20% increase in Donegal passengers using Ireland West Airport in busiest year ever

Managing Director of Ireland West Airport at Knock, Joe Gilmore has a lot to be pleased about. He is looking forward to serving and facilitating even more Donegal passengers this year, for they now account for their fourth biggest market for outbound passengers from Knock.

A previous passenger numbers record for IWA from 2019 was also surpassed, with a total of 818,000 passengers in 2022 breaking the previous record by 13%.

Put simply, last year was the busiest the airport has ever been.

The airport has now become a significant player for many Donegal passengers, especially those from the south and west of the county, who see the international airport located between Charlestown and Knock as a convenient location from which to travel from and to arrive at. And much less stressful to deal with that trying to get in and out of the airport at Dublin, it continues to be emphasised.

The fact that it now offers routes to 21 different international destinations means that in terms of its attractiveness to those travelling abroad, its appeal has grown significantly.

ABOVE: Two of the main carriers that fly out of IWA - Aer Lingus and Ryanair

It is served by three of Europe’s major International airlines, Aer Lingus, Lauda Europe and Ryanair.

Upwards of 70,000 passengers from this county now use the airport with an additional 30,000 plus inbound visitors coming to Donegal through the airport last year, as the launching pad for visiting Donegal.

Joe told the paper: “In 2023 we had a 20% increase in the number of Donegal people using the airport compared to 2022 based on data from our online car parking system which tracks car registrations - this was great to see.

“In the region of 40.000 outbound passengers from donegal used the airport in 2023 and an additional 30,000 visitors from overseas visited donegal using the airport as a gateway

Donegal would be our fourth biggest market from an outbound passenger perspective behind Mayo, Galway and Sligo which is very positive

He added: “The five times daily bus service with Bus Eireann on Route 64 between Letterkenny and Galway stopping at the airport has also proven to be very popular with Donegal people as Bus Eireann have reported a big uptake on passenger numbers from this region in 2023.”

ABOVE: The daily direct routes to Heathrow in London have been greatly welcomed as Joe Gilmore gets his snapshot with the first flight last April

The big selling points which led to strong recovery last year was the convenience of the airport, five minutes from car park to departures combined with an increasing route network and great value car parking - only €35 per week when booked online - all seemed to resonate strongly with people particularly against the backdrop of the challenges Dublin Airport experienced last year.

So the easy use and the convenience are the two main highlighting factors when it comes to using the Airport.

More than 6,000 flights departed and arrived at the airport in 2023 with less than 10 being disrupted by bad weather, which was again, its lowest recorded figure on record.

ABOVE: The airport now offers faciities that are up with some of the best regional international airports internationally

Heathrow boost

The commencement of a new daily service to London Heathrow airport with Aer Lingus, which provides onward connectivity to 80+ destinations worldwide, has also become a specific benefit to the airport and this boosted 2023 UK passenger numbers travelling on services to and from the UK to 665,000.

The number of passengers travelling on services to mainland and Continental Europe hit a new high for the airport as well, with 148,000 passengers travelling to and from Alicante, Barcelona, Faro, Majorca, Malaga, Milan, Cologne, Lanzarote and Tenerife, which represented a 7% increase on 2022 figures.

Future vision of regional connectivity

For an airport that was never supposed to succeed from the outset and had many different critics, it can, more than most, picture the future connectivity right along the west coast and upwards towards the north west.

They have also been on the record with Sligo Chamber and Environment Minister Eamon Ryan in supporting a new road route from Coolooney towards Charlestown on what is mostly a good road travel route from Donegal as far as that part of Sligo, which would eventually bypass Tubbercurry and Charlestown.

Even at that, it is just about one hour and 17 minutes from Bundoran to the airport, which is a slightly shorter distance than heading towards Clones from the resort for an Ulster Championship match.

In terms of future planning they are also a strong advocate of the western rail corridor.

And as the future is clean transport, the company believes that with ample energy on and off the west coast, it makes sense to nurture and sustain the reestablishment of the link, which could become an electric link, right up to Sligo for a starter.

“Irish Rail still have the network, the rail network is still there and in my own town of Claremorris, the old route is still there to Kiltimagh onwards to Swinford, Tubbercurry and on into Collooney, so the actual line is there and it just needs investment,” Joe explained.

Extremely strong recovery

“In the broader sense, we are now in 2024 and it has been an extremely strong recovery from Covid and that era. The whole human behaviour has changed in that time from a travel point of view.

“There was a massive backlog and build up of demand through Covid and we saw that for the first six to nine months in 2022 and essentially last year was a continuation of it.

“I think that the industry didn’t expect it to continue in such a strong way, but that demand continued into 2023 and dispute the massive pressures or rising costs and the whole economic situation, including all the geo-political volatility, people are out there and travelling and leisure travel is particularly stron

“This is something we hope will continue throughout this year. Easy use and convenience are something that comes back to us each year from surveys that we would carry out with passengers. People use us because of the parking close to the terminal, because of the speed in getting through the airport and finally, in spite of the €10 development fee, there is still value for money there,” Joe explained.

Ease of access

The latter is still a vital component of the success of the airport as it helps generate matching money from the government and also ensures that the infrastructure at Knock keeps pace with important international developments, like in its baggage system.

Joe also said that driving to Dublin from the west and north west involves paying tolls and that is even before trying to get a parking slot at that airport and city traffic even before hitting the M50.

“For Donegal people, the introduction of the Heathrow service last April has also given us a great boost in terms of its being a major hub connection to international destinations all over the world or quick access into London itself, one of the world’s largest business capitals as well as for visitors.”

He added that in many cases international flight packages are cheaper from London, than flying direct from Dublin.

Reflecting on the 21 scheduled destinations from Knock he admitted that as an airport, “we are always hoping for more. The challenge with the routes is that they need to be viable”.

“The tours that we have got are now proving that they are sustainable and they are meeting the needs of the region; obviously we would like to add more routes, more leisure routes in particular to meet that significant demand.

“We cover ten destinations in the UK that are a strong network, but we are hoping to get more capacity and frequency on these routes as well this year.”

In conclusion, he pointed out that from an outward passenger viewpoint, Donegal ranked fourth in terms of passenger use.

“It is a substantial market and especially appealing for those from south and west Donegal, but we have passengers from throughout the county. What has probably changed as well, as our profile has grown, they are now looking at us, as one of the first airports to fly out of, before they may have to venture over to Dublin, Belfast or wherever. So at least, they gave us the option of checking if we have routes

“In summary, we are very pleased with last year and in terms of this year we are looking positive, but in this business it is really June or July, before you get to see the strong traffic coming through, but we are expecting it to the over the 800,000 passenger again and there still remains a sting demand for travel,” the Managing Director of IWA concluded.