought it was worth posting even now a few months on.

Ryanair will double flights into Knock


RYANAIR plans to add three new routes to Ireland West Airport Knock by next summer and to double its number of services in the next five years.

As the low fares airline welcomed its four millionth passenger to the airport yesterday (Monday), CEO Michael O’Leary said he is committed to increasing the number of destinations to and from Knock. Since Ryanair’s first flight from Knock to Luton in 1987, the company now operates 12 routes from the airport and aims to add another 12 in the next five years. Mr O’Leary said that by next summer the low-cost airline hopes to have an additional UK destination and two more European routes on Knock’s schedule. However, he remained tight-lipped on the exact locations.

"I don’t like my competitors knowing where we’re flying to until right before we announce it," he said.

The outspoken CEO praised the work of the independently run airport.

"Knock is thankfully not a government-run airport. It is a local airport run by local people and succeeds where airports run by dead-handed governments don’t," he added.

Mr O’Leary urged the airport to forget about restoring transatlantic flights and to concentrate instead on the German, Italian, French and Spanish markets.

Joe Gilmore, managing director of Ireland West Airport Knock, said discussions were taking place about the possibility of flights to the US.

Mr Gilmore commented that the airport continues to buck the recession with an impressive 650,000 passengers coming through Knock last year. A recent study showed that €111 million was spent locally in 2010 by people who used the airport, contributing directly to more than 800 jobs in the region.

Mr Gilmore also stressed that the airport was keen to get direct access to Germany, French and Italian tourists. Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar, who was making his first visit to the airport, said the Knock story was a "phenomenal success". Loss-making airports like Shannon could learn from the way it is run, he said.

While warning that funding for regional airports will continue to decline in the years ahead, Minister Varadkar said the government would not be "walking away from Knock" and promised several million euro will be provided to carry out essential works, including runway improvements.

WesternPeople: Ryanair will double flights into Knock

[Jamie2k9]

ALC back but at 2 weekly. (saturday flights dropped). FR cutting a number of routes from there so could be worse. They may add the third weekly again.

[airnoc]

Hi
See that two flight were diverted last monday due to fog at noc one from std and the other from ltn. I was watching the ltn flight doing a go around number of times before going to snn. What was wrong with the Category II | Instrument Landing System at noc or was the planes did not have it?
Also reus is back on wiki but no start date yet