Strandhill Airport and Public Service Obligation

dingding

Just saw on the news that they are removing the public service obligation for all regional airports except Donegal and Kerry from July.

Probably the end of Aer Arann flights to Sligo airport.

sligopark

dingding wrote: »

Just saw on the news that they are removing the public service obligation for all regional airports except Donegal and Kerry from July.

Probably the end of Aer Arann flights to Sligo airport.

No thanks to Jimmy Devins and Eamon Scanlon - its well seen the Bull O'Donoghue and Foul Mouth Mary put their foot down ...

dingding

The report also said we don't need it because of the improvements in the road and rail infrastructure over the past number of years.

bobcar61

To be honest it's not going to be a great loss. The trains have been upgraded and are a lot more comfortable than what they were. Yes you are on the train for longer than you are in the air but the train times are a lot more convenient than flying.
Another point is that it's cheaper and bring you closer to the city centre.

You can turn up at the train station 5 minutes before the train is going to depart and be in Dublin City centre 3 1/2 hours later, whereas you have to get to Strandhill around 40 minutes before the flight leaves, 45 minutes in the air, walk through Dublin airport and by the time you get into the City you would almost have been as quick getting the train.

I think this is why the train transports a lot more people than the plane, and it's usually cheaper.

I'm not one bit surprised the PSO has not been kept on, in fact I'm surprised it has lasted so long. Very unlikely that Aer Arann will keep the 2 daily flights to Dublin.

Son Of A Vidic

dingding wrote: »

The report also said we don't need it because of the improvements in the road and rail infrastructure over the past number of years.

I was so pleased they completed the Dublin-Sligo motorway and the Galway-Sligo-Derry motorway before the money ran out.....Oh wait, they didn't.

bobcar61

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

I was so pleased they completed the Dublin-Sligo motorway and the Galway-Sligo-Derry motorway before the money ran out.....Oh wait, they didn't.

I thought it was meant to be a Waterford-Cork-Limerick-Galway-Sligo-Derry motorway.

The Sligo - Dublin road is considerably better than what it was 10 years ago or less though, you do have to admit that!

saywhatyousee

bobcar61 wrote: »

I thought it was meant to be a Waterford-Cork-Limerick-Galway-Sligo-Derry motorway.

The Sligo - Dublin road is considerably better than what it was 10 years ago or less though, you do have to admit that!

i agree except from the short section from collooney to castlebaldwin the n4 is a good road

Cool Running

I think it will be a loss

I see what bobcar is saying about going to Dublin City and the time you have to spend before in the airport etc bit if you're heading to Dublin airport from Sligo or the other way around it cant be bet.

If you book well in advance it works out about 30euro and this is nearly the same as some of the train fares. When you get to the airport all you have to do is get your bag and go to another part of the airport to get your next flight. It's just so handy. Way easier than getting the train up with bags then paying around 15euro from Connolly station in a taxi or 6euro on the airport bus to get to the airport so it actually works out pretty good.

I presume the flights will end as I don't know will they survive without subsidies.

Basq

bobcar61 wrote: »

To be honest it's not going to be a great loss. The trains have been upgraded and are a lot more comfortable than what they were. Yes you are on the train for longer than you are in the air but the train times are a lot more convenient than flying.
Another point is that it's cheaper and bring you closer to the city centre.

You can turn up at the train station 5 minutes before the train is going to depart and be in Dublin City centre 3 1/2 hours later, whereas you have to get to Strandhill around 40 minutes before the flight leaves, 45 minutes in the air, walk through Dublin airport and by the time you get into the City you would almost have been as quick getting the train.

Couple of points here bobcar as someone who has taken probably 10 - 15 flights from Strandhill over the last 18 months..

a) Firstly, train tickets are cheaper? I've gotten return flights on numerous occassions for less than €40. A Day Return Ticket is up on €44 for the train. And Irish Rail can feck off with their €10 tickets - spaced few and far between.
b) The train service can be the most unreliable service out there - the last two times I've had to collect friends and family from the train - the train was 40 minutes and an hour late respectively. Once the flight leaves from Strandhill, you'll be on time (and believe me, it rarely leaves late - maybe 10 minutes, and it makes that up in the air)..
c) Aer Arann state to be there 45 minutes before the flight leaves.. realistically, you're safe to be there between the 20 and 30 minute mark between a flight leaves.
d) Yes, Connolly Station leaves you closer to the city centre but what if you're flying out of Dublin Airport. It's another €7.50 per person to get to the Airport from Busarus. Never mind the hassle of getting big suitcases up on that train.

It's gonna be an absolutely huge loss to be honest.

Ned Green

Another glorious day for the three muppets who represent Us in the Dail.I expect as a follow up they will now stand idly by as the government next withdraw the Search and Rescue Service from the Airport.

Neworder79

Firstly, train tickets are cheaper? I've gotten return flights on numerous occassions for less than €40. A Day Return Ticket is up on €44 for the train.

The reason the flight is cheaper is because the low demand for air route means they taxpayer subvents your Aer Arran ticket by €90 per journey each way. 17m spent on PSO to Donegal & Sligo alone in 5 years on top of operating costs.

b) The train service can be the most unreliable service out here

Not sure that's true, Sligo no has 8 services a day. I travelled by train for work a lot in the last few years and never had a major delay. However Aer Arann have had multiple flights delayed and they have been canceling left, right and centre for the last 3 months.

Yes, Connolly Station leaves you closer to the city centre but what if you're flying out of Dublin Airport. It's another €7.50 per person to get to the Airport from Busarus.

It's now 2.5 hours to Dublin by road, and Bus Eireann run express Sligo Dublin airport services, so there are other options.

It's gonna be an absolutely huge loss to be honest.

If you read the report it basically says there is no business or tourism case for Sligo. Only 1.7% of tourists into Sligo and 0.6% into the NW used Sligo Airport. Ireland West Airport is 40 mins away and has 25 routes and 8 buses a day to Sligo.

Yes it was handy, but hard to justify the current level of subsidy on flying when hospital wards are closing. Overall numbers are dropping, the cost base very high for one route and there is virtually no scope for expansion in terms of airlines interested or the physical and planning limitations of the location (which even the local community don't support given the huge numbers objecting to 3 plans).

Mint Sauce

It will be a definate loss if its gone. In fairness I have only used it for two or three return journeys, but every time its been nearly full barr two or three seats, and on each ocassion only had to turn up 20 to 30 minutes before on the sligo side.

Compare it do getting the train down, no garantee that you will get there on time, and then the hassel of dragging your bag on and off and to and from buses to get out to the airport.

What I would be interested in is seeing a survey for reasons for a passengers journey on the plane service, ie onward flight, business/pleasure in dublin, commute, etc.

Neworder79 wrote: »

It's now 2.5 hours to Dublin by road, and Bus Eireann run express Sligo Dublin airport services, so there are other options.

The only bus eireann service that goes to dublin airport from sligo is the 2am bus, getting you to the airport for 5am, all the others bypass and carry on to the city centre.

Same for the return leg, only the last return of the day serves the airport, leaving the airport for sligo just before 10pm.

Neworder79

What I would be interested in is seeing a survey for reasons for a passengers journey on the plane service, ie onward flight, business/pleasure in dublin, commute, etc.

Yes for connections it was useful, but with regional airports accounting for only 5% of national traffic, and Sligo less than 1.6% of regional, it's a very high cost to facilitate very few and the money could benefit a lot more people if focused on better bus, road and rail to other cities.

Lots of data on numbers, cost, value in the report:

http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=12921&lang=ENG&loc=432

munchkin_utd

Neworder79 wrote: »

Yes for connections it was useful, but with regional airports accounting for only 5% of national traffic, and Sligo less than 1.6% of regional, it's a very high cost to facilitate very few and the money could benefit a lot more people if focused on better bus, road and rail to other cities.

Lots of data on numbers, cost, value in the report:

http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=12921&lang=ENG&loc=432

NINTY euros per person EACH WAY in subsidies.
So ONE HUNDRED and EIGHTY (€180) euros subsidy on a return journey to sligo.

AND,
in parallel to this flight theres:
- a perfectly good road to Dublin, bottlenecks in Kinnegad/ Enfield etc now gone
- AND a rail connection that has gone from 3 * 3rd world trains per day to 8 modern trains, WITH a connection to get you to Dublin before 9 and a final train leaving Dublin after 7 in the evening.

Sligo has NEVER been so well connected with the capital.

WHY does is need a flight connection with subsidies of 180 euro per return trip?

Note: the train connection is also not self sufficient. Should the choice arise, should the rail transport subsidies instead be given to the airport rather than the train?
Shut the rail line maybe to save the super all important air connection, that 1% of tourists to sligo use?

dingding

Used to use it all the time with work but I got fleeced for excess baggage a couple of years ago and only used it a couple of times since.

at 180 round trip they probably lost 4K in revenue.

Son Of A Vidic

bobcar61 wrote: »

I thought it was meant to be a Waterford-Cork-Limerick-Galway-Sligo-Derry motorway.

I left out the Galway-Limerick-Cork section in my earlier post, because an attempt has been made at developing a motorway network between them. Unlike the Galway-Sligo-Derry section of the 'corridor'.

bobcar61 wrote: »

The Sligo - Dublin road is considerably better than what it was 10 years ago or less though, you do have to admit that!

Better perhaps but woeful short of the standard it should be at.

Basq

dingding wrote: »

Used to use it all the time with work but I got fleeced for excess baggage a couple of years ago and only used it a couple of times since.

Were you flying elsewhere after that flight?

Went to Orlando in 2008 when Aer Arann had their baggage limit of 15kg (I think) so had to take the train - absolute disaster with baggage etc - but later that year or early 2009, they matched the baggage allowance of the flight you were taking if taking a connecting flight.

Very handy!

TequilaMockingBird

A lot of us will miss the service, but I doubt many could argue the money would be better served elsewhere.

I'd rather a few more hospital beds tbh.

dingding

basquille wrote: »

Were you flying elsewhere after that flight?

Went to Orlando in 2008 when Aer Arann had their baggage limit of 15kg (I think) so had to take the train - absolute disaster with baggage etc - but later that year or early 2009, they matched the baggage allowance of the flight you were taking if taking a connecting flight.

Very handy!

Yes I used that offer since. What happened was they allowed me to bring my hand baggage in the plane in Sligo even though it was larger that their miserable baggage size.

When I was in Dublin they made me put the hand baggage, there was 2 of us, into the hold. this caused the hold baggage to be over weight as well as an extra bag.

In the end they charged us 150 euro, essentially because they have a smaller dimension hand baggage allowance.

Their hand baggage allowance is useless you will be hard to get a bag to fit it.

I would have traveled with them loads of times just carrying a A4 folio and took the opportunity to screw me.

If they had any sort of a CRM system they would have seen how good a customer I was (and cut me some slack) and if they had a good data warehousing system they should be able to work out how much they lost.

I only use them when going on holidays particularly long haul flights that have a large 2 bag baggage allowance.

Use the train now, which is not much more hassle as it brings me into the center of Dublin. I can use the 3G on the train and I get coffee and a bun.

Also loads of options for coming home with a train every 2 hours.

Alos driving to Dublin is grand also as there is less traffic on the road, and more parking in the city centre.

TBH only handy if you are going to the airport.

Plazaman

Sligo is on the lowest rung of priorities when it comes to airports unfortunately, namely it has only one operator and one destination plus the fact that it needs a runway extension to comply with EU Regulations is against it as well. Back in the day of the Celtic Tiger a runway extension into a water glade seemed pricey but doable. Unfortunately the tree huggers, snail kissers and bird spotters (all with foreign sounding names and out of county addresses) put paid to that.

On the up side, the Rescue Services contract has been renewed, there is a hugely active flight training academy and aero club, and it'll still be opened for private use but the extra down side is the loss of about 20 - 30 jobs.

Mint Sauce

I posted this on another forum before and whilst it might seem like a pipe dream, but what about the provision of service to other parts of the country. Now whilst there would not be the demand for a daily service, but a once or twice weekly that would mainly cater for people working in other parts of the country or students.

Destinations such as Cork, Waterford or Belfast, surely if such a service was provided, there would be some interest, currently to get to any of them its either at least two buses or trains, or a long drive.

Plus, what happened to the Manchester service, thought this was very popular during the football season.

Neworder79

About 7000 used Manchester service annually, more fly from Knock - Luton in a month. The plane was also load restricted due to the runway size, less seats higher costs fewer passengers. Competing with 737 at Knock you make no profit.

Regional services haven't worked from Cork/Galway and even Dublin needs PSO. Currently 19 seater on GWY - Belfast is even struggling so couldn't see it working from Sligo at the moment.

starbelgrade

saywhatyousee wrote: »

i agree except from the short section from collooney to castlebaldwin the n4 is a good road

I would disagree. If you're travelling from the Dublin side, once the motorway ends, the road is fairly crap all the way to Sligo.

Seeing as it's a national road & the principal road to the entire North West, the very least you'd expect is for it to have 2 lanes.

Though, it's not half as bad as the N17, which is a disgrace of a road.

dingding

If you think it is bad now you should have seen it 20 years ago.

Travel time to Dublin city center has gone from 4 hours to 2.5 hours.

Essexboy

dingding wrote: »

If you think it is bad now you should have seen it 20 years ago.

Travel time to Dublin city center has gone from 4 hours to 2.5 hours.

you should have seen it 20 years ago.


You sound like some old fogey! but this is typical of you Westerners. You accept inferior services then wonder why you get them. :mad:

Galway has a motorway to Dublin, a train service which takes 30 minutes less than its Sligo equivalent, and a choice of bus companies to Dublin City/Airport.

What did Sligo get in the past 20 years? apart from the dual carriageway between Sligo Town and Collooney, Sweet FA.

Mint Sauce

Essexboy wrote: »

you should have seen it 20 years ago.


You sound like some old fogey! but this is typical of you Westerners. You accept inferior services then wonder why you get them. :mad:

Galway has a motorway to Dublin, a train service which takes 30 minutes less than its Sligo equivalent, and a choice of bus companies to Dublin City/Airport.

What did Sligo get in the past 20 years? apart from the dual carriageway between Sligo Town and Collooney, Sweet FA.

Galway is more west than Sligo is.



But yes, it was much worse 20 years ago, even 10 years ago it was preety bad, and its still along way of being satisfactory.

The NW though has always been generally forgot about, its geographical location, population density will always put it down the list when it comes to deveopment, funding, infrastucture, etc etc.

Inept goverment departments and local authorites have alot of the blame to take as well, during the countries good times how much money was wasted and continues to be wasted, on what, they have nothing to show for it, apart from lining their own selfish pockets.

dingding

Essexboy wrote: »

you should have seen it 20 years ago.


You sound like some old fogey! but this is typical of you Westerners. You accept inferior services then wonder why you get them. :mad:

Galway has a motorway to Dublin, a train service which takes 30 minutes less than its Sligo equivalent, and a choice of bus companies to Dublin City/Airport.

What did Sligo get in the past 20 years? apart from the dual carriageway between Sligo Town and Collooney, Sweet FA.

In the past 20 years:-

The dual carriageway to collooney.
The Curlews bypass
The Carrick On Shannon Bypass
Bypassing the towns between Carrick and Longford.
THE dual carriageway / dromod bypass.
THe Longford Bypass

The Mullingar Bypass
The Dual Carriage way from Mullingar to Dublin bypassing all the towns.
The M50
Bypass all the towns in Dublin such as palmerstown, lucan, etc...


The large amount of towns that you had to drive through that are now bypassed.

sligopark

Essexboy wrote: »

You sound like some old fogey! but this is typical of you Westerners.

was going to post up a reasonable response but this got up my nose

IvyTheTerrible

I used to use Aer Arann from Sligo a lot, as it was very handy for connections (you're already in the airport), but after an experience at Christmas, I'll be considering other options.

The flight from Sligo was due to leave at 8.40. I got to the airport at 8, only to be told that the flight was delayed til 10.30. The reason for this was not bad weather or anything like that, but because they were flying to Derry from Dublin, picking up their Dublin-bound passengers, then flying to Sligo, picking us up and then going to Dublin. It seems they were doing this as a cost saving exercise, as there were only 3 of us leaving from Sligo that morning. I only made my connecting flight with 5 minutes to spare and no apologies or anything.

I wouldn't risk another flight with them, if that sort of thing was going to happen again.

bobcar61

I think I've only flew with Aer Arann a hand full of times.

I too had a bad experience with delays. I had an important flight to catch from Dublin so I said I'd take the plane up to Dublin instead of driving. Got to the airport, checked my bags in and everything was fine. Heard the flight was delayed by hours and it would have been tight making my connection in Dublin.

Decided to go to the check-in desk, asked for my checked luggage back and put the foot down and drove to Dublin while constantly looking at the time.

Made it to Dublin airport in the nick of time, then on the screens with the boarding gate information of where to go, it said the flight to Dublin had been further delayed.

Point of the story, as my flight was waiting in line to take off from Dublin, the flight from Sligo just landed so I definitely would have missed it.

I was taking a flight as well from Dublin to Sligo and it was cancelled due to low figures.

Don't trust their services, hence I never use them anymore.

Mint Sauce

bobcar61 wrote: »

I think I've only flew with Aer Arann a hand full of times.

I too had a bad experience with delays. I had an important flight to catch from Dublin so I said I'd take the plane up to Dublin instead of driving. Got to the airport, checked my bags in and everything was fine. Heard the flight was delayed by hours and it would have been tight making my connection in Dublin.

Decided to go to the check-in desk, asked for my checked luggage back and put the foot down and drove to Dublin while constantly looking at the time.

Made it to Dublin airport in the nick of time, then on the screens with the boarding gate information of where to go, it said the flight to Dublin had been further delayed.

Point of the story, as my flight was waiting in line to take off from Dublin, the flight from Sligo just landed so I definitely would have missed it.

I was taking a flight as well from Dublin to Sligo and it was cancelled due to low figures.

Don't trust their services, hence I never use them anymore.

In fairness, that could be an issue with any airline and its a risk you take when flights are not connecting. Anytime I have taken I have done it I have always allowed a 2 to 3 hrs if possible. Ok sometimes its not enough, sometimes its not even posible due to flight timetables, but it was a risk I have taken.

Even none connecting flights on the same airline wont allow you that grace if one delayed. Ie, if you fly Ryanair Knock to Standstead, and then another Ryanair flight on to some where else, they wont care if you miss the second flight due to first delayed, they will just tell you to rebook at your own expence.

A missed Air lingus flight might be alittle more understanding due to their partnership with Aer Arran, but I would doubt it.

bobcar61

Has anybody seen this?

http://www.sligotoday.ie/details.php?id=12793

What do people think? If they do start operating from Sligo, where do you think they might fly to? Do you reckon it will just be the 2 Daily to Dublin or would they add some extra routes like to the Isle of man (their main base) or Belfast, another one of their bases?

Neworder79

Could work, they are operating Cork - Belfast commercially with a 19 seat aircraft which would be cheaper to run and makes more sense than running half empty subsidised service.

bobcar61

I would have my doubts about a Sligo-Belfast route, I think they currently also do Galway-Belfast and from what I've heard it's not the most successful so I can't imagine Sligo-Belfast doing much better.

On the other hand, I think they have the right equipment for doing a route to Dublin, it's less than half the size of the ATR's that Aer Arann operated so they would have a better chance of filling the seats.

Mint Sauce

bobcar61 wrote: »

Has anybody seen this?

http://www.sligotoday.ie/details.php?id=12793

What do people think? If they do start operating from Sligo, where do you think they might fly to? Do you reckon it will just be the 2 Daily to Dublin or would they add some extra routes like to the Isle of man (their main base) or Belfast, another one of their bases?

Hopefully they would continue the twice daily Sligo/Dublin service and maybe a once or twice a week regional service somewhere else within the Island.

Being a IoM Carrier they might introduce a connecting service to selected regional British airports via the IoM, although that might be pie in the sky thinking (think they or City jet already do similar from Belfast or Dublin to London City via IoM).

mayfly1

All, great debate taking place on this issue. Bottom line from reading the Value for Money report from the DoT which they say they have spent much time and energy compiling:
Recommendations

· Exchequer support for regional airports in Connaught should be focused on Knock Airport, which can adequately serve both Galway and Sligo with a greater range of services than offered by Galway or Sligo Airports. This focus on Knock should also increase Knock’s “critical mass” and enhance its finances. Galway city will also have the benefit of improving journey times to Shannon Airport.
· The Donegal-Dublin PSO service should be retained and the PSO services from Dublin to Kerry, Galway, Sligo, Knock and Derry should be ended. Donegal is relatively remote in Irish terms. The cost per passenger of subsidising PSO services is difficult to justify at the other airports having regard to improved public transport and/or road journey times to Dublin. A commercial service from Dublin to Kerry may be feasible because of latent demand for the current service (100,000 passengers per annum).
· Continuing OPEX support at Donegal, Knock, Kerry and Waterford should be provided subject to stringent assessment of annual requests for subvention and encouragement of greater efficiency through the use of benchmarking/ performance indicators.
· Opex support for Galway and Sligo should end.
· Capex grants would be confined to essential safety and security work and would be of the order of €10m in the next few years.


Either way if one takes the above on board or not, critical mass and passenger throughput is key to making airports viable, and international research indicates that one much be in exces of 1m pax plus to achieve any level of efficiencies/cost recovery. None of the current western airports are at this level, and even Shannon is appaently losing €10-20m plus in 2010..from media press reports,however they have the DAA to support them (as individual accounts are not publised this cant be verified one way or other). Therefore my conclusion is that they may be room for one airport in the west outside of Shannon..to survive and grow, and even at that continued government interventions will be required.

bobcar61

mayfly1 wrote: »

All, great debate taking place on this issue. Bottom line from reading the Value for Money report from the DoT which they say they have spent much time and energy compiling:
Recommendations

· Exchequer support for regional airports in Connaught should be focused on Knock Airport, which can adequately serve both Galway and Sligo with a greater range of services than offered by Galway or Sligo Airports. This focus on Knock should also increase Knock’s “critical mass” and enhance its finances. Galway city will also have the benefit of improving journey times to Shannon Airport.
· The Donegal-Dublin PSO service should be retained and the PSO services from Dublin to Kerry, Galway, Sligo, Knock and Derry should be ended. Donegal is relatively remote in Irish terms. The cost per passenger of subsidising PSO services is difficult to justify at the other airports having regard to improved public transport and/or road journey times to Dublin. A commercial service from Dublin to Kerry may be feasible because of latent demand for the current service (100,000 passengers per annum).
· Continuing OPEX support at Donegal, Knock, Kerry and Waterford should be provided subject to stringent assessment of annual requests for subvention and encouragement of greater efficiency through the use of benchmarking/ performance indicators.
· Opex support for Galway and Sligo should end.
· Capex grants would be confined to essential safety and security work and would be of the order of €10m in the next few years.


Either way if one takes the above on board or not, critical mass and passenger throughput is key to making airports viable, and international research indicates that one much be in exces of 1m pax plus to achieve any level of efficiencies/cost recovery. None of the current western airports are at this level, and even Shannon is appaently losing €10-20m plus in 2010..from media press reports,however they have the DAA to support them (as individual accounts are not publised this cant be verified one way or other). Therefore my conclusion is that they may be room for one airport in the west outside of Shannon..to survive and grow, and even at that continued government interventions will be required.

Very true, but there is space for one airport to grow in the West apart from Shannon and that's Knock. Every year the airport is expanding services to the UK and in the last couple of years there are scheduled sun routes from Ryanair and this was expanded with 3 new sun routes to the Canaries. And in the last few weeks, FlyBe announced a new route to Edinburgh with connections. Knock is obviously a cheap place for Ryanair to operate and cheaper than Shannon, in the past few years Knock has been getting some of the traffic which was cut in Shannon by Ryanair.

Essexboy

dingding wrote: »

In the past 20 years:-

The dual carriageway to collooney.
The Curlews bypass
The Carrick On Shannon Bypass
Bypassing the towns between Carrick and Longford.
THE dual carriageway / dromod bypass.
THe Longford Bypass

The Mullingar Bypass
The Dual Carriage way from Mullingar to Dublin bypassing all the towns.
The M50
Bypass all the towns in Dublin such as palmerstown, lucan, etc...


The large amount of towns that you had to drive through that are now bypassed.

You left out the N52 Tullamore Bypass!

Most of the roads you list were built to serve other communities outside the county, not Sligo travellers.

According to the Border Regional Authority Planning Guidelines 2010 – 2022 www.border.ie/.../Border%20Regional%20Authority%20RPGs%202010- 2022.pdf
“ two significant substandard sections remain and their improvement is a
priority for this route:-
• N4 Carrick-on-Shannon Bypass
• N4 Collooney – Castlebaldwin
• Upgrading of N4 from Carrick-on-Shannon to Castlebaldwin {from single carriageway to 2+2} “
Whatever happened to the promise of motorway/dual carriageway from Mullingar to Sligo?

Incidentally, according to these guidelines "Advance planning and design for an outer bypass of the town [ie Sligo] should be progressed during the life of these Guidelines."
Outer bypass? route selection should be interesting.

cassi

It would be a pity If the airport loses flights but to be honest I didn't see it being sustainable as it is. I've used it before and will be using it again in April both because I'll already be in the airport and its cheaper and much quicker than getting the train. It would be great if something could be worked out for the airport, not only to service the area but for the people whos jobs depend on it being there.

Basq

Ah well.. that's that then!

From July 21, Aer Arann will no longer schedule flights to Dublin from Galway, Sligo and Knock as Public Service Obligation (PSO) contracts come to an end.

Chairman Pádraig Ó Céidigh told RTÉ today that the airline can no longer operate the routes as they are not financially viable.

PSO arrangements, which provide subsidies for some regional routes to airlines, for flight schedules from Galway, Sligo and Knock end on July 21.

Ó Céidigh said passenger numbers had been continuous declining in the past few years and there were no talks underway with the Department of Transport to renew PSOs.

PSO is to continue for Donegal (Aer Arann) and for Kerry (Ryanair) after July 21

Source

Mint Sauce

Basq wrote: »

Ah well.. that's that then!


Source

Looks like its back to the train and bus unless another operater such as Manx comes in, or make more use of Knock.

Neworder79

If the 100s of millions spent on PSO flights had gone into the Atlantic Corridore we'd have high quality road to Knock in 30 mins. Probably never happen now and left with the rally track from Colooney to Curry.

GG66

I believe it's already been said:

If you're going to Dublin on Business the train is just as quick after you take into account waiting time to board and getting from Dublin airport to city centre.

If you're flying onwards, then Knock to Gatwick, stansted, Manchester or birmingham presents lots of options for international slights.

Subsidising this is a waste of public money for the few who use it.. Better spent on improving road and train infrastructure IMHO

peasant

Would be nice though if someone filled this hole with a bus service straight to Dublin airport ...possibly at more convenient times (slightly earlier and later) than the flight ever was.

Don't particularly fancy a three hour train ride, hauling luggage to Bus Aras, another three quarter hour bus ride ...just to get to the airport.

Yes I know there is one (yes one!) Bus Eirann connection in the middle of the night straight to the airport ...but surely there must be room for more at slightly more humane times.

Wester

peasant wrote: »

Yes I know there is one (yes one!) Bus Eirann connection in the middle of the night straight to the airport ...but surely there must be room for more at slightly more humane times.

Saw this in one of the local papers and a search on the bus eireann Web site confirms it. According to the new timetable, applicable from April 11, there is a bus leaving sligo at 7.15 a.m. and dropping off at the airport at 10.20 so that's slightly more sane, if still an early start. A return bus leaves the airport at 11.20, arriving in Sligo at 14.35 http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1301927133-23.pdf

Neworder79

Ireland West Airport bus times for those of an open mind:

Depart Sligo Bus Station (Journey 55min, weekdays)
0600 0800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

Depart Ireland West Airport (Journey 60min, weekdays)
0745 1030 1215 1345 1555 1745 1955

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1266419677-64.pdf

Ryanair, Aer Lingus, FlyBe, BMI have direct flights to:

Alicante
Birmingham
Bristol
East Midlands
Edinburgh
Faro
Gran Canaria
Lanzarote
Leeds Bradford
Liverpool
London Gatwick
London Luton
London Stansted
Manchester
Barcelona
Tenerife

Holiday flights to other destinations:
Cadiz
Dubrovnik
Faro
Fatima
Lanzarote
Lourdes
Medjugorie

saywhatyousee

Neworder79 wrote: »

Ireland West Airport bus times for those of an open mind:

Depart Sligo Bus Station (Journey 55min, weekdays)
0600 0800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

Depart Ireland West Airport (Journey 60min, weekdays)
0745 1030 1215 1345 1555 1745 1955

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1266419677-64.pdf

Ryanair, Aer Lingus, FlyBe, BMI have direct flights to:

Alicante
Birmingham
Bristol
East Midlands
Edinburgh
Faro
Gran Canaria
Lanzarote
Leeds Bradford
Liverpool
London Gatwick
London Luton
London Stansted
Manchester
Barcelona
Tenerife

Holiday flights to other destinations:
Cadiz
Dubrovnik
Faro
Fatima
Lanzarote
Lourdes
Medjugorie

What company flys to dubrovnik?I was thinking of goin there in the summer would be a dream if i could fly from knock

Neworder79

It's on the airports website. Concorde travel have weekly flights for the summer. http://www.irelandwestairport.com/flightinformation/charter_flight_timetables.aspx