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22 Oct 2025

Shannon’s loss is Knocks gain with direct flights to Portugal

Knock Airport to gain from Ryanair switching their Irish service to Faro to the Mayo airport from Shannon.
Shannon’s loss is Knock’s gain with direct flights to Portugal


Anton McNulty

SHANNON’S loss became Knock Airport’s gain when the low fares airline Ryanair announced that they were switching their Irish service to Faro to the Mayo airport.
Ryanair had been threatening to pull some of its services out of Shannon Airport because of rising airport charges and last week announced that they were switching its Faro route to Ireland West Airport Knock (IWAK) from March 30. They will also switch their Alicante route to Kerry Airport.
This will be the second scheduled service from IWAK to continent Europe following the introduction of the twice weekly service to Alicante in Spain. This Ryanair service commenced last June and will recommence on March 29.
The service to Faro Airport which is located in the Portuguese holiday resort of The Algarve will also be a twice weekly service and will operated during the summer season from March to October.
Next March, a three-day-a-week service to Leeds/Bradford will commence and it is expected that this latest expansion by Ryanair at Ireland West Knock will generate an estimated 16,000 additional annual passengers at the Airport.
Joe Gilmore, Managing Director of IWAK (pictured) welcomed the new service which he said underlined Ryanair’s confidence in the Airport even in economically difficult times.
“The addition of this European service from Ireland West Knock is another significant step in the Airport’s development as we expand our schedule services to now include a second popular European sun destination. Ryanair’s continued growth from Ireland West Knock is further good news for passengers and we are sure this new Faro service will prove hugely popular with holidaymakers.
“Despite the recession, Ireland West Knock continues to attract new destinations and this latest round of expansion from Ryanair underlines the airline’s continued confidence in Ireland West Airport Knock.  This new service will come as welcomed news to many holiday makers who will now have more flexibility when booking their holidays to self package or to go on shorter breaks to Portugal direct from Ireland West Knock as opposed to travelling to Dublin or Shannon,” he said.
Ryanair explained the possibility to move their Faro service to IWAK was thanks to its lower costs compared to Shannon and to celebrate the move they are releasing one million €5 seats for travel Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays on over 500 routes across its European network in January.
“Ryanair is pleased to announce new Kerry and Knock routes to and from Alicante and Faro from summer 2010. These routes switch directly from Shannon Airport because of Shannon’s high costs. As commercially run airports, Kerry and Knock realise that airports and airlines must work together to reduce the cost of travel to Ireland as the Irish Government’s suicidal €10 tourist tax continues to collapse Irish traffic and tourism. Shannon Airport will suffer steep traffic declines in 2010 because they prefer to impose high charges which render Shannon uncompetitive for visitors to the West of Ireland.”

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