[Article] Aer Arann expansion

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/600728?view=Eircomnet

Aer Arann launches Sligo-to-Dublin service
From:ireland.com
Tuesday, 22nd April, 2003

The service between Sligo and Dublin was officially reopened this morning, nine months after the Euroceltic Airways decided to cancel the route.

Aer Arann, which will operate the new route, expects to carry 25,00 passengers this year, with fares ranging between €69 and €80 for monthly and day returns.

Speaking at the launch this morning, the Minister for Transport, Mr Séamus Brennan, said the new contract will run until next year and would give the Government the time to establish a more permanent arrangement for the North West

Minister Brennnan said he was "particularly glad to welcome Aer Arann Express" as the official carrier on the route and that its resumption would stimulate business and tourism industries in the West.

embraer170

The service between Sligo and Dublin was officially reopened this morning, nine months after the Euroceltic Airways decided to cancel the route.

Actually Euroceltic went bankrupt so had no choice really.

And now for some figures about how much the government is paying for the regional air services:

Galway / 112 Euro per passenger
Kerry / 114 Euro per passenger
Sligo / 174 Euro per passenger
Donegal / 350 Euro per passenger
Knock / 560 Euro per passenger


The Sligo and Donegal figures are now even higher than those mentioned above. Those were Euroceltic figures but I guess it is safe to bet that the government are paying Aer Arann more.

I live in Kerry and know the service is appreciated but those figures really make you think.

Jer

Victor

Where can you get those figures?

embraer170

The above figures were from a local newspaper about 9 months ago but you can calculate it yourself based on the figures available here:

http://www.irlgov.ie/tec/press02/June192002.htm

Jeremiah

sligoliner

>Aer Arann, which will operate the new route, expects to carry >25,00 passengers this year, with fares ranging between €69 >and €80 for monthly and day returns.



Well hardly surprising when you are part of the most heavily subsuidies transport industry in the country. The tax payer pays an average subsidy of €200 per passenger (yes, per passenger) to keep these silly regional airports alfoat.

They don't pay tax on fuel either. Wins election down the bog, makes people believe that the next US multi-national needs it when in reality they are more for the benefit of government ministers than anybody else. It's the train or the bus for the rest of us.

Remember Mary Hearny and "her husband" taking a helicopter (a coast guard one at that - good thing there were no ship wreck that night) and two limos to open an offie in Leitrim?

Victor

Originally posted by sligoliner
Remember Mary Hearny and "her husband" taking a helicopter (a coast guard one at that - good thing there were no ship wreck that night) and two limos to open an offie in Leitrim?

Actually it was an Aer Corp patrol plane like this one

sligoliner

Are you sure! That's even more amazing. How did they land that yoke in Manorhamilton?

remember when she got caught she said she was providing an imporant community service. Remeber the real classy picture of her and hubby in front of the freezer cases of Budweiser and Bulmers. Great to know that making drink driving easier in rural Ireland is providing an important service. What does she car she was flying high about the roads.

The PDs you gotta love em, the party that stands for nothing except re-election.

Victor

Originally posted by sligoliner
Are you sure! That's even more amazing. How did they land that yoke in Manorhamilton?

No they sent the driver up to Sligo. She flew to Sligo, was driven to MH and back and then flew back to "work" (late on a Friday night, just back from honeymoon :rolleyes:)

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/1708669?view=Eircomnet

Aer Arann introduces online booking system
From:ireland.com
Monday, 20th October, 2003

Aer Arann introduced an online booking and check-in system today as part of an €8 million investment.

The airline said the new system would allow it to use ticketless travel and each way pricing for customers.

Bookings for the airline's 16 destinations can now be made online at www.aerarann.com.

Floater

Originally posted by Victor
Aer Arann introduced an online booking and check-in system today as part of an €8 million investment

All they now need is a few decent JET AIRCRAFT!

Floater

BuffyBot

Originally posted by Floater
All they now need is a few decent JET AIRCRAFT!

Floater

Actually there is nothing wrong with the planes they have - perfectly servicable for the routes they are used on. however, they could use larger capacity models on the few times I've travelled with them as the demand certainly seemed to be there

Victor

Originally posted by Floater
All they now need is a few decent JET AIRCRAFT!

Which need longer runways and cost more.

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/2040780?view=Eircomnet

Aer Arann launches Galway-Edinburgh service
From:ireland.com
Thursday, 27th November, 2003

Aer Arann has announced plans to establish a new air link between Galway and Edinburgh from December 19th.

The new service will run once a day, five days a week, with fares from 129 euro return including tax. It represents the third British service which the company is providing from Galway airport.

Initially the company had planned to operate a Galway Glasgow Prestwick service but opted for Edinburgh because it was "a more popular short break destination", Aer Arann's commercial manager, Ms Jennifer Mooney said.

Aer Arann currently operates over 90 flights per week in and out of Galway airport on three routes including Galway to Dublin, Luton and Manchester. It will carry just under 115,000 passengers through Galway Aiport this year.

an_taoiseach

Wonder if they get an EU subsidy to run this..............

( IIRC a number of their existing services get EU grants )


An T

Victor

Originally posted by an_taoiseach
IIRC a number of their existing services get EU grants

Many of their Dublin - Regional airport services do get EU-approved government grants, but I don't think international services come under that scheme.

dmeehan

isnt it PSO PUblic Service Obligation or somet like that?

fair play to them, they are expanding rapidly out of cork and now galway too

Victor

Originally posted by dmeehan
isnt it PSO PUblic Service Obligation or somet like that?

Not quite. It is a public service subsidy, i.e. it is to encourage transport option and development in the regions. A PSO would be where you imposed that responsibility unrewarded on a monopoly / dominant player - e.g. An Post in the postal market.

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/2529840?view=Eircomnet

Airline flies high with Belfast route
From:The Irish Independent
Friday, 13th February, 2004
Frank Khan

AER Arann has announced a new Cork-to-Belfast service with two flights a day in each direction from the beginning of next month.

Announcing the route, the company said it expects to carry over 20,000 passengers between the cities by the end of the year.

The service will be the airline's sixth route from Cork which is now a major hub for company.

Welcoming the Aer Arann decision, Aer Rianta-Cork Airport spokesman John Smyth said the company had, in the past three years, greatly expanded its operations from the southern airport.

Victor

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2004/03/01/story136482.html

Aer Arann's Cork-Belfast service takes off
01/03/2004 - 12:22:00 pm

Aer Arann today commenced its new daily service from Cork to Belfast City Airport, which it estimates will carry around 24,000 passengers between the two cities by the end of 2004.

The service will operate Monday to Friday, providing two return flights each day with flights to depart Cork Airport at 8.40am and 2.30pm. The return flights from Belfast City Airport will depart at 10.25am and 4.10pm.

Fares for the 1hr 10 minute flight start from €29.99, and the service will be operated on an ATR42 48 seater aircraft.

Brian Ambrose, CEO of Belfast City Airport commented: "There is considerable demand for a Belfast-Cork service from the local business community and we look forward to working with the airline to promote and grow this service."

Victor

http://www.thepost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-829882568-pageUrl--2FThe-Newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FNews.asp

O'Leary lashes Aer Arann over state funding
11/04/04 00:00
By Eamon Quinn, Business Editor

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has accused Aer Arann of using €18.2 million in state funding to help fund new routes to Britain.

Aer Arann receives exchequer aid to fund five regional air routes to Dublin. The routes could not survive without the subsidies. Two of the routes, Sligo and Donegal, where the tenders are due for renewal in the coming weeks, were worth a combined €4.8 million a year in aid to Aer Arann.

A consultant's report for the Department of Transport published last month revealed that the cost to the exchequer of the subsidised air routes had soared. It referred to the "striking'' example of Knock, where the state is paying €557 for each passenger making a return journey to Dublin.

Aer Arann also flies 15 routes to Britain from Irish provincial airports.

``If Aer Arann wants to subsidise people to Knock, that's okay,'' said O'Leary. ``But Aer Arann is using the PSO [Public Service Obligation] subsidies to fund the launch of its routes from Ireland to Britain.'' The Ryanair boss added that he would not allow the Department of Transport to "run through'' the PSO air routes ``like they did last year''. ``Aer Arann has all of that money,'' he said. ``On a journey like Dublin-Knock, there is subsidy. There is no traffic on it.''

A spokeswoman for Aer Arann said the airline did not cross-subsidise route launches into Britain from the PSO funds. ``The whole reasoning behind the PSO is that it is subsidised by the Department of Transport because the routes are not economically viable on their own,'' she said.

``Basically, we operate other routes on a fully commercial basis. We have tendered for PSO routes - and they were tendered on a Europe-wide basis. All airlines in Europe had the opportunity to come forward and tender for those contracts. We provided the lowest price to operate those routes and we were successful in winning them."

The state subvention for each one-way ticket to or from Knock has risen to €278 from €233 in recent years, according to consultants. The exchequer also pays €54 towards the cost of each Kerry trip, €101 on the Sligo route and €110 on the Donegal-Dublin route.

Last week, Ryan air-wrapped up a deal with Charleroi airport in Belgium, under which it will pay no more in landing fees than it is paying at present. The European Commission had ruled that the airline received illegal state-funding from the airport's regional government owners and ordered Ryanair to repay the fees.

http://www.thepost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-744325702-pageUrl--2FThe-Newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FNews.asp

Aer Arann reviewing Dublin base
18/04/04 00:00
By Niamh Connolly

Aer Arann is reviewing its company base at Dublin Airport because of Aer Rianta's high rents for office space.

A number of regional airports, including Galway Airport, have offered cheaper rates for the company's headquarters, according to Aer Arann chief executive Padraig O' Ceidigh, although he stressed that the company had not definitely decided to move.

The airline is to establish a crew base in Galway at the start of May, creating 20 new jobs, and is moving 18 cabin crew and pilots from Dublin on a voluntary basis. This would bring total staff at Galway Airport to 40. The airline has 35 staff in Cork and 280 in Dublin.

Aer Arann now has four routes from Galway - to Dublin, Luton, Edinburgh and Manchester - with a fifth route to Birmingham beginning on May 3.

"The number of services we now have out of Galway - four British services amounting to 95 flights a week - would justify us having crew based in Galway," said commercial manager Jennifer Mooney.

"We're actually overnighting crew in rented accommodation in Galway. We have staff that are from Galway and we are offering them the opportunity to move back."

A recent consultant's report by DKM criticised the level of government subsidies to Aer Arann for its public service obligation (PSO) routes. The report identified the cost of overnight accommodation for cabin crew as the most expensive aspect of the service.

State subsidies for flights from Knock came to €557 per passenger for a return flight - five times more than Kerry and Galway.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has accused Aer Arann of using €18.2 million in subsidies to help fund new routes to Britain, but Aer Arann said it did not cross subidise routes to Britain from PSO payments.

The airline will launch a service from Kerry to Manchester and from Donegal to Glasgow Prestwick on May 3, as well as a Waterford to Manchester service next month. The airline took over Jetmagic's Cork-Belfast route last Monday. O'Ceidigh expects the additional routes to attract 30,000 passengers.

logonmar

Victor seems to be obsesses with starting threads by posting news extracts from the Eircom site.
Unless he has an actual opinion it tells us nothing other than he reads the news on the Eircom site and I for one am totally bored with all these cut and paste entries being used to set up a thread.

Slice

To be honest it seems bizzare that subsidies are provided to some regional airports. Why taxpayers should be paying over 100 euro on the cost of each passenger's journey for cetain routes is a waste. Surely that money can be spent on improved bus routes and better roads or railways.

Aer Arann is a great success but why anyone would want to fly to some regional airports such as Knock or Donegal are beyond me when Galway and Derry are the two main urban areas in both regions. Why should a church have an international airport and Galway go without.

Occidental

First off, Galway does have an international airport, with daily flights to Luton, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Birmingham. What Galway airport doesn't have is a long enough runway to accomodate larger aircraft. The current site at Carnmore is unsuitable for major expansion. Other sites have been identified, but local politics has so far ruined any chance Galway has of building a new airport.

Knock has an airport with a large runway, because locals and the church got together and got off their arse and built it. It may be underused (although improving), but for longer distances and larger aircraft, it's still a damn sight easier to get to for people in the North West, than Dublin, Shannon or Belfast.

dmeehan

Originally posted by logonmar
Victor seems to be obsesses with starting threads by posting news extracts from the Eircom site.
Unless he has an actual opinion it tells us nothing other than he reads the news on the Eircom site and I for one am totally bored with all these cut and paste entries being used to set up a thread.

i think it is quite a handy "service", saves me trawling through stories that i dont want to read:D

Victor

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2004/05/13/story147387.html

New Knock-Liverpool service from Aer Arann
13/05/2004 - 12:23:33

Aer Arann is to introduce a new service from Knock airport to Liverpool on weekdays from Monday, June 21.

Passengers will depart at 7pm and arrive at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport at 8.10pm with the return flight departing at 8.35pm to arrive in Knock at 9.50pm.

Fares start from €39.99 one way including tax and the flight will be operated by a 48-seater ATR42 aircraft.

Commenting on the announcement, Padraig O’Ceidigh, Managing Director, Aer Arann said:"Aer Arann has enjoyed huge growth from Galway Airport in the past 12 months and we have been looking at opportunities for expansion from Knock International Airport for some time now."

Liam Scollan, Chief Executive, Knock International Airport said: "We look forward to working with our colleagues in Aer Arann to make this route a success. Knock International Airport has enjoyed tremendous growth in passenger numbers in the last year and we have no doubt that today’s announcement will contribute to further growth in 2004."

This is one of seven new services to be introduced by Aer Arann for summer 2004 including Galway Birmingham, Derry Manchester and Birmingham, Waterford and Kerry to Manchester and Donegal to Glasgow Prestwick.

The airline also operates a daily service from Knock to Dublin.

Zoton

I myself appreciate the airport in donegal. A 45 minute flight versus a 6 hour bus journey, hmmmm..... And thats a private bus too, No national bus service beyond the very edge of donegal, No trains to the county at all.

ishmael whale

Let me say I can appreciate that perceptions vary greatly depending on the point of the observer, but it seems a little puzzling to refer to Letterkenny as ‘the very edge of Donegal’.

According to their website, the Bus Eireann Dublin to Letterkenny service (which they advertise as taking four hours) costs €15 single or €24 return. However, a Donegal to Dublin air journey is subsidised to the tune of €100 single or €200 return, on top of the token fare of €30 for a single ticket (fare according to the Aer Arann website).

If you had to pay full whack, which option would you pick?

dmeehan

If you had to pay full whack, which option would you pick?

isnt that the whole point of the PSO (or whatever its called) scheme?

Zoton

Originally posted by ishmael whale
Let me say I can appreciate that perceptions vary greatly depending on the point of the observer, but it seems a little puzzling to refer to Letterkenny as ‘the very edge of Donegal’.

It is on the edge of the county. There is no bus eireann service to the rest of the county apart from the ones along the edge.

ishmael whale

Originally posted by Zoton
It is on the edge of the county. There is no bus eireann service to the rest of the county apart from the ones along the edge.

As I said, it all depends on the point of the observer. Your initial comment suggested to me that the Bus Eireann dumped you on the county border. So long as we are clear there is a service to the main county town and a number of others I'm happy.

I don't mean to push you, but I take it you accept that the subsidy plays a large role in your decision to travel by air. I mean the subsidy ensures that the cost to you is not so very much higher than Bus Eireann, so you'd be mad not to take it.

Originally posted by dmeehan
isnt that the whole point of the PSO (or whatever its called) scheme?

What, to combust large sums of public money for no apparent reason? Maybe, but I have more sympathy for this recent review of the “Essential Air Services Programme”
(EASP). (I like that gratuitous use of the word ‘essential’, as if it was possible to head off scrutiny with a label.)

http://www.transport.ie/upload/general/4803-0.pdf

“For every €1 in fare paid by the passenger, the Exchequer pays (in round numbers) amounts ranging from €1 up to €5 in subvention, depending on the route, with the largest subvention currently applying on the Knock route. These are rates of per-passenger subvention far higher than those available on other public transport modes. The total subvention to these air services, which carried 260,000 passengers in 2002, is now close to the total subvention of the entire Bus Éireann system, which carried approximately 46 million in the same year. Expressway, the long-distance bus network which competes with rail and air on the main inter-urban routes, carried 7.5 million passengers in 2002 without any subvention.
……………..We have been unable to locate any studies which establish, for the EASP as a whole or for any individual route, that benefits exceed costs. Specifically, it is clear from the discussion in Section 3 that time saved by users cannot contribute a substantial portion towards costs. The benefits to tourism or to regional development have been stressed to us in interviews and submissions. However no quantification of these benefits has been offered.”

John R

Originally posted by logonmar
Victor seems to be obsesses with starting threads by posting news extracts from the Eircom site.
Unless he has an actual opinion it tells us nothing other than he reads the news on the Eircom site and I for one am totally bored with all these cut and paste entries being used to set up a thread.

If you are bored then piss off and go elsewhere, or put some effort in yourself and start discussions.

Victor must put a good deal of time into digging up and posting all these articles. I have neither the time or inclination to go reading the news sites every day so if it were not for Victor's posts I would regularly miss lots of articles that would be of interest to me.

John R

Originally posted by Zoton
It is on the edge of the county. There is no bus eireann service to the rest of the county apart from the ones along the edge.

Incorrect.

Bus Eireann operate services to the following towns in Donegal:
Ballyshannon, Ballybofey, Bundoran, Donegal, Letterkenny, Lifford, Stranorlar, Killybegs, Glencolumbcille, Ardara, Glenties and many places in between

Bus services in north Donegal are and always have been operated by Lough Swilly, CIE have never operated to these areas for historical reasons.

Lough Swilly operate to:
Burtonport, Dubgloe, Gweedore, Bunbeg, Gortahork, Dunfanaghy, Rathmullen, Milford, Portsalon, Buncrana, Malin, Carndonagh and Moville from Letterkenny and Derry.