Ireland West Airport Knock
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Glasgow
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Honestly, given the differing rate of vaccinations between the two countries, the restrictions should be in the other direction than what they are. UK arrivals into Ireland are likely to lose much less of a risk than the risk posed by Irish people meeting each other within the country.
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Glasgow
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Knock seems to be emerging from the pandemic fairly well judging by the schedule for next summer. 16 Ryanair routes in addition to the daily Aer Lingus service. Good to see Lanzarote back with the return of the base there, though maybe a surprise that it's only once a week for now as it's such a popular route locally, especially with Tenerife not coming back at this point in time.
Other than that all the summer 2022 routes are back, including Edinburgh and Cologne as well as the year round Bergamo route being retained. Increased frequencies on a number of the regional English routes also.
It's very much a Ryanair airport now since the old Flybe went bust, with Ryanair having taken on all of the old Flybe routes other than Leeds, which is still unserved. There's positives and negatives to that obviously. On the plus side the total available seat capacity for 2023 will be well over a million, probably the highest there has ever been at Knock and there's certainly the potential for a record breaking year in 2023 if any of the obvious threats ranging from Covid to oil prices to the recession don't do too much damage.
The main downside is probably that it's hard to see a regional or a charter airline trying anything new from Knock anytime soon with Ryanair's coverage of the core UK and sun routes being so extensive at the moment.
The other issue is that the airport, particularly the apron, is really operating at capacity now at certain times of the day for much of the summer. It's not uncommon to see aircraft having to hold over Boyle/Carrick on Shannon or having to wait on the runway as there is no available apron space for aircraft. While I know there were larger infrastructure plans in place to resolve this, if it isn't going to be possible to fund this work anytime soon maybe a smaller scale expansion of the apron onto existing grass areas could be funded to accommodate another aircraft or two and fix this bottleneck for now.
Other than that all the summer 2022 routes are back, including Edinburgh and Cologne as well as the year round Bergamo route being retained. Increased frequencies on a number of the regional English routes also.
It's very much a Ryanair airport now since the old Flybe went bust, with Ryanair having taken on all of the old Flybe routes other than Leeds, which is still unserved. There's positives and negatives to that obviously. On the plus side the total available seat capacity for 2023 will be well over a million, probably the highest there has ever been at Knock and there's certainly the potential for a record breaking year in 2023 if any of the obvious threats ranging from Covid to oil prices to the recession don't do too much damage.
The main downside is probably that it's hard to see a regional or a charter airline trying anything new from Knock anytime soon with Ryanair's coverage of the core UK and sun routes being so extensive at the moment.
The other issue is that the airport, particularly the apron, is really operating at capacity now at certain times of the day for much of the summer. It's not uncommon to see aircraft having to hold over Boyle/Carrick on Shannon or having to wait on the runway as there is no available apron space for aircraft. While I know there were larger infrastructure plans in place to resolve this, if it isn't going to be possible to fund this work anytime soon maybe a smaller scale expansion of the apron onto existing grass areas could be funded to accommodate another aircraft or two and fix this bottleneck for now.
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Crawley
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The terminal wouldn't cope with another 189 (assuming a FR 738) - there are only 3 gates. Not helped by everyone funnelled through 1 ADF payment point after checkin to then have 1 queue for 1 x-ray machine (there are 2 but I have only ever seen 1 operational) which spit you directly out into the duty free shop. The departures area would need some remodelling to say the least!
Join Date: Nov 2007
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Originally Posted by 840
Rumours are that NOC-LHR is going to be announced very soon. Seems a bit of a game changer in terms of connectivity if it is true.
Join Date: Dec 2010
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Confirmed now. Had seen it rumoured a few weeks ago as EI were still selling Gatwick but there was no slot left free in the Gatwick schedule for the flights.
It's massive news though, finally offers some decent connections from Knock. While it's not the same as having double daily flights to feed into a full schedule of BA routes in both directions, I know of far too many cases where people have been caught out trying to connect to places via Ryanair and then were caught with delayed flights causing missed connections. This gives a realistic through ticket option for far more destinations and should mop up most of the old Gatwick traffic as well.
It's massive news though, finally offers some decent connections from Knock. While it's not the same as having double daily flights to feed into a full schedule of BA routes in both directions, I know of far too many cases where people have been caught out trying to connect to places via Ryanair and then were caught with delayed flights causing missed connections. This gives a realistic through ticket option for far more destinations and should mop up most of the old Gatwick traffic as well.
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Incidentally, I wonder will the airport try to fill the soon to be vacant Gatwick route to cater to the point to point traffic to areas south and south east of London that may not want to fly into Heathrow?
Difficult to see who would take it on though. I couldn't see EasyJet entering the Irish market again. BA obviously won't. Wizz maybe - they have served Cork previously? Or might Ryanair try a W route from Dublin - you wouldn't put it past them.
The best outcome I suppose would be if the Heathrow route was successful enough that Aer Lingus felt they could operate both Heathrow and Gatwick daily on W routes from Dublin.
Difficult to see who would take it on though. I couldn't see EasyJet entering the Irish market again. BA obviously won't. Wizz maybe - they have served Cork previously? Or might Ryanair try a W route from Dublin - you wouldn't put it past them.
The best outcome I suppose would be if the Heathrow route was successful enough that Aer Lingus felt they could operate both Heathrow and Gatwick daily on W routes from Dublin.
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Ireland nowadays
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Originally Posted by Kinocker
Incidentally, I wonder will the airport try to fill the soon to be vacant Gatwick route to cater to the point to point traffic to areas south and south east of London that may not want to fly into Heathrow?
Difficult to see who would take it on though. I couldn't see EasyJet entering the Irish market again. BA obviously won't. Wizz maybe - they have served Cork previously? Or might Ryanair try a W route from Dublin - you wouldn't put it past them.
The best outcome I suppose would be if the Heathrow route was successful enough that Aer Lingus felt they could operate both Heathrow and Gatwick daily on W routes from Dublin.
Difficult to see who would take it on though. I couldn't see EasyJet entering the Irish market again. BA obviously won't. Wizz maybe - they have served Cork previously? Or might Ryanair try a W route from Dublin - you wouldn't put it past them.
The best outcome I suppose would be if the Heathrow route was successful enough that Aer Lingus felt they could operate both Heathrow and Gatwick daily on W routes from Dublin.
