Ryanair - Galway Airport

Storm 10

Suits wrote: »

Yes because they needed an airport.....nobody needs an airport in Galway......it would be a waste of money and nobody would fly in there...

Anyhow you wouldnt fit Knock's runway into Galway airfield...it's too long. With stopway/clearway, turntables etc you would need to extend the airport across the roads at each end and into the fields....so unless they want to build a runway/ redirect a few roads no jets are coming into Galway.....ball park figure for wet runway in low vis is 1800m of runway needed I think to safely get in taking margins into account(could be corrected). For Galway to get that length you'd need to move the road and evict people from their houses.....so couple that with the fact there is no need for a jet airport there...and your idea sinks faster than an '800 on a gusty day

Galway Airport operated RJ70 Jets to Malaga and Lorient with no problems the Malaga flights were always full, Virgin operated the same jet aircraft as charters during the Galway races , the Aer Arann flights to London Manchester and Edinburgh operated at high capacity so the need is there but the charges were the killer, no one can say there is no need for an Airport in Galway, of course there is a need when you look at the Aer Arann network since it opened. Galway will be back

L1011

bensweeney wrote: »

Easy build a longer runway. Plenty of room either side from what I can see.

There are roads in the way at both ends. The runway cannot be extended to the length required for a 737-800 or A320.

bensweeney wrote: »

How dare you I have no agenda, only the betterment of Connacht. Father James Horan was told the same things about Knock but it was built.

If you are going to go accusing people of having agendas, you shouldn't really be that hilariously thin skinned when someone points out yours.

Suits

Storm 10 wrote: »

Galway Airport operated RJ70 Jets to Malaga and Lorient with no problems the Malaga flights were always full, Virgin operated the same jet aircraft as charters during the Galway races , the Aer Arann flights to London Manchester and Edinburgh operated at high capacity so the need is there but the charges were the killer, no one can say there is no need for an Airport in Galway, of course there is a need when you look at the Aer Arann network since it opened. Galway will be back

ATRs are one thing but a 737/a320 etc is different. If Galway wanted the big money airlines in they would have to build a new airport that wasnt where the current one is.

xflyer

As others have pointed out Galway is too short and too narrow for jets and there is no room for expansion. This is no accident, the Galway Chamber had no interest in letting Ryanair in. The idea was to protect Aer Arann, ironic though that may be now.

However it is not over for Galway airport, it's just that it will just have to cater for a market other than scheduled flying.

But it's not closed. I looked in recently, the terminal is shut down and there is only a skeleton staff. But aircraft were coming and going, light aircraft mostly of course. Air Corps, survey aircraft, skydiving and the flying club, not to mention the helicopters. Plenty going on. It's for sale and I'm sure there's interest.

Watch this space as they say. It'll soon have a new lease of life.

Suits

xflyer wrote: »

As others have pointed out Galway is too short and too narrow for jets and there is no room for expansion. This is no accident, the Galway Chamber had no interest in letting Ryanair in. The idea was to protect Aer Arann, ironic though that may be now.

However it is not over for Galway airport, it's just that it will just have to cater for a market other than scheduled flying.

But it's not closed. I looked in recently, the terminal is shut down and there is only a skeleton staff. But aircraft were coming and going, light aircraft mostly of course. Air Corps, survey aircraft, skydiving and the flying club, not to mention the helicopters. Plenty going on. It's for sale and I'm sure there's interest.

Watch this space as they say. It'll soon have a new lease of life.

NFC used to qualify their students XCountry through Shannon/Galway but as far as I know they have changed this now to Knock/Abbyshrule...costs seemed to be the issue...I'd imagine they would have sent a fair bit of traffic that way....

dowlingm

A road can be diverted or even tunnelled under a runway. You just have to want to do it and by you I mean the airport owners, the surrounding landowners and the local community. As for Ryanair, they had a long barney with LDY about how long their runway was so don't think that GWY could be extended to what Boeing lists minimum spec as since it may assume the use of short field equipment RYR didn't bother buying for its 738s.

There's a prestige thing going on - it used to be that Shannon was "the West's airport" but after Horan it seems that every GAA jersey must have an airport to call its own and that SNN "wasn't Wesht-enough"

bensweeney

I was talking to a man this morning who said the runway was long enough. I would trust this man with my life.

L1011

bensweeney wrote: »

I was talking to a man this morning who said the runway was long enough. I would trust this man with my life.

Which will end very, very soon if he tries to land you in a 737-800 on it.

The runway is neither long enough or wide enough for a narrowbody jet. It can just about handle a small or low-load regional jet.

bensweeney

MYOB wrote: »

Which will end very, very soon if he tries to land you in a 737-800 on it.

The runway is neither long enough or wide enough for a narrowbody jet. It can just about handle a small or low-load regional jet.

He said Planes could land on Galway airport because it is same size as london city airport.

Joe 90

bensweeney wrote: »

He said Planes could land on Galway airport because it is same size as london city airport.

I'm sure the same planes could, no bother. Only certain aircraft types allowed at London City.

LeftBlank

bensweeney wrote: »

He said Planes could land on Galway airport because it is same size as london city airport.

LCY can't handle 737-800s or A320s.

http://www.lcacc.org/aircraft/index.html#Approval

PapaQuebec

bensweeney wrote: »

He said Planes could land on Galway airport because it is same size as london city airport.

Just measured both using google earth. Galway is significantly shorter than LCY!

castie

bensweeney wrote: »

He said Planes could land on Galway airport because it is same size as london city airport.

LCY

Runways
Direction Length Surface
09/27 1,508m 4,948f Grooved concrete

Direction Length Surface
08/26 1,289m 4,230ft Asphalt



Figures from Wikipedia.

Minimum lengths in a pdf here.
http://www.airportsites.net/MasterPlans/PVD/Final%20mp%20exhibits/CHIII/EX_III-1-9_Rwy-Length.pdf

Remember also LCY cant handle a A319 in business config only taking off to go to the states without stopping at shannon.

xflyer

It can't take the the type of aircraft used by Ryanair or Aer Lingus or Easyjet. But that's not relevent. The reason Aer Arann/Aer Lingus Regional are no longer flying there is because they couldn't fill them. That's the real problem.

No Galway's future lies elsewhere. It can become a nice GA airport with all sorts of activities, flight training etc.

NFC used to qualify their students XCountry through Shannon/Galway but as far as I know they have changed this now to Knock/Abbyshrule...costs seemed to be the issue...I'd imagine they would have sent a fair bit of traffic that way....

Fuel was expensive as were the landing fees. It's opening hours were eccentric leading to students having to divert for fuel if they got their timing wrong.

No one should write the place off yet though. Sligo has survived on much less for years now and it's a great little airport.

dowlingm

Feck sake, made me look it up.

Here are proper comparator airports to the discussion - i.e. ones Mick O'Leary serves
LDY 1967m 6453ft 08/26
KIR 2000m 6562ft 08/26
NOC 2300m 7700ft 09/27

BHD 1829m 6000ft 04/22 < RYR pulls out because 738s weight limited and runway extension delayed.

GWY 1289m 4230ft 08/26

bensweeney - you might want to rethink who you trust with your life. If GWY wants RYR service it needs a FIFTY percent increase in usable runway. I'd rather help Galway transport by adding more passing rail track between Galway and Portarlington and providing dedicated lanes to get buses in and out of Galway towards DUB, NOC and SNN - which would also have the advantage of helping non-airport users.

Timing of this isn't great though - I assume some uplift in light aviation business will be seen around the Volvo yacht thing.

maggy_thatcher

castie wrote: »

Remember also LCY cant handle a A319 in business config only taking off to go to the states without stopping at shannon.

Flight BA1 is an A318, not an A319. There's no way an A319 would be able to take off from LCY with any kind of load.

bensweeney

dowlingm wrote: »

Feck sake, made me look it up.

Here are proper comparator airports to the discussion - i.e. ones Mick O'Leary serves
LDY 1967m 6453ft 08/26
KIR 2000m 6562ft 08/26
NOC 2300m 7700ft 09/27

BHD 1829m 6000ft 04/22 < RYR pulls out because 738s weight limited and runway extension delayed.

GWY 1289m 4230ft 08/26

bensweeney - you might want to rethink who you trust with your life. If GWY wants RYR service it needs a FIFTY percent increase in usable runway. I'd rather help Galway transport by adding more passing rail track between Galway and Portarlington and providing dedicated lanes to get buses in and out of Galway towards DUB, NOC and SNN - which would also have the advantage of helping non-airport users.

Timing of this isn't great though - I assume some uplift in light aviation business will be seen around the Volvo yacht thing.

He could of said heathrow or luton I am not too sure.

bkehoe

xflyer wrote: »

No Galway's future lies elsewhere. It can become a nice GA airport with all sorts of activities, flight training etc.

Fuel was expensive as were the landing fees. It's opening hours were eccentric leading to students having to divert for fuel if they got their timing wrong.

No one should write the place off yet though. Sligo has survived on much less for years now and it's a great little airport.

Are they still sending bills through the post for navigation fees if you talk to them for traffic information or a zone transit?

I remember years back going in there with a friend in a light aircraft, getting fuel and a bite to eat, and when we called up to request start were told that it was denied as in 5 minutes the tower was going for a 1 hour tea break!!! Not notified in the AIP or NOTAMS. We only barely got home before nightfall due to the delay.

Suits

bensweeney wrote: »

He could of said heathrow or luton I am not too sure.

Galway's runway is the same length/width as heathrow's.................? With a statement like that I would question your presence here....

If this guy is going to attempt to land a 737-800 or any jet like it at Galway I want full details on arrival time/date...I'll get my camera out....I'd say an '800 over-running the runway and bursting into flames(which cannot be put out by the 3 guys with a gardening hose that man the fire station there at present) would get me a good few million hits on youtube!:rolleyes:

Suits

bkehoe wrote: »

Are they still sending bills through the post for navigation fees if you talk to them for traffic information or a zone transit?

I remember years back going in there with a friend in a light aircraft, getting fuel and a bite to eat, and when we called up to request start were told that it was denied as in 5 minutes the tower was going for a 1 hour tea break!!! Not notified in the AIP or NOTAMS. We only barely got home before nightfall due to the delay.

Heard a story of a student pilot on a solo xcountry nav who was left holding for 45 mins at Kinvarra because they were on an "extended lunch"..she had to call up Shannon and they had to phone Galway tower to see where they were..?

L1011

bensweeney wrote: »

He could of said heathrow or luton I am not too sure.

He'd be getting progressively more and more wrong if he had.

kub

You can land a 737 400 in Galway......well on FS2002, if one is up for a challenge.
Then to take off....full parking brakes on, full power for 20 seconds, release brakes and off you go,but always through the grass, fence and roadway beyond the end of the runway before it reachs some sort of take off speed.

So it can be done.... in dream world.

If Fr Horan did not build in Knock and if there was no Shannon, then a fully functional airport would be necessary in Galway. But that is not as things turned out.

xflyer

bkehoe wrote: »

Are they still sending bills through the post for navigation fees if you talk to them for traffic information or a zone transit?

I remember years back going in there with a friend in a light aircraft, getting fuel and a bite to eat, and when we called up to request start were told that it was denied as in 5 minutes the tower was going for a 1 hour tea break!!! Not notified in the AIP or NOTAMS. We only barely got home before nightfall due to the delay.

Don't think so, there's only one tower controller there now and he doesn't get a break. The notam specifies the times it's open. It's not open at weekends because the controller needs a couple of days off which is fair enough.

They've given up on all the other stuff because quite frankly the game is up. The staff there are very helpful as they always were in my experience. It's worth noting that several more are finished this weekend. Not their fault.

castie

maggy_thatcher wrote: »

Flight BA1 is an A318, not an A319. There's no way an A319 would be able to take off from LCY with any kind of load.

Sorry my mistake.

Johnny901

Suits;(which cannot be put out by the 3 guys with a gardening hose that man the fire station there at present)

Suits, I don't like the way you are taking the micky out of Galway Airport fire crew, the equipment they use is far from being a garden hose:

http://blues-twos.com/Regional-Airports-UPDATED-11-12-2011

xflyer

Actually they have three tenders, one brand new just out of the box. But it's not in use at the moment. Only one of the three is operational.

Suits

Johnny901 wrote: »

Suits;(which cannot be put out by the 3 guys with a gardening hose that man the fire station there at present)

Suits, I don't like the way you are taking the micky out of Galway Airport fire crew, the equipment they use is far from being a garden hose:

http://blues-twos.com/Regional-Airports-UPDATED-11-12-2011

I apologise.....I didnt mean to single them out. It was more an attempt to show how the airport cant handle large jets. I know they have a good fire crew....I saw them training once when I flew in.

I was exaggerating the extent to which Galway's commercial handling equipment has been mothballed. I didnt mean to offend anyone.

Storm 10

Well its still an operational airport, two Aer Lingus regional aircraft just took off from there in the last hour, there is a maintenance base for Aer Arann and the aircraft are in regular for service etc. The Coastguard and Air Corps also operate there.

bensweeney

Storm 10 wrote: »

Well its still an operational airport, two Aer Lingus regional aircraft just took off from there in the last hour, there is a maintenance base for Aer Arann and the aircraft are in regular for service etc. The Coastguard and Air Corps also operate there.

If Air Lingus can land there why not Ryanair?

maggy_thatcher

bensweeney wrote: »

If Air Lingus can land there why not Ryanair?

Aer Lingus regional. Aer Lingus "regular" can't land there, as the runway isn't long enough for their A320/A330 fleet. Aer Lingus regional is just a branded form of Aer Arann.

crashplan

bensweeney wrote: »

If Air Lingus can land there why not Ryanair?

Cos they were ATR 42/72's run by Aer Arann in Aer Lingus livery.

xflyer

It is still an operational airport and hopefully will remain so but not with scheduled flights. When it's open, it's available for anyone to use it.

Aer Arann still has their maintenance base there, that's presumably why the ATRs were visiting. But they're closing that hangar in May.

Bensweeney it's already been pointed out that 737s and Airbuses cannot use it. Even Aer Arann's ATR72s were restricted. They couldn't be filled up with passengers because the runway was too short.

But open or not it must be bleeding money. The traffic in and out couldn't be covering the costs of keeping it open.

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

bensweeney

I find all this very confusing

Storm 10

bensweeney wrote: »

I find all this very confusing

Aer Lingus Regional is operated by Aer Arann under contract to Aer Lingus, Aer Arann used to operate from Galway but not anymore, Aer Arann have a maintenace base in Galway which is why Aer Lingus aircraft are seen there.

I cannot understand how Aer LIngus could not be approached to operate from Galway, the Aer Arann fares were off the wall which is another reason it failed.

bensweeney

bensweeney wrote: »

How dare you I have no agenda, only the betterment of Connacht. Father James Horan was told the same things about Knock but it was built.

Ben Knock has 28 international routes and SNN has 22, both are within 45 minutes of Galway. SO i would say the vast majority of Galway people are happy.

Suits

Suits wrote: »

Galway's runway is the same length/width as heathrow's.................? With a statement like that I would question your presence here....

If this guy is going to attempt to land a 737-800 or any jet like it at Galway I want full details on arrival time/date...I'll get my camera out....I'd say an '800 over-running the runway and bursting into flames(which cannot be put out by the 3 guys with a gardening hose that man the fire station there at present) would get me a good few million hits on youtube!:rolleyes:

:D, let me know when thats happening....:)

bensweeney

Deleted User wrote: »

Ben Knock has 28 international routes and SNN has 22, both are within 45 minutes of Galway. SO i would say the vast majority of Galway people are happy.

Not true! Name them so

Neworder79

bensweeney wrote: »

Deleted User wrote: »

Ben Knock has 28 international routes and SNN has 22, both are within 45 minutes of Galway. SO i would say the vast majority of Galway people are happy.

Not true! Name them so

Ireland West website:

Scheduled:
Gatwick (AerLingus)
Birmingham (BmiBaby)
Manchester (FlyBe)
Edinburgh (FlyBe)
Leeds Bradford (FlyBe)
Dusseldorf (Lufthansa +4 connections)
Stansted (Ryanair)
Luton (Ryanair)
Bristol (Ryanair)
Liverpool (Ryanair)
East midlands (Ryanair)
Paris (Ryanair)
Milan (Ryanair)
Frankfurt (Ryanair)
Barcelona (Ryanair)
Alicante (Ryanair)
Faro (Ryanair)
Tenerife (Ryanair)
Gran Canaria (Ryanair)
Lanzarote (Ryanair)

Charters:
Dubrovnik
Lanzarote
Izmir
Cadiz
Lourdes
Fatima
Medjugorja
Sumburgh (FlyBe gas company charter)

Shannon has 34 scheduled and charter listed on their homepage.

Cessna_Pilot

My goodness lads stop feeding the thing, its just making it hungrier

highlydebased

Neworder79 wrote: »

Ireland West website:

Scheduled:
Gatwick (AerLingus)
Birmingham (BmiBaby)
Manchester (FlyBe)
Edinburgh (FlyBe)
Leeds Bradford (FlyBe)
Dusseldorf (Lufthansa +4 connections)
Stansted (Ryanair)
Luton (Ryanair)
Bristol (Ryanair)
Liverpool (Ryanair)
East midlands (Ryanair)
Paris (Ryanair)
Milan (Ryanair)
Frankfurt (Ryanair)
Barcelona (Ryanair)
Alicante (Ryanair)
Faro (Ryanair)
Tenerife (Ryanair)
Gran Canaria (Ryanair)
Lanzarote (Ryanair)

Charters:
Dubrovnik
Lanzarote
Izmir
Cadiz
Lourdes
Fatima
Medjugorja
Sumburgh (FlyBe gas company charter)

Shannon has 34 scheduled and charter listed on their homepage.

I'd imagine the Lourdes/Medjuorga are adhoc.

No airport in Cadiz, assumably that is Malaga

eitlean

highlydebased wrote: »

I'd imagine the Lourdes/Medjuorga are adhoc.

No airport in Cadiz, assumably that is Malaga

Cadiz is probably Jerez de la Frontera.

mayotom

highlydebased wrote: »

I'd imagine the Lourdes/Medjuorga are adhoc.

No airport in Cadiz, assumably that is Malaga

Yes that is Jerez in the Cadiz Provence , about 30 minutes drive to Cadiz city.
Now known as "Cadiz-Jerez Airport" XRY

highlydebased

mayotom wrote: »

Yes that is Jerez in the Cadiz Provence , about 30 minutes drive to Cadiz city.

No need to be pedantic, there is no airport called Cadiz.

mayotom

highlydebased wrote: »

No need to be pedantic, there is no airport called Cadiz.

The airport is Marketed by Tourismo Andalucia as Cadiz-Jerez Airport as of late last summer, at the same time Malaga was offically changed to Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport

Also if you want to be Pedantic you could also consider the Airport at Rota on the outskirts of Cadiz, although it is mainly military

L1011

highlydebased wrote: »

I'd imagine the Lourdes/Medjuorga are adhoc.

And Fatima, I'd suspect. Same reason.