I dont think they could fund the airports in England same as here. Theres way more airports there than here.

That has happened most Tuesday mornings this summer, not unusual to have two or three Ryanair aircraft holding over Leitrim at around half eight on a Tuesday morning. No further developments with the Apron or other proposed improvements that I'm aware of. It's an ambitious terminal and apron expansion proposal, one of those that will either happen in one big investment or won't happen at all.

There are one or two state funding streams for Irish regional airports.

For example, the Irish government earlier this year announced €5m in capital funding for Knock, €400k for Kerry, and more for other Irish regional airports, totalling €17m. The government is reportedly also providing €12m in operational expenditure support for the regional airports in 2023 (I would include a link but PPRUNE does not allow me to do so.)

The other disguised funding stream for regional airports is the PSO programme. Until Ryanair put paid to Kerry's PSO service by launching a commercial (unsubsidised) Dublin-Kerry route, Kerry Airport made a very nice income from the PSO.

The idea of a PSO service is that the government subsidises an airline to fly a route which would not be economic. What is less recognised is that the airport can quietly extract quite a lot of cash from that too.

In the case of the last Kerry PSO contract award a few years ago (2018?) , Kerry Airport published two separate sets of fees and charges, one for ordinary commercial flights and one (much higher) for PSO flights. Now Ryanair won't even pay the normal commercial charge, but in the case of the PSO flights, no-one negotiates with the airport (the PSO airline doesn't care, because it's being reimbursed for whatever it pays, and the government doesn't care, because why rock the boat?). Plus, last time round, the PSO covered the cost of out-of-hours opening of the airport, while Ryanair took the benefit.

This two-tiered charging scheme for PSOs is not unique to Kerry. Donegal was doing something similar. Perhaps it also happens in other countries. It's just a very "convenient" :-) way for government to "quietly" funnel more money to regional airports, over and above publicly declared financial support.

So with nearly a million pax coming through the door in a year and a nice government grant, surely the €10 development fee will be knocked on the head sooner than later… LOL.

I'd hardly think so, I'm guessing they'd need to double their passenger numbers to recover that. They've also fought hard to keep it, i.e. many moons ago when FR threatened to walk. I thoroughly enjoy the experience of the airport therw and am happy to pay the fee to support it. It's not my local airport but last year I chose a drive to NOC and reasonably priced parking above the mess that was Dublin Airport.

I'm sure it was said at one point that 1 million passengers a year was the point at which the development fer could be reassessed. However I suspect that if and when that number is reached, it won't be. A funding stream like that is something of a drug, once you have it it's very hard to let it go. Based on current passenger numbers, and allowing for under 12s not paying it, it must be generating close to €4m a year for the airport. I think any suggestion of ever increasing it due to inflation etc would be very poorly received however.

Do you have any details of said expansion proposal that you can post at all? Would be very interested to see - we use the airport when we go off to see my OH's folks so vested interest :)

If you Google "Knock airport development plan pdf", and download the first link that comes up you will see the general proposals.

Page 65 shows the proposals for the terminal building itself. It's basically a major expansion of the apron to make space for a passenger boarding bridge, serving a (frankly excessive) 15 aircraft stands, as well as an additional taxiway to the runway. Would require significant investment, including relocation of the fuel bunds and major earthworks.

Thanks!

My understanding is Knock has three aircraft stands presently which are all occupied at one time or another fairly frequently. I know apron extension has been talked about in the past here, but how does this work presently?

The passenger walkway for boarding to/from Stand 3 crosses the main taxi lane into the apron. Does this mean anything on Stand 2 has to wait for passengers to board/disembark on Stand 3 before it can depart, and vice versa, or is Stand 3 used as a bussing gate when the other stands are occupied?

Pax don't cross the taxiway, there is a fenced perimeter path along the north of apron to stand 3 (green). Ground staff hold boarding/exiting pax if an aircraft is starting up and with fast turnarounds coordinated it isn't usually an issue. Pinch point is terminal capacity at the moment where any tech issue or delays leaves departures very crowded.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c4b6c5f176.jpg