Councillors request more flights for Ireland West Airport

MAYO County Council’s Roads and Transportation SPC is to write to the National Aviation Authority to request that flights be diverted away from Dublin Airport to Ireland West Airport Knock.

Cllr Damien Ryan said that the authority should consider allocating more flights to regional airports given that Dublin Airport had ‘gone past capacity’.

Dublin Airport has planning permission for 32 million passengers – a figure which it exceeded in 2019.

“Every one of those, Cork, Shannon, Knock, Belfast, they can all take more flights, and it would certainly make a big difference to what’s called ‘balanced regional development’,” said Cllr Ryan.

The recent meeting of the council’s Roads and Transportation SPC also heard calls for a rail link to Ireland West Airport to compliment the full reopening of the Western Rail Corridor.

Clearance work recently began on the Claremorris to Athenry section of the line, which has been recommended for reopening as part of the All-Island Rail Review.

Members of the Roads and Transportation SPC also called for a reopening of the Claremorris to Sligo section of the line – a development which has already been ruled out.

None of the country’s airports are connected to a railway line at present.

Big step forward

CLLR Richard Finn, who is vice-chairperson of the Western Intercounty Rail Committee, welcomed the clearance works on the Claremorris to Athenry Section as ‘one of the biggest steps forward’ for the Western Rail Corridor.

“About twenty years ago, we witness the clearing off of the line from Athenry to Collooney and nothing ever happened afterwards … we hope this won’t happen again,” Cllr Finn added.

Cllr Ryan said local representatives had been ‘vindicated’ for their lobbying for the reopening of the Western Rail Corridor, which he said would be ‘a gamechanger’ for the region.

“We see Metro north has been spent €320 million and not a shovel put it the ground. We’ll deliver this for less than €200 million, and it makes a huge difference to a huge chunk geographically,” said the Ballinrobe-based councillor.

Cllr Neil Cruise also supported a rail link to Knock as part of the reopening of the northern section of the Western Rail Corridor.

Cllr Cruise backed Cllr Ryan’s proposal that the SPC write to the National Aviation Authority to make the case for more flights in Knock.

Ireland West Airport Knock has forecast that it’s 2023 passenger numbers will exceed 2019 levels, when a record 830,000 passengers passed through the airport.