Knock flights to sunny Spain

Knock flights to sunny Spain


Anton McNulty

THE warmth of the Mediterranean sun got a little bit closer for people in the west of Ireland last week, after Ireland West Airport Knock announced that scheduled flights direct to Alicante, in southern Spain, are to begin in June.
The new two-day service, which will be operated by Ryanair, will begin on June 5 and will be the first ever scheduled flights from Knock to the continent. The introduction of the Alicante service – which will run until the end of October – now brings to eleven the number of scheduled destinations available from IWAK and complements its additional network of 13 European holiday destinations. This latest expansion at IWAK will generate an estimated 12,000 additional annual passengers at the airport this summer.
Alicante International Airport is the sixth busiest in Spain and in 2007 it handled 9.1 million passengers, the majority of which were holidaymakers going to the nearby resorts. Welcoming the announcement Annette Kearney, Marketing and Route Development Manager with IWAK, said the new service was a milestone for the airport.
“The addition of this direct service to Alicante International Airport with Ryanair is a milestone in the airport’s development as we expand our scheduled flight services to now include a popular European destination for the first time. We know that this will come as welcome news to the many holiday-makers from the region that choose to self package and will complement our existing range of charter holiday destinations which have proven to be so popular,” she said.
Alicante is located along the Costa Blanca in the south-east of Spain and is well known to holiday-makers with its extensive coastline and beaches, and summer temperatures of close to 30 degrees Celsius. The city is also famous for its bustling and vibrant harbour and is also a gateway to other resorts such as Benidorm.
Flights from Ireland West Airport Knock to Alicante International Airport will depart on Mondays and Fridays at 12.25pm and will return into Ireland West Airport on the same days at 11.55am.  For further airport information log onto www.irelandwestairport.com; for information on lowest fares and to book flights log onto www.ryanair.com or contact your local travel agent.