KERRY
 

Arann to start KIR-Lorient Mon & Fri from March 27th 06. Also starting LTN-Lorient 6 weekly the day before.

gd news regarding aer arran to lorient from luton, keep them coming i say

I see Kerry is trying to mess with the Ireland - USA bilateral - must be about the proposed Kerry-Halifax flights. LCC TA at Kerry no doubt.

http://www.kerryairport.ie/news/index.htm#usa

8th November 2005, Kerry Airport, Regional Airport of the Year 2005, today welcomed the resumption of Ireland - USA and Europe - USA Aviation bilateral talks in Washington. The new Irish and European agreements with the USA should open the door for new Transatlantic flights to Kerry Airport from 2006 onwards.........

Anyone got any update on the rumoured Air Berlin start dates at Dublin and Kerry.

Passed through Kerry today and no one knew anything about Air Berlin. The new car park is finished three months early. The new bus terminal is due to also open early with diverted hourly Bus Eireann services to Cork and Limerick. They also have built a new footpath all the way down to the railway station. Stop the Hahn arriving Germans getting knocked over.

I wonder in five years time will it become a viable airport to serve all of Munster?

As you land you can also see their new fire training rigs from Simulation. There was an article on it last week in a local rag.
http://www.the-kingdom.ie/news/story.asp?j=18882

Where do they get all the money? Get off your fat ass Bellew and get them some flights.

Oh Neidin,

Peter from Kerry here. I can only comment about my fat ass and not on airline speculation. Things are going fine at Kerry.

You are giving me a complex about my weight - I'll have to stay off the jar over Xmas.

How could Kerry possibly be in a position to be a viable airport to cover the whole of Munster. Considering Kerry falls into Shannon and Cork's catchment area and the pitched battle taking place between both for pax how can it possibly expand? What airline is going to throw itself into that cauldron? The centre of population in Munster is Cork and that is where the future of air transport lies in Munster. Had FR got the PSO they possibly would have tried Kerry as a Cork West but not now. I can't see the Dept of Transport investing €8m in KIR, to compete with the development of Cork, and Shannon, just up the road. Hopefully I will be proved wrong!

re: KERRY
 

Hear Wizzair are looking seriously at services 3w Kerry - KIR and 3W Knock - NOC to Katowice - very late pm flts. Anyone know more details.

Kerry Airport profit up 4% to €515,700

Monday, 11 June 2007 10:45
Last year Kerry Airport increased profit before tax by 4% to €515,680, but it has warned on higher costs.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2007/0611/kerry.html

JAS

Kerry Airport
 

What does the future hold for Kerry/KIR?

Now fully dependent on Ryanair, sandwiched between Shannon and Cork (but possibly benefitting from Ryanair's difficult relationship with these) and a large % of its passengers on flights dependent on PSO subsidies which now face a questionable future...

Summer 2010 routes:

Dublin 3x daily (PSO)
Frankfurt Hahn 1x daily
London Luton 1x daily (LTN based aircraft 2x weekly)
London Stansted 4x weekly (STN based aircraft)
Alicante 2x weekly (ALC based aircraft)
Faro 2x weekly (FAO based aircraft)

Kerry's problems are seemingly similar to Derry's: Similar passenger numbers with a total reliance on Ryanair and a PSO and located within 60 miles of the 2nd largest airport in Ireland and within 75 miles of the soon to be 3rd largest airport.

Summer 2010 routes:

Dublin 2x daily (PSO with Aer Arann)
Glasgow (Prestwick) 4x weekly (PIK based aircraft)
Liverpool 6x weekly (PIK based aircraft)
London Stansted 1x daily (STN based aircraft)
Birmingham 1x dailly (BHX based aircraft)
Alicante 2x weekly (ALC based aircraft)
Faro 2x weekly (FAO based aircraft)

Ryanair are the only airline to have shown any commitment to the airport but operates aircraft too large for frequent services and for the smaller destinations thus constraining development. Indeed its presence seems to intimidate the competition, Derry inexplicably unable to land routes to Edinburgh and Manchester, two massive routes at the other two Northern airports. Derry might have the edge on Kerry in terms of population (250,000 within 20 miles of Derry city centre) but the economy is very weak and bisected by the border which doesn't help.

Derry's only hope is to wait for Ryanair to form a base there (which is what recent £15 million runway and apron works were about) or to gain a second operator.

Would Ryanair ever form a base at Kerry?
Could Kerry gain another substantial operator?

Do Ryanair not already have a base at Kerry?

Yes, Ryanair already has 1 KIR based aircraft.

It is, however, questionable if it will last without DUB flights / PSO subsidies. Even with the continuation of these, I think it is unlikely to grow beyond a single aircraft.

A 2008 report by a consultancy saw passenger numbers rising as follows:
2012: 658,000
2017: 823,000
2027: 1,108,000

At the height of the boom, there were rumours about a Wizz Air flight to Poland. Can't see it happen now.

Perhaps an Aer Lingus flight to LGW?

It's also worth noting the failure of Ryanair attempts to Liverpool and Grenoble.

Liverpool: 3x weekly operated between June 2006 and January 2007. Loads between 40% and 85% during August peak.
Grenoble: 1x weekly ski flight operated between December 2008 and April 2009. Loads between 30% and 50%.

If there's an a/c based in KIR how come none of the summer routes will operate with it?

Aircraft is fully used during the summer schedule:

KIR-DUB-KIR
KIR-HHN-KIR
KIR-DUB-KIR
KIR-LTN-KIR (except for SUN/MON when it is operated by a LTN based aircraft)
KIR-DUB-KIR

In any case, there isn't enough time between the DUB flights to operate an ALC/FAO return.

Not that it's worth very much, but a quote from a Ryanair press release:

Sorry, of course Kerry is a base. (I was confusing it with Knock). Nevertheless a base is not much use if the only purpose is to fulfil a PSO that is set to end.

What I really meant by base was a renewed commitment to the airport with routes to places not already served. Liverpool failed and yet Frankfurt persists. Liverpool was an established route from Cork and Shannon.

Who knows, if Shannon don't get it back together with Ryanair, the future for Kerry could be very bright . . . . .

Having know Idea of if or when the PSO will end on the Kerry route. I think the Dublin route would be profitable to a smaller type/operator. Maybe Aer Arann ould take on the route in the future?

In theory Kerry should be able to capture much of the traffic from the South West and mid west as its within two hours drive of both Cork and Limerick. Some Cork people had no problem driving to Shannon in order to save a few bob.

The only problem is that Ryanair lost money in each of the five years at Shannon and this may make them cautious about Kerry as a result.

Objectively Cork would be the best location for a Ryanair base but of courses that raises the question of DAA charges and head to head competition with Aerlingus.

In any event Kerry can look forward to growth in 2010 which is more than can be said for any of the DAA airports.

As is often the case with Ryanair, I don't think Liverpool was given enough time.

While Kerry can (in theory) benefit from problems between Ryanair and Shannon/Cork airport, I see it as far from certain that these will persist in the long-term.

I also question the extent to which people from Cork/Limerick are willing to drive to Kerry to take a flight. Do they know Kerry has an airport? That the airport has flights to x cities? Who will market it... unlikely to be Ryanair...

Alicante and Faro will be interesting test cases.

Aer Lingus had 1x weekly Kerry - Frankfurt/Dusseldorf (via Dublin) flights during the summer in mid to late 1990s.