[finchkerry]

Sorry if this was already mentioned but I stumbled across the below link in the last day. It basically says the minister thinks Knock could overtake Shannon in passengers numbers at some point. I must admit I was somewhat surprised to read this, I knew Knock is on an upwards curve, which I'm delighted about, but not to this extend. I know Ryanair are doing a few new routes out of there with another new flight to Germany too...

The lines I found most interesting were "There is a possibility that Knock could overtake Shannon in terms of passenger numbers, with Shannon down 20% in figures and Knock on the increase"

http://www.limerickpost.ie/index.php...mpetition.html

Do people think over the next year more new routes from Knock will be announced? The London route although well served already is a easy bet for high passenger numbers....

[Neworder79]

In terms of routes they are fairly close with about 28 destinations served from Ireland West and 32 from Shannon. It's hard to see how Knock could double the 700,000 passengers with almost all the popular UK and European routes now covered, unless they add major hub traffic and US connections.

http://www.irelandwestairport.com/fl...route_map.aspx

The minister was just projecting out the current trend of decline which is seeking SNN down over 20% each year while Ireland West grows by over 10% annually. Add to that a possible withdrawal of US troops which account for 250,000 at Shannon, and Ryanair stating they will double routes from Ireland West, it is possible.

However it's unlikely as Shannon have restored routes, and while numbers may continue to fall it should settle around 1.4 - 1.5m. Varadkar was probably just softening up the bolchy Shannon lobby for the changes coming down the line.

[munchkin_utd]

if you look at the flight options for Germany from Knock theres room for improvement.
Lufthansa only flies once a week from Düsseldorf. Its the heart of the Rühr Rhein area (which has a population of 18million in a tiny area, population density is higher than Holland even!).
Ryanair flies a couple of times a week from Hahn, which is as near to Luxembourg as anywhere major in Germany.

And dont forget, theres a whole swathe of northern, southern and western germany which has no direct flight to the west of Ireland at all yet. And the fights there are to germany are low frequency. A couple of 100 seats a week for a population 5 times that of Ireland.
Plenty of expansion room there for frequencies and new destinations like to south germany where the likes of Memmingen is only a short drive to Zurich so you are opening up the west of Ireland to swiss travellers too

Not to mention theres no flights to the Benelux area either which is another option for expansion.
Not to mention theres nothing at all to Poland, which with the amount of immigrants in Ireland from there you could surely justify a service.
And a connection to the baltic states could also be a runner.

so anyhow, theres plenty of room for expansion there if you ask me.

[Zonda999]

Yeah, i was surprised to see the Dusseldorf to Knock is being operated with a CRJ900, I thought they'd at least be able to fill a 773 or something

[Neworder79]

theres plenty of room for expansion there if you ask me.

What I meant is most of the low hanging fruit has been "picked", the lucrative sun routes and UK cities where there is big demand. Heathrow hub connection and Boston/JFK would do very well with the right carriers. But the new european routes have yet to prove their viability, and are mainly aimed at inbound tourism given our small population and economic situation.

Yes there are many more key destinations which could be served, like Zurich, Munich, Rome, South & West France, Amsterdam, Madrid, Poland, Greek islands, Malta, Grenoble or Salzburg for Ski etc. But that does not mean there's currently enough demand to make them viable. Maintaining and growing frequency the current connections is more important than chasing more peripheral routes IMO.

Yeah, i was surprised to see the Dusseldorf to Knock is being operated with a CRJ900, I thought they'd at least be able to fill a 773 or something

Deutsche BA and KLM operated 737 and 146 charters back in 2000, but starting with a smaller aircraft makes the route more sustainable until demand grows, hopefully see more services from LH.

[highlydebased]

Originally Posted by Zonda999

Yeah, i was surprised to see the Dusseldorf to Knock is being operated with a CRJ900, I thought they'd at least be able to fill a 773 or something

[Zonda999]

Originally Posted by highlydebased

Oops, maybe I meant a 733!

[mayotom]

I think shannon would be in serious trouble if it lost its US military business. Knock is a well run efficient airport where the future is bright

[mayomaffia]

Originally Posted by finchkerry

Sorry if this was already mentioned but I stumbled across the below link in the last day. It basically says the minister thinks Knock could overtake Shannon in passengers numbers at some point. I must admit I was somewhat surprised to read this, I knew Knock is on an upwards curve, which I'm delighted about, but not to this extend. I know Ryanair are doing a few new routes out of there with another new flight to Germany too...

The lines I found most interesting were "There is a possibility that Knock could overtake Shannon in terms of passenger numbers, with Shannon down 20% in figures and Knock on the increase"

http://www.limerickpost.ie/index.php...mpetition.html

Do people think over the next year more new routes from Knock will be announced? The London route although well served already is a easy bet for high passenger numbers....

Ryanair have said that they will double there routes from Knock over the next 3 years. Its probably an early morning slot to Heathrow that would be most useful to the western region, Hopefully Aer Lingus will switch one of them from SHannon.

Also they used to Fly to Boston and New York before FlyGlobeSpan went bust.

[mayomaffia]

Originally Posted by munchkin_utd

.
Not to mention theres nothing at all to Poland, which with the amount of immigrants in Ireland from there you could surely justify a service.
And a connection to the baltic states could also be a runner.

It would make sense considering there was 1K Polish in Castlebar alone at the height of the boom,lots of them gone now but im sure there would be 50K in Knocks Catchment area (Galway to Donegal and as far east as Westmeath with Athlone less than 100Km, Longfod & Galway 80Km, Sligo 50Km and Enniskillen 120KM). Any Polish i work with fly Knock to London and then get there polish connections from there. Its working out much cheaper than going to Dublin. So i would be surprised if O'Leary doesn't tap into that market.

[byebye]

Originally Posted by mayomaffia

It would make sense considering there was 1K Polish in Castlebar alone at the height of the boom,lots of them gone now but im sure there would be 50K in Knocks Catchment area (Galway to Donegal and as far east as Westmeath with Athlone less than 100Km, Longfod & Galway 80Km, Sligo 50Km and Enniskillen 120KM). Any Polish i work with fly Knock to London and then get there polish connections from there. Its working out much cheaper than going to Dublin. So i would be surprised if O'Leary doesn't tap into that market.

Have you a link for that? the 2011 census shows 122k polish living in ireland and in decline, i find it hard to believe almost 50% of them live in the NOC area.

If and If only shannon is ran better it could be very bad news for knock with galway only an hour away with motorway 75% of the way it would be just as handy for galyway city to use shannon. But this all would depend on shannon devloping new routes.

[mayomaffia]

Originally Posted by byebye

Have you a link for that? the 2011 census shows 122k polish living in ireland and in decline, i find it hard to believe almost 50% of them live in the NOC area.

None at all, was expecting alot more than 122K for the whole country.

[finchkerry]

Originally Posted by byebye

If and If only shannon is ran better it could be very bad news for knock with galway only an hour away with motorway 75% of the way it would be just as handy for galyway city to use shannon. But this all would depend on shannon devloping new routes.

Maybe not the above poster but there does seem to be a lot of begrudgers towards Knock airport.

Look, I realise people feel that maybe the airport is not that important due to the small population surrounding the airport however if it can stand on its own two feet, which it appears to be doing, than great, isn't that brilliant in today's economy.

I feel people should get behind the airport and any proposed new routes. I'm not from that neck of the woods but have family near there and it appears to offer the west a good service. One aspect that knock and mayo/Sligo council need to improve the infrastructure around the airport, roads to knock are chronic!

[byebye]

Originally Posted by finchkerry

Maybe not the above poster but there does seem to be a lot of begrudgers towards Knock airport.

Look, I realise people feel that maybe the airport is not that important due to the small population surrounding the airport however if it can stand on its own two feet, which it appears to be doing, than great, isn't that brilliant in today's economy.

I feel people should get behind the airport and any proposed new routes. I'm not from that neck of the woods but have family near there and it appears to offer the west a good service. One aspect that knock and mayo/Sligo council need to improve the infrastructure around the airport, roads to knock are chronic!

I have no ties to either airport and have used both! you could say by reading the threads there is shannon bashing also but i think people should get behind local airports as much as they can! keep jobs in the local area and lets be honest every corner of ireland need that at the moment.

in my last post i was just pointing out that if shannon is ran better it is going to be a danger to knock. I would hate to see any airport in this county in trouble or closing, As it stand i think there is a future for shannon and knock but what that is time will tell.

As for infrastructure around knock it could be much better and to be honest i'm suprised it never was improved in the boom times.

[Kristopherus]

Whats this about the infrastructure around Knock? A whopping new road that bypasses Charlestown, and then links to the Sligo-Galway road to get you to the Airport. There will never be a dual-carriageway or a rail link to there, but the roads are anything but bad