I understand this question has been several times afore but can anybody see a long term commercial future for Derry airport when eventually some sort of normality returns given the upgraded A6, spiraling costs to the rate payers and reduced political support in the area?

Firstly, I will be biased here.

This question is brought up as you say regularly and is rightly questioned. If we didn't question current ways, we couldn't improve. There is a future for it for sure, it won't be world beating and it will be a constant uphill struggle like it has been for the last ~42 years. But that is expected. The A6 matter is an interesting one for a few reasons. It's not going to drastically change travel time in a way that will improve quality of life to justify removing Eglinton purely on that basis. Secondly, It's a two way road, if a more appropriate service was on offer at Eglinton for particular passengers then who's to say they won't head up this way? I know that anecdotally, if an appropriate service is on offer at Eglinton, it will be used over going to Belfast without a doubt, the A6 won't change this as CoDA won't be moving farther away from it's own catchment, it will just be that BFS/BHD will be all of 10 minutes closer. A recent business study was carried out to assess the viability of the burden on local ratepayers and it was determined that this must change. Various avenues are to be explored, some slightly optimistic in my eyes but why right them off? We simply won't know the negotiations behind the scenes. I don't see evidence of reduced political support. There is always the same councillors who are continually against the facility and this hasn't and simply won't change, support hasn't grown either however it has to be said. It'll always be a divisive issue which will be constantly under review and rightly so.

As I said in my previous post, what is currently present is a base to build upon with extra frequencies and altered times in the short term. One such small change would be a later GLA service on a Friday however this is of course unlikely as you're competing against BHD/SYY/SOU for LM's attention on that one, providing they would insist that it would be served by an ER4. I think a good way to look at this is being back to square one. There is nothing to patch up now and what is currently offered is the smallest CoDA will ever contract to again in regards to capacity. This can only mean future announcements over the next year or two (if there is to be any of course) can only be seen in a good light from the local ratepayers, many of whom are disgruntled at the subvention. At present LPL is performing well by the looks of things, maintaining its frequency this coming winter and with a number services in the first week or service either being full or in the upper fare bands already. STN is going to 14x weekly on a regular basis for the first time since the PSO's inception back in 2017 and then to 15x weekly come July. I raised questions over LM's suitability operating to other cities in the UK besides London after the poor performance on MAN, especially given the price sensitive market we are. but I'm beginning to change this. A DUB PSO as mentioned in the "New Decade New Approach" agreement is to be explored, this was also mentioned in the recent business case I mentioned earlier and some form of service to BHX would undoubtedly be the next thing to look at over the next couple of seasons. Who, what, when and how? Who knows but it will be the next step domestically. All this whilst working to establish a usable international range much like what has operated in the past could herald a change in the coming years. A Head of Business Development has now been appointed, something I can't remember being a dedicated post in the previous 10 years under RCA's management so potentially a sign of meaningful intent?

Will it ever break even? Probably not but in a few years with developments I'm hopeful we could maybe look at the issue and asses that yes, what we have now is value for money and a undeniably important piece of infrastructure to the region and its population.

575
Hope you are correct but it is very hard to be optimistic given the present situation.
As you correctly point out it’s largely down to routes and schedules. I have been traveling abroad for work for more years than I care to think about and I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I was able utilize Derry.

City of Derry’s peak was in the late 2000s when it was seeing over 400,000 passengers a year. This was almost exclusively down to FR: 2x daily STN, complemented by LPL, BHX/EMA, PIK, FAO, and various others. At one point LTN and STN were operating simultaneously. So what’s my point here? Well, during this period when FR were clearing up all demand and monopolising not only routes, but access to whole regions, no other airline had a sniff. Then the financial crash occurred, and the rest, as they say, is history.

LM were doing a reasonable job of rebuilding connectivity and then C19 came along. Going forward Derry airport needs to look south for financial and other support. A lot of pax who use LDY originate in Donegal. Largely, that makes the A6 argument redundant for these people as for some NOC will be closer than BFS or BHD.

Yeah I'm with you here. The A6 is barely a threat in my eyes. The biggest risk will be the failure to push on from here to engage the Irish Government into providing a PSO amongst other forms of support much like Knock etc. Domestically, there is an opportunity with an increasingly saturated market on the horizon with the prospect of some form of Flybe coming back into the frame and whatever Ettyl will make for themselves. When the industry is suppressed now for the remainder of this year and potentially into next is the time to push on in my eyes and get something new on offer. A stumbling block is the already fully committed based ER4, this providing no feasible ways to work anything else into the schedule in the short run.

Solar

Yeah there has been multiple instances, particularly with GLA's time that I just can't use it as much as I'd like. I've always said all along a good workable schedule goes a long way in making or breaking an operation such as the one we have.

New charters to FAO and PMI announced for summer 2022. Wednesday for both flights.

With which operator? Air2000 used to do LDY I think in the day.

This article wasn’t available when I posted yesterday, but some of the details are in here:

https://www.derryjournal.com/news/tr...r-2022-3349569

I’ve read elsewhere it’s Albastar on a W pattern: PMI-LDY-FAO-LDY-PMI.

Excellent news and well done CODA

Well, well, well. Ryanair return to Derry in December, with a 3X weekly route to Manchester. Currently operating on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays

I thought Ryanair had had enough of APD, lack of Covid recovery incentives etc etc etc in NI in general. Isn't that the stated reasons for leaving both Belfast airports now? A business with no morals of any kind.

Full of fresh country air that airline. They are no doubt still sniffing around the other two trying to get " route development incentives"

And now LM add Edinburgh. Starts May 2022. No doubt they’re availing of support funding from Stormont. This appears to be as well as, rather than instead of, Glasgow.

The NIDAKS schedule finished at the end of the month as far as I’m aware, if not next.

Im cautiously hopeful this doesn’t have any significant funding mechanism behind the route itself.

Good news regardless!

Manchester flights started yesterday.

https://www.derryjournal.com/news/tr...es-off-3478704

From good news yesterday to this news today. "City of Derry Airport may be at 'severe financial risk'"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-59502259

Just give the money to Airporter and provide free service to BFS , BHD or DUB

Anyone have any figures on how the loads are doing for the new Ryanair Manchester flight?

MAN-LDY increasing to 4x weekly from 2nd May. Additional flight on a Monday evening.
Dep MAN 19:45, depart LDY at 21:15.