Ireland West Airport Knock
Join Date: Dec 2010
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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
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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.
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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Replaces LGW and with a single daily return, options will be limited. Given how VFR orientated NOC is, this might not be as positive as it appears
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.
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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: Dec 2010
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Heathrow service up and running today. The airport's social media channels are full of stories of people flying in from Brisbane and Adelaide and the likes via Heathrow, great that these people have the option to fly straight into the west of Ireland now. Unfortunately it's at the expense of former users of the Gatwick service though. Would be good to have services from both airports in the near future.
Tuesday mornings are looking a bit congested at the airport for the summer season with five arrivals due between 8am and 9am and the same five flights departing again between 8:30 and 9:30. With the apron only able to cater for three aircraft at a time that's going to cause some issues. It could also mean potentially in the region of 1000 people being crammed into the departure lounge at the same time during peak season. I've been in there when three full flights are departing around the same time and it's not great. Having five going at the same time is not going to be an at all comfortable experience for departing passengers.
Tuesday mornings are looking a bit congested at the airport for the summer season with five arrivals due between 8am and 9am and the same five flights departing again between 8:30 and 9:30. With the apron only able to cater for three aircraft at a time that's going to cause some issues. It could also mean potentially in the region of 1000 people being crammed into the departure lounge at the same time during peak season. I've been in there when three full flights are departing around the same time and it's not great. Having five going at the same time is not going to be an at all comfortable experience for departing passengers.
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Just on that Tuesday morning situation - all aircraft stands are currently occupied at NOC this morning with three more aircraft holding over Boyle/Carrick-On-Shannon and two more en route to the airport from sun destinations. That proposed apron/departure area extension is badly needed at this point.
Just on that Tuesday morning situation - all aircraft stands are currently occupied at NOC this morning with three more aircraft holding over Boyle/Carrick-On-Shannon and two more en route to the airport from sun destinations. That proposed apron/departure area extension is badly needed at this point.
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So great to see the airport rebounding so strongly and so much traffic. Take yesterday, 13 flights in and out. 7 of which were to the UK and 6 further afield into Europe. If the airport can get to these kind of levels every day, 1M annual passengers won't be far away.
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Is there any news on Knock apron extension?
Ryanair had to hold for a short time on Tuesday because of congestion on the ground. An aircraft had gone tech. All the other stands were full.
Great to see NOC busy
Ryanair had to hold for a short time on Tuesday because of congestion on the ground. An aircraft had gone tech. All the other stands were full.
Great to see NOC busy