Ireland West Airport Knock

[FRatSTN]

Indeed, Canary Islands are too far to be served on W patterns as would only be able to be served by a single crew with no changes (a UK/Ireland to Canaries return is about getting to limits as it is).

The only other ways this possibly could work is night stopping aircraft/crew. ie a STN based crew could do STN-NOC-TFS (overnight in TFS) then do TFS-NOC-STN.

Alternatively, a DUB crew could operate DUB-TFS-NOC (then transfer back to DUB) whilst a second crew from DUB would travel to NOC and operate NOC-TFS-DUB.

EasyJet do the former a fair bit with LGW crew and the likes of Jet2/TUI will do the latter in some cases. But for Ryanair, both cases would be unlikely I'd have thought.

[EI-BUD]

Unlikely Ryanair would taxi crews from Dublin to Knock and v.v. Equally, nightstops without a base would not be in keeping with Ryanair's cost base. The airport enjoyed limited opening hours, a night stoppping aircraft would mean a 06xx departure time, driving costs at the airport for extended opening hours....

[iwak]

Would Ryanair consider a base at knock ? 1 aircraft in winter 2 in summer ?? All knock uk routes have been in place for a long time and achieve decent loads so I’m sure they would have been dropped by now if yield wasn’t performing . My point is that these routes could be run by knock based aircraft without it being a risk to Ryanair with a possible few additional sun routes over the summer .

[Gulf Julliet Papa]

In a period where they are closing and down sizing bases if say it’s the wrong time to be hoping for a base

[fivejuliet]

Lanzarote base closure now also confirmed - certainly not good for NOC.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/201...xt-year-union/

[virginblue]

Why? They need to keep their planes busy and they can either do that by growing the remaining bases or adding new ones. I'd say adding new ones is the prefered option if that means pocketing "marketing support", steahlty subsidies etc. One could argue that this is the at the core of Ryanair's business model and results in Ryanair moving across Europe like locusts. Whether or not Knock is the most likely choice for such a move is, of course, another question.

[Gulf Julliet Papa]

Part of the issue is lack of maxs, I think FR were meant to have either 30 odd or 50 odd by next Summer. On the basis you are now short of aircraft as planned, you are going to focus your remaining assets on the higher-yielding routes and bases. I'd say it's very unlikely that you would move your limited assets to an unknown yielding "base". I appreciate these routes already exist in part, but not on the same schedule you would run if aircraft were based in NOC. Remember it actually looks like there will be a reduction of aircraft in Ireland next year, certainly not an increase.

[Europilot320]

Recently I have read that it was considered alongside with Brighton airport as a place where to test a potential electric plane by a Norwegian company
It would be nice to know if they also would consider it as a manufacturing location...

[fivejuliet]

NOC-ACE/TFS dropped as of 2 Jan 2020.

[Kinocker]

Apparently a new route will be announced from Knock by Lauda this week. Their bases are Dusseldorf, Stuttgart and Vienna, so presumably a service to one of those airports.

Would be good to see a new airline, albeit it's a Ryanair subsidiary.

[iwak]

That’s great news 👍 just a pity about ace and Tfs I’m thinking they will get TUI or sunway to operate a charter series on these 2 routes over the summer months if they can’t get a scheduled operator .

[brian_dromey]

Probably the best bet. I wonder if TUI have any fleet capacity with the MAX grounding, though.

[sawtooth]

Kinocker

Also 2 aircraft at Palma Mallorca.

*Palma loaded in booking system now.

[BFS BHD]

https://irelandwestairport.com/news/...mN2SJM6M0cUsg8

[iwak]

I see cologne is loaded for June to sept next summer . I have a funny feeling that something will be worked out between ryanair and the Canary Islands airports as with the loss of Thomas cook now surely they won’t let ryanair go. They will be desperate for passengers .🤞

[sawtooth]

"Operated by Air Malta", another Ryanair subsidiary, along with with Lauda there will be a bit more colour at NOC next summer.

[DC3 Dave]

Malta Air, not Air Malta. Not being a smart arse, two separate entities.

[Kinocker]

Will Malta Air have a base in Cologne or will this be a W routing originating from Malta?

Probably a long shot but I wonder if this might lead at some stage to flights from Malta to Knock. I'm guessing not all Malta Air aircraft will be based on the island though.

[iwak]

Knock has done well of late with its slow and steady growth over the last few years . However I feel there is definitely potential in the uk left . I feel a 3 weekly to Leeds would be viable but hopefully not at the expense of manchester . Maybe loganair with their new Atrs or flybe . Glasgow like wise but would this effect the successful edinburgh service ?

a daily heathrow maybe an option when the new runway is built and with the new flybe virgin brand comes into being as they want to introduce more connectivity through Heathrow and Manchester .

Ryanair does extremely well on ltn and stn from Knock surely a 4 weekly to London Southend would be a runner .

The bucket and spade routes will always do well however mainland Europe definitely has high season potential . Looking back to when knock had the Eindhoven route loads were good over June July and August months and it certainly does take more than one summer season to build a route .

Just a few thoughts on where knock could possibly hit the 1million passenger mark in my opinion .

[840]

Leeds-Bradford - My first reaction was that this never worked from Cork or Shannon with their larger catchment, but am I right in thinking there is a history of substantial emigration from the North-West to Yorkshire? Possibly strong family ties may produce a boost.

Heathrow - Almost every Irish airport, including Kerry, or even an effectively closed airport like Waterford, could support a connection to Heathrow. The problem is at the other end. If/when a new runway is built, there is likely to be serious competition for access.

Southend - Might work, but I would have thought increased frequency on one of the other London routes would be a better bet for a capacity increase.

Sun Routes - There does seem to be a bit of scope for growth here, both in terms of capacity on existing routes and some potential new ones. Fuerteventura, Dubrovnik, Verona, Nice and Lisbon could be possibilities for new routes, although too many launching could cannibalise each other. An important figure here is when people from Galway have a choice between Knock, Shannon and Dublin for existing routes, how many opt for Knock.

Inbound tourism - The place to look for inspiration here is Kerry Airport, which has pitched their tourist offering to Germans to such an extent that they overfly Dublin, Cork and Shannon into Kerry. Kerry can't even support UK routes outside London, but makes these routes to Germany work. The route to Cologne/Bonn is a start in that regard, but there's a lot more potential than that.

One other one to add to the mix is Polish routes. Cork and Shannon both support in the region of 75K-80K passengers per year to Poland and that before the route from Cork to Katowice launches. You'd have to think that Knock could support some kind of frequency to Poland.