IRELAND WEST AIRPORT KNOCK

[iwak]

So it looks like a very quiet winter ahead with no bhx ,brs and no edi over the winter months. I'm surprised at bhx as it had fairly healthy loads brs was always border line and edi never seem to get over the fourty mark per flight.if I was management I'd be going after a few late night stn services on thurs ,fri,sunday to make up for these losses.

An fr service to bhx would definitely help numbers but I think ema would be lost if they took up bhx.

[mart901]

Has BHX been officially dropped? If thats the case what is the plane going to do for several hours on a Tue, Fri and Sun while it waits to go back to SNN from BHX, the schedule was ammended like that a few weeks ago, EIR may be delaying launching winter schedule for a reason???

[takingoff]

Great News - Big Increases for July

Over 52,000 passengers travelled on flights to and from the UK in July, a 5% increase on the same period in 2013

German visitors to the West of Ireland from Dusseldorf with passenger numbers on Lufthansas weekly service increasing by 44% in July when compared to same period last year

Despite July being one of the warmest months of the year passenger numbers travelling to popular sun destinations increased by a massive 14% with close to 25,000 passengers travelling to destinations such as Malaga, Tenerife, Barcelona, Alicante and Milan despite July being one of the warmest months in recent history.

Ireland West Airport Knock

[Kinocker]

Better than I would have expected alright. Certainly the EDI flights I took in July were well above the average numbers (low 40s) that I'm used to. If they put up a similar total in August they should be well on their way to 650,000 + for the year. I'll get an idea of whether its a similar story in August on the EDI route next week. London's run in the gaelic football championship will have helped a bit as well.

Late night STN in winter would be popular alright but the airport's winter strategy in recent years has been to stick rigidly to daytime hours to cut costs - hopefully they can finance something different this winter as it would undoubtedly boost pax numbers.

[confused atco]

Late night STN in winter would be popular alright but the airport's winter strategy in recent years has been to stick rigidly to daytime hours to cut costs - hopefully they can finance something different this winter as it would undoubtedly boost pax numbers.

To run a late flight would likely cannibalize the passengers from the day.
Its not going to give you 2 full loads of passengers.

This would also require the Airport to bring in staff or extend the day shift.
Either way it would cost money.

The knife edge that airports run on is very narrow.

Local management may desire a late flight but are no fools, if they can get the same passengers to use the airport during its scheduled opening hours its a far better use of resources.

Remember that the revenue generated by late opening especially in winter must be balanced by the cost of providing the service.

[Kinocker]

A decent enough month for the Edinburgh route seems to back up what I saw on board, numbers are up 7% to an average of 50 pax per flight. Despite posting considerably lower numbers flybe's GLA-SNN will operate this winter but EDI-NOC will not. I guess the newer route into SNN deserves a winter to prove itself but I wonder if it will last if it is posting 20% lower passenger numbers than the NOC route (which is marginal enough itself) in high season.

A return to a Friday flight as operated last year instead of Thursday would help the NOC route to grow I think.

[malc77]

Bristol to Knock or Shannon Winter 2013?

Hi- Does anyone know if the Ryanair Bristol to Knock service is definitely cancelled for winter 2013? When this service started, the Aer Lingus Bristol to Shannon flight stopped permanently.
Now there does not appear to be a way to get from Bristol to West Ireland (Knock or Shannon) over winter 2013.
Many thanks,

[malc77]

Bristol to Knock Winter 2013?

I can now answer my own question after getting a reply from Ryanair - No there will be no Bristol to Knock flights over the winter period. As there are no Bristol to Shannon flights either, it leaves SW England truly cut off from W Ireland.

[MerchantVenturer]

Bristol-Knock

Not really a surprise that Ryanair has pulled this route for the winter. The loads have never been high. Even in July and August the monthly load factors rarely get beyond the low 70s%.

Knock was one of the original routes when Ryanair opened its Bristol base in 2007 and from memory has operated continuously since then (originally 4 x weekly reduced to 3 x weekly in recent years) except for the winter of 2011-2012 when it was given a rest.

Aer Lingus Regional axed Bristol-Shannon towards the end of summer 2012 (end of September I seem to recall) and hasn't reinstated it since then. Passenger numbers seemed reasonable but the airline presumably believed there were better opportunities elsewhere.

[Jack1985]

I'd expect Shannon-Bristol will be reintroduced for Summer 2014, RE are re-basing a second aircraft at Shannon for 2014 going on there plans as recent as last May.

[malc77]

Bristol to West Ireland

It must be more than seven years since there has been no way to fly Bristol to either Knock or Shannon over the winter period. A great shame for travellers and businesses alike.

[Kinocker]

Exceptionally high load on the EDI route last week, there were well over 60 on the flight I took with 55 going back the other way. One of the flight attendants was asking if there was anything in particular going on in the area as the EDI-NOC flights had been particularly busy in recent weeks.

I don't think there is any reason for that route to have an increase over any of the other UK ones, so if that is replicated across the board August could turn out to be a record breaking month at Knock.

[VickersVicount]

I would have though the sudden peak in an otherwise dire normal load might have something to do with the Edinburgh festival.... Normal service will resume shortly Im sure...

[airnoc]

Hi all
Is tomorrow the businest day of the year with six flights on lourdes as well as the rest of the day routes.

Was in airport recently going on holidays and the P.A was nothing short of the worst i ever heard could not make out one word that was been said.

The Bascilica in knock shrine has one of the best so could the airport have a look at this one or try and improve on the one they have

[Kinocker]

Doubt its the Edinburgh festival to be honest - that's on every year so wouldn't explain the spike in traffic this summer. More likely to be related to 'the gathering' I think.

[Knock63]

Glad to say the PA system has just been upgraded, not before time!!

[airnoc]

Hi

I see on wiki page that Dusseldorf is finish on 26 oct 2013, is this for good and Cologne/Bonn begins March 2014.

Hopefully this wil be twice weekly

Any chance Jet2 might take the BHX route

[mart901]

Why would jet2 do such a thing when they have no aircraft at BHX? BE is a lot more likely really given their strong base there and two existing NOC routes. BE have done a lot better job of BHX-WAT in terms of growth. All that said EIR haven't necessarily dropped the route, nothing has been announced either way.

[airnoc]

[QUOTE]
Why would jet2 do such a thing when they have no aircraft at BHX?

Sorry mart901 meant to say monach might be a good choice and maybe do Leeds as well

[mart901]

Monarch I've thought of before - I can't quite see that one either as its out of their remit, that said they have been diversifying a bit lately into some more city type destinations, also there is a proven low fares market BHX-NOC, bmibaby and in particular mytravellite had much higher PAX numbers than EIR. FR at EMA is the issue really, I think B'ham based Irish would much rather fly from BHX but price dictates otherwise.