Ireland West Airport Knock

[sawtooth]

Hasn't been much news 2018 so starting a new thread with a few recent updates:

Link to previous IWAK thread here:
IRELAND WEST AIRPORT KNOCK

[airnoc]

Is IWAK going to get a base with Ryanair first flight for June1st 2019 is direct from IWAK at 0705 am?

[sawtooth]

Phase 1 of €15m "transformation programme" completed
Lot of infrastructure investment happening this year to enhance passenger experience, cope with growing numbers and upgrade old equipment.

Terminal upgrades

• Re-branding and terminal interior makeover
• New signage and wayfinding system across airport
• New Aviation Gallery / Museum area
• Re-modelled larger immigration, arrivals, retail, catering and toilet facilities
• 250 additional surfaced car park spaces and number plate scanning entry
• New flight information digital displays and video walls throughout the airport

Visitor Discovery Centre
New "state of the art" Wild Atlantic Way tourism center is almost complete in arrivals

Infrastructure

• Covered aircraft boarding stairs
• Upgraded handling equipment, snow clearing and safety vehicles
• Fire station extension & new equipment
• Upgraded runway lighting system

Phase 2 upgrades 2019

• Re-modelling departures area
• Upgrading of Screening and ATC equipment
• Further upgrade to the airport car parks and road access

Runway Upgrade
Dep of Transport funding €8.4m (75%) to complete first overhaul of airports 30 year old runway in 2019.​

• Full resurfacing overlay and new LED ground lighting system
• ILS systems upgrade (ILS on 08 ?)

[sawtooth]

Fairly quiet on route front for Knock this year. New FR Girona and TUI Majorca services operated over Summer 2018 and FR added capacity on Milan.

Increased Winter Services

FR adding 7000 UK seats:

• STN 10x weekly
• LPL 6x weekly
• LTN 6x weekly
• EMA 4x weekly
• BRS 3x weekly
• ACE 1x weekly

BE operating Man, BHX and EDI
EI LGW no change

Sunway operating Lapland charter

------

Cologne
FR announced first German route from Knock with a 2x weekly service to Cologne for Summer 19 starting June.
Huge catchment population, could do well if promoted well. Launch media focusing on inbound potential and Wild Atlantic Way.
CGN – T – – – S –

New Ryanair service connects Cologne to Wild Atlantic Way as German visitor numbers boom

[iwak]

Great news about the Cologne route . Leeds Bradford needs to be the next new route from knock operated by Flybe . Manchester has seen fantastic numbers this year .im sure a 3 per week service to Leeds would be well supported

[EI-BUD]

airnoc,
which route is this 0705 departure on?
Having a based airline sounds insane from the perspective of opening hours and costs.

[robbie1973]

I have checked all Ryanair departures for Saturday 1st June and can’t find any flights that are scheduled to depart before 9am ?

Where have you got the information regarding the earlier flight ?

[840]

Are there any family/economic links between the North-West and Yorkshire that make Leeds-Bradford likely to succeed?

Aside from it's previous time at Knock, it's been tried by Ryanair from Shannon, and Aer Lingus Regional and BMI Regional from Cork and none of those have been successful, so it doesn't have a great record as a route from Irish airports outside Dublin.

[AerRyan]

sawtooth

You've mixed up a bit here, Stansted is only 10x weekly. 20x weekly would entail triple daily return flights on all bar one day.

[Dreamliner_01]

I notice a season extension for Girona which has gone from peak season operation to a april to October service which will be good boost for passenger numbers - all in all with the new service etc should see NOC get close to the 800,000 passenger milestone

[Chris_747]

TUI seem to have dropped Palma for Summer 19

Only showing Costa Dorada on the website for next summer, surprising!

[Dreamliner_01]

Not really surprising the hot summer this year killed it poor enough loads and were selling it very cheap towards the end - surprised it didn’t work though as should have

[iwak]

Fly be summer flights released today bhx not bookable after mid June and Edinburgh only via man in July but direct in August would be a shame if knock loses these routes

[Dreamliner_01]

Seems a very strange schedule to take a service out in July when it’s one of the few months they make money - I notice EDI is back in for September ! Very strange that they would operate BHX up until June and then pull it - why not pull it before summer season starts ? I’d say things definitely not finalized and lot of chopping and Changing going on

[iwak]

Flybe flights for next summer are all on sale now

bhx 6 weekly

Edi 6 weekly

Man daily

[Dreamliner_01]

Good to see as was worried about that one - if all stays as is Knock should be very close to 800,000 next year which will be another milestone

[sawtooth]

Winter sun route

Ryanair adding TFS for winter 19. Good to see another winter route, along with more seats on BRS and longer season for GRO/BGY.

FlyBe —> Virgin
Interesting to see how the reported Flybe rebrand to Virgin plays out. Virgin brand more established in Ireland now with Virgin Media, but it took NOC several years to rebuild the 3 routes after BMI demise. It does open up possability of interline booking 6 USA destinations from MAN if times better matched those connections.

[iwak]

Great to see the Tenerife route extension for winter and the 2weekly cologne summer service . Certainly stacking up to be a good year for knock . Fingers crossed that virgin keep the existing knock routes .Slow and steady growth is always best .

[Kinocker]

Knock seems to be having a good year but some possible headwinds on the way if the Ryanair base closures in Spain go ahead. Knock's position without any based aircraft leaves it vulnerable to issues affecting the base airports that serve it.

Three of the four affected Spanish airports - Tenerife South, Lanzarote and Girona are destinations served from Knock. It would be quite a dent in the bucket and spade offering from the airport if all three were lost. The fourth airport, Las Palmas, is also an former Knock destination and one that they may have looked to get back if the sun routes were doing particularly well.

I suppose W routings from UK airports could work as an alternative but I'm not sure if Ryanair tend to use that option too often.

[Jack1985]

It will not be possible to service Canary routes via W patterns due to EASA FTL limitations.