The Citylink bus which goes to limerick is the fastest now, non stop, vs the 51 which batters down the road taking almost 4 and a half hours to get to cork.
The main issue with the 51 serving Shannon airport though is not the speed, but rather how late the busses start and how early they finish.
The Limerick - Galway X51 bus was much quicker than the train, so was a preferable public transport choice when it was available. The regular 51....well not so much. But it does include Shannon so I guess it's handy there.
Ive often done it too via heathrow from shannon and the same when i lived in cork
I do it all the time. I fly via LHR rather than drive to Dublin. I'd much rather have an hour or two in a nice lounge with a free drink and some food than sit in my car for 3hrs each way plus traffic risk on M50.
Agreed. I wonder how many of the West of Ireland rail campaigners have ever used the train to get from Limerick to Galway apart from maybe a single symbolic journey (if that) when it first opened?
The main reason more people from Nenagh and most other Munster areas use DUB rather than SNN is that it has over 180 direct flight destinations vs less than 50 in SNN. Can anyone here honestly say they'd choose a non direct flight with a multi hour transit layover elsewhere out of SNN vs a direct flight from DUB to the 130+ additional destinations you can fly direct to from DUB but not SNN? Public transport demand and services reflects that.
On the issue of price, unless a fare for a direct flight was €100 more out of SNN than DUB, I doubt SNN catchment area pax would chose DUB as it would hardly be worth it when you add up the fuel/fare/snacks/additional time etc to get to DUB which would offset any savings.
Another option is the train to Ennis and the 343 to Shannon. Not as handy timewise as direct obviously.
For the most part the bus services from Limerick to Shannon are very good. Could do with a little bit more frequency at night or a slight change in timetable as iirc the 343 and 51 almost arrived at the same time every hour at night.
I find all the train to Shannon talk is from people who would probably drive anyway.
The fact that flights are generally priced cheaper ex DUB is a bigger factor than the transport issue. That and the fact that there are limited destinations and fewer weekly rotarions to those destinations from SNN.
As far as Limerick city and County Clare the public transport is sufficient beyond it is not up to scratch and is holding back some demand at least.
I hope this issue is being looked at in a serious way.
It's no wonder young people never even think about Shannon when going abroad. Someone needing a bus from Galway would spend almost the same amount of time on the 51 to Shanon as the citylink express to Dublin airport.
Agree and that issue re Nenagh is a much closer contest then it should be from even Limerick.
There is some investment in rail at the moment. I've never believed and still don't that a line to the airport will occur but if as seems likely Cratloe train station proceeds maybe it would be in the airports interest to run a shuttle bus from that location to the airport , it would be approximately 15 minutes and maybe could be seen as a good option for those coming from east via Ballybrophy or Junction line as well as offering a slightly better service for Galway.
As I understand it , a station is under review for Ballysimon which may mean it is possible to change trains there and go towards Galway/Ennis. Increased frequency of the line would require infrastructure updates (passing loops) but this could be a way for the airport to support the line.
I think a bit better reconfiguration of some current bus routes would help more than creating shannon airways. Its easier to get from nenagh to dublin airport by bus for example than it is to shannon. Could easily have better bus connections from both limerick and galway sides servicing both the industrial estate and airport together
Is transit limited to 51/51X ?
Mary Considine in Dail address mentioned pblic transport and Lufthansa Technik did same when announcing jobs.
Its certainly a limiting factor, I remember Paidrigh O'Ceidigh mentioning creating a shannon airport airways company, might a shannon public transport option to serve Galway and west Leinster better be a better idea ?
i dont know who u can blame for that,As city link its hardly worth coming into the airport for just a few people you would waste more time and fuel coming in that you would make of the few people that would be there.
Why is public transport between Galway city and Shannon airport so limited now ? It seems that citylink don't serve it at all now?
They've had a few aircraft in recently for painting, I think there's currently 2 parked around the airfield before this one today.
Anyone know anything about Transavia flight landing in Shannon earlier today.
You'd imagine Benelux connection is the airports biggest target. This is a dutch low cost airline with bases in Eindhoven ,Rotterdam & Amsterdam. Flight was from Bucharest , somewhere Transavia do not currently serve. May simple be being returned.
I hear ya. Im based in north tipp and dublin is a last restort will always check shannon or cork 1st
I am based in South Roscommon, near to Ballinasloe.
We opted for shannon purely out of the pain the backside that is Dublin Airport. Mrs B has a bad back so the long walk is not very nice for her.
Looking at shannon, the fact that you can park almost outside the front door is a big plus.
We flew to Birmingham last Friday through Dublin T1, and returned Sunday, it just reminded me how much I hate the place.
Its a breeze indeed. Out of interest where are u based that u opted for shannon. A friend from laois used shannon for the 1st time last year and said will definitely try and use it more
Travelled through Dublin T1 at the weekend, never again
We are flying to Salou in May, out of Shannon for the first time.
Looking at this thread and having a look at the airport itself on Google Maps, it looks like it should be a breeze.
Don't think that Detroit route ever materialised
Wow..I never knew there was a direct flight to Detroit from anywhere in Ireland at one stage. Did the service actually materialise or was it just planned?
Would love to see delta resume their JFK flights, was always a great schedule with a late departure on the way back and provided lots of options for onward connectivity
Yes i think shannon amsterdam is hampered more at scipol end rather than shannon..
Indeed. There was talk about 2024 last year.
Some interesting stuff in the last few days
Bristol Airport won a legal battle to increase their capacity from 10 mill to 12 mill, Sean M noticed a gap on Aer lingus schedule for a possible loop to Cork or Shannon for Bristol. Petitions, airbase and political pressure as well as proximity to Knock make Cork more likely.
KLM has dropped Katowice and Aarhus 5 months after adding them. Maybe KLM/Sciphol capacity is the biggest issue.
Knock getting Heathrow route. Interesting more then anything else.
Minsk and Detroit 2 mad destinations on that list. 8 mile must have done Detroit wonders
Would agree the you point on the big European cities. Would love Toronto service back. Would think enough Irish in Canada to support some service. Was due to return 2020 only for covid
Based on wiki history no detail on flights per week. The ryanair mix back then is interesting - Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Milan, Brussels - Basically the large cities that people want to transit to on holidays or business rather than UK plus Holiday mix.
North America has 11 vs 4 routes today (gives perspective around the focus on North America currently
Obviously Dublin flight is not coming back - and I don't think it should tbh
Just wondering more curiosity than anything. What destinations did shannon serve in 2006 when it hit 3.6million? Cant all be rugby charters when munster were at their peak
Chicago would be 30,000 from what I read.
Hard to know re Ryanair routes, I'd guess 200k but that is finger in the air.
I hope they aren't finished with new routes yet. By my count there is still 4 weekly ryanair departures not accounted for so maybe 2*2 will be announced next month or maybe they'll be added to existing schedule. Flight prices seem steep on most routes already. Hopefully that is a sign of high demand.
Last year there was significant action around France on social media and it paid off with 2 (now 3 ) routes to country.
Luxembourg ambassador there last week and luxair were tagged in post from ambassador. The state actually owns 52% of luxair too so there is a pretty direct link. I wonder are they finding Amsterdam won't happen and looking at Luxembourg (via luxair) as an alternative. It would offer reasonable ground connections to Germany and France, the connections to Belgium and Netherlands are trickier though.
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