GALWAY

[akerosid]

I hear that GWY is to have a runway extension; not sure what length, but presumably to allow 738 (and possibly, A320) aircraft while they're at it. Airport seems to be doing very well, so good to hear of new growth ambitions.

If NOC can get 737s from the UK, no reason why GWY - with a significantly higher population in its hinterland - shouldn't be able to do so either.

[runawayedge]

Just counting....13 destinations for summer, heard recently GWY will account for 40% of all scheduled movements into Irish regionals from the summer, apparently 3 times that of NOC....

[gms1991]

Seems that the Irish regional airports are expanding. Hopefully Wales can do the same over the next 10 years.

Well done Galway

[Tom the Tenor]

Galway - New York, Galway - Boston. Got to be a winner during the summer months at the very least.

[gms1991]

Flyglobespan?

Personally, I would be quite annoyed if i was travelling from LPL to JFK and had to stop if in Knock on the way out and Galway on the way back! But...if it works for an airline and the airport...why not?

[sawtooth]

Where did you hear this akerosid? The only mention of expansion I can find online is this newspaper article: http://www.galwayindependent.com/news/10142.html. Now that says nothing about a runway expansion happening, just the intent. The current site is very constrained with major roads and buildings at either end and previous attempts to move it never materialised.

Runawayedge where did you get those figures? Knock carried 625,000 on 17 routes in 06 up 18% on the previous year. Galway is predicting 350,000 on 13 routes for 07.

I wondered how long it would be before the Knock announcements upset the neighbors. As usual the Knock bashing is unfounded and shows that the silly resentment of the airports location is as strong today as ever. When the Connaught Regional Airport idea was conceived the then board went to talk to Galway politicians about a site closer to the city, Tuam area was mentioned, and they refused to get involved. So a central site was chosen at the junction of the N17/N5 at Charlestown (with agreement on the site form an independent aviation official and the Irish aviation authorities).

Knock doesn't just serve a few small towns in Mayo, it users come from all over the north west region. So Galway has a large jet capable facility just 40 minutes away, getting easier to access with the Knock/Claremorris bypass and another with Shannon to the south.

It's been argued a million times and if you were to start a fresh a Galway location might have been more attractive, but it is where it is and we have jet access to the west. Many major cities survive with airports over an hour away. I'm not against Galway developing, it's a world name in cities and has huge potential, but I don't see the need to spend millions on another large airport. One well developed facility in the west will be far stronger than two competing for funding and routes and diluting each others potential.

But it is election year and money is being waved so the debate will go on for a few more months I guess.

[runawayedge]

Sawtooth....why so upset read the posts....GWY will has substantially more scheduled destinations (not summer charters) than NOC and far superior frequency, have a look at both web sites. Centre of Galway to NOC is approx 1.5 hours, and you still have to allow 2 hours to SNN, where in this thread did anyone bash NOC. Why should GWY not extend, after all it is now the third largest city in Ireland. SNN and NOC are low cost airports attracting low cost pax, is it not beneficial to the West of Ireland to have an airport that can attract higher yield business....as GWY does....as it has been successful, why should it be restricted? Why should GWY be dependent on airports that are over an hour away....

[EI-DHC]

Maybe I'm picking this up wrong,but I think runawayedge is saying that GWY has significantly more movements then any other other regional airport. Which is true, given that RE serves 13 destination, including Luton which is twice daily. This would confirm that GWY has more movements then any other regional airport outside of the big three.

However, what Sawtooth is saying is also true, that OCK attracts higher passenger numbers. This is down to the capacity of the a/c utilising the two airports. While RE makes more movements, they make them using 50/70 seaters, OCK gets 738s of RYR and 733s of Baby.

[sawtooth]

Sorry runawayedge, I see what you mean, of course higher frequencies on smaller scheduled aircraft lead to higher movements. And I take your point on the travel times to the airports though I think this will improve with the Atlantic Corridor, Ennis and Tuam bypasses.

I don't begrudge any area the right to develop their infrastructure, and as the third city Galway should have good air links. My main concern is that all too often our infrastructure decisions are made on the basis of county jerseys rather than sound regional planning (and yes that argument could be poited at the original location of Knock, or Waterford). Would it not serve the counties of the west better to work togeather to promote access to the city than in competition?

[flyerz111]

A friend of mine who flies into Knock says Arann services from Galway to the UK regularly have to land in Knock to refuel due to payload restrictions out of Galway, so it would seem logical that Galway should look at either extending its runway or improving its climb out zone obstacles (or whatever the technical term is) to keep its existing customers happy, whatever about getting 737s in. Whether Flybe haven't yet hit problem this because of the performance of the Q400 or lower payloads I am not sure.
Wasn't there talk about scrapping Carnmore and rebuilding somewhere else near Galway?

[Maude Charlee]

The Q400 has absolutely no problems with the performance into or out of GWY. But then again, with loads barely scraping into double figures that should hardly be a surprise.

Once the route fron BHD picks up as I'm sure it will in the summer, the only restriction is a landing weight of around 25 tons, which probably restricts us to either one way fuelling (with fuel in GWY double the price of BHD) or a pax load of around 50-60 and round trip fuel.

There is no performance penalty on take off from GWY for the Q400 - 29 tons not a problem. It's a very different machine from Arran's ATRs.

[MarkD]

As someone who was in the back of a Q400 with 7 pax, 2 cabin, 2 flight I can tell you there are very few takeoffs like it
I thought there was talk of moving GWY to nearer Oranmore?

[gms1991]

Try being on an FR flight that only has less than 40 pax onboard, with full power when brakes are release!

Especially when the flight is delayed! Like Blackpool's big one!

[DONTTELLTHEPAX]

I know what you mean, I was on a late night delayed FR flight and the pilot announces cabin crew, seats for BLAST OFF !!! (true).

[840]

New flights to Bordeaux, Faro and Malaga from Galway Airport

Galway Airport has announced it's to introduce new flights to Bordeaux, Faro and Malaga.

From June, Airline Fly U will fly to France, Portugal and Spain twice a week.

The flights will be made available for the summer months on a 100-seater jet.

I know nothing about the airline.

Even with the proximity of Shannon, the routes don't look unreasonable. Bordeaux is perhaps the surprising one, but then that doesn't have an FR route that will eat into the passenger numbers.

[Charlie Roy]

840

We're Fly U meant to be starting up in Waterford, or will they be doing an Aer Arann and offering these continenal destinations from Galway via Waterford?

http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/?jp=CWSNQLGBGBQL

I can't find Fly U's website though....

Sorry, but they are doomed for failure
Bordeaux definitely won't work for a number of reasons:

• Their website isn't online yet.
• They're a bit late to be launching summer flights, loads of people have their holidays booked already.
• I imagine their marketing will be severely lacking, as in be fairly non-existent.
• People wishing to fly to the wider Bordeaux / South west France region will have already booked their flights from Dublin, or be content to fly with Ryanair to Biarritz from Shannon.

Malaga and to a lesser extent Faro have some hope of success despite the availablity of these routes from Shannon. But again I fear late introduction and lack of marketing will be their downfall. Galway people simply won't know that they could have flown to Malaga from Galway, (having never stopped to wonder why Ryanair's Shannon to Malaga fares were suddening 1c for every flight of the summer )

I wish them luck in any case

[runawayedge]

Galway must surely be sick with Minister Cullen's announcement that they are only to receive €6m from the €89 regional airport fund. Despite having nearly 250 (twice Knock and Kerry combined) weekly scheduled movements this Summer and acounting for the largest percentage of scheduled pax (double WFD/SLX/CFN combined) they effectively got the second lowest divvy. Who is to blame for this disgrace?

[akerosid]

Expect this to be a significant issue in the upcoming election fight in Galway, both of them always competitively fought constitutuencies.

What is the €6.3m for GWY to be spent on anyway?

[Sky Conductor]

See the flights to Malaga are starting now on the 22nd June to run til early October. Not with Fly U which never got going, but with slattery travel using an Air Nordic Bae146-200. Did not think this would be possible from Gwys 1300M Runway. I presume they have done their figures or will it be payload restricted?

[LGWAlan]

The flights to BOD and FAO are also operated as such - with the a/c W-ing into WAT