Businesses in west urged to fly Aer Lingus from Knock to London Heathrow
By Tom Gillespie
MULTI-national enterprises in the west of Ireland have been asked to avail of the Aer Lingus service to London Heathrow out of Ireland West Airport.
The call has come from Mr. Joe Gilmore, managing director, Ireland West Airport, who emphasised that passengers have a worldwide choice of 80 destinations from the Heathrow international hub.
Last year was the most successful for the Mayo airport with an historic 818,000 passengers using the base.
The airport now serves 21 international destinations and is served by three of Europe’s major international airlines, Aer Lingus, Lauda Europe and Ryanair.
Mr. Gilmore said: “The Aer Lingus launch to Heathrow last April was one we were looking to get for the past 20 years as it is a major hub of activity.
“The significance of having a major hub of activity is providing good connectivity to fly onwards directly to Hong Kong or Las Vegas, etcetera, and you can come on both directions. There are a limited number of airports that have direct service into Heathrow and it has put us on a global route map.
“I would make a special call-out to the businesses across Mayo to get behind the new Heathrow service and use it whenever they can. We know they are aware of it. But it is important, especially this year, which will be its first full year of operation, and we are trying to push and drive it as much as we can.”
He added: “Passenger numbers travelling on services to and from the UK totalled 665,000 in 2023, boosted by the commencement of a new daily service to London Heathrow.
“Ryanair recorded its busiest ever year for passenger numbers at the airport, carrying over 730,000 passengers, a three per cent increase on 2022, with record numbers using their services to and from Liverpool, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester in the UK.
“The number of passengers travelling on services to mainland and Continental Europe hit a new high for the airport, with 148,000 passengers traveling to and from Alicante, Barcelona, Faro, Majorca, Malaga, Milan, Cologne, Lanzarote and Tenerife, which represented a seven per cent increase on 2022 figures.
“When compared to 2019, the previous busiest year on record, short-haul traffic to the UK increased by 19 per cent, while passenger numbers travelling to the sun and European city break destinations increased by 16 per cent.
“Last August proved to be the busiest month of the year with 102,000 passengers travelling through the airport during this period, with the busiest individual day of the year also occurring in August, when over 4,500 passengers travelled through the airport on Tuesday, August 29.
“In total over 6,000 flights departed and arrived at the airport in 2023 with less than 10 flights impacted as a result of adverse weather at the airport, the lowest figure on record at the airport.”