Strandhill Airport and Public Service Obligation

bobcar61

Has anybody seen this?

http://www.sligotoday.ie/details.php?id=12793

What do people think? If they do start operating from Sligo, where do you think they might fly to? Do you reckon it will just be the 2 Daily to Dublin or would they add some extra routes like to the Isle of man (their main base) or Belfast, another one of their bases?

Neworder79

Could work, they are operating Cork - Belfast commercially with a 19 seat aircraft which would be cheaper to run and makes more sense than running half empty subsidised service.

bobcar61

I would have my doubts about a Sligo-Belfast route, I think they currently also do Galway-Belfast and from what I've heard it's not the most successful so I can't imagine Sligo-Belfast doing much better.

On the other hand, I think they have the right equipment for doing a route to Dublin, it's less than half the size of the ATR's that Aer Arann operated so they would have a better chance of filling the seats.

Mint Sauce

bobcar61 wrote: »

Has anybody seen this?

http://www.sligotoday.ie/details.php?id=12793

What do people think? If they do start operating from Sligo, where do you think they might fly to? Do you reckon it will just be the 2 Daily to Dublin or would they add some extra routes like to the Isle of man (their main base) or Belfast, another one of their bases?

Hopefully they would continue the twice daily Sligo/Dublin service and maybe a once or twice a week regional service somewhere else within the Island.

Being a IoM Carrier they might introduce a connecting service to selected regional British airports via the IoM, although that might be pie in the sky thinking (think they or City jet already do similar from Belfast or Dublin to London City via IoM).

mayfly1

All, great debate taking place on this issue. Bottom line from reading the Value for Money report from the DoT which they say they have spent much time and energy compiling:
Recommendations

· Exchequer support for regional airports in Connaught should be focused on Knock Airport, which can adequately serve both Galway and Sligo with a greater range of services than offered by Galway or Sligo Airports. This focus on Knock should also increase Knock’s “critical mass” and enhance its finances. Galway city will also have the benefit of improving journey times to Shannon Airport.
· The Donegal-Dublin PSO service should be retained and the PSO services from Dublin to Kerry, Galway, Sligo, Knock and Derry should be ended. Donegal is relatively remote in Irish terms. The cost per passenger of subsidising PSO services is difficult to justify at the other airports having regard to improved public transport and/or road journey times to Dublin. A commercial service from Dublin to Kerry may be feasible because of latent demand for the current service (100,000 passengers per annum).
· Continuing OPEX support at Donegal, Knock, Kerry and Waterford should be provided subject to stringent assessment of annual requests for subvention and encouragement of greater efficiency through the use of benchmarking/ performance indicators.
· Opex support for Galway and Sligo should end.
· Capex grants would be confined to essential safety and security work and would be of the order of €10m in the next few years.


Either way if one takes the above on board or not, critical mass and passenger throughput is key to making airports viable, and international research indicates that one much be in exces of 1m pax plus to achieve any level of efficiencies/cost recovery. None of the current western airports are at this level, and even Shannon is appaently losing €10-20m plus in 2010..from media press reports,however they have the DAA to support them (as individual accounts are not publised this cant be verified one way or other). Therefore my conclusion is that they may be room for one airport in the west outside of Shannon..to survive and grow, and even at that continued government interventions will be required.

bobcar61

mayfly1 wrote: »

All, great debate taking place on this issue. Bottom line from reading the Value for Money report from the DoT which they say they have spent much time and energy compiling:
Recommendations

· Exchequer support for regional airports in Connaught should be focused on Knock Airport, which can adequately serve both Galway and Sligo with a greater range of services than offered by Galway or Sligo Airports. This focus on Knock should also increase Knock’s “critical mass” and enhance its finances. Galway city will also have the benefit of improving journey times to Shannon Airport.
· The Donegal-Dublin PSO service should be retained and the PSO services from Dublin to Kerry, Galway, Sligo, Knock and Derry should be ended. Donegal is relatively remote in Irish terms. The cost per passenger of subsidising PSO services is difficult to justify at the other airports having regard to improved public transport and/or road journey times to Dublin. A commercial service from Dublin to Kerry may be feasible because of latent demand for the current service (100,000 passengers per annum).
· Continuing OPEX support at Donegal, Knock, Kerry and Waterford should be provided subject to stringent assessment of annual requests for subvention and encouragement of greater efficiency through the use of benchmarking/ performance indicators.
· Opex support for Galway and Sligo should end.
· Capex grants would be confined to essential safety and security work and would be of the order of €10m in the next few years.


Either way if one takes the above on board or not, critical mass and passenger throughput is key to making airports viable, and international research indicates that one much be in exces of 1m pax plus to achieve any level of efficiencies/cost recovery. None of the current western airports are at this level, and even Shannon is appaently losing €10-20m plus in 2010..from media press reports,however they have the DAA to support them (as individual accounts are not publised this cant be verified one way or other). Therefore my conclusion is that they may be room for one airport in the west outside of Shannon..to survive and grow, and even at that continued government interventions will be required.

Very true, but there is space for one airport to grow in the West apart from Shannon and that's Knock. Every year the airport is expanding services to the UK and in the last couple of years there are scheduled sun routes from Ryanair and this was expanded with 3 new sun routes to the Canaries. And in the last few weeks, FlyBe announced a new route to Edinburgh with connections. Knock is obviously a cheap place for Ryanair to operate and cheaper than Shannon, in the past few years Knock has been getting some of the traffic which was cut in Shannon by Ryanair.

Essexboy

dingding wrote: »

In the past 20 years:-

The dual carriageway to collooney.
The Curlews bypass
The Carrick On Shannon Bypass
Bypassing the towns between Carrick and Longford.
THE dual carriageway / dromod bypass.
THe Longford Bypass

The Mullingar Bypass
The Dual Carriage way from Mullingar to Dublin bypassing all the towns.
The M50
Bypass all the towns in Dublin such as palmerstown, lucan, etc...


The large amount of towns that you had to drive through that are now bypassed.

You left out the N52 Tullamore Bypass!

Most of the roads you list were built to serve other communities outside the county, not Sligo travellers.

According to the Border Regional Authority Planning Guidelines 2010 – 2022 www.border.ie/.../Border%20Regional%20Authority%20RPGs%202010- 2022.pdf
“ two significant substandard sections remain and their improvement is a
priority for this route:-
• N4 Carrick-on-Shannon Bypass
• N4 Collooney – Castlebaldwin
• Upgrading of N4 from Carrick-on-Shannon to Castlebaldwin {from single carriageway to 2+2} “
Whatever happened to the promise of motorway/dual carriageway from Mullingar to Sligo?

Incidentally, according to these guidelines "Advance planning and design for an outer bypass of the town [ie Sligo] should be progressed during the life of these Guidelines."
Outer bypass? route selection should be interesting.

cassi

It would be a pity If the airport loses flights but to be honest I didn't see it being sustainable as it is. I've used it before and will be using it again in April both because I'll already be in the airport and its cheaper and much quicker than getting the train. It would be great if something could be worked out for the airport, not only to service the area but for the people whos jobs depend on it being there.

Basq

Ah well.. that's that then!

From July 21, Aer Arann will no longer schedule flights to Dublin from Galway, Sligo and Knock as Public Service Obligation (PSO) contracts come to an end.

Chairman Pádraig Ó Céidigh told RTÉ today that the airline can no longer operate the routes as they are not financially viable.

PSO arrangements, which provide subsidies for some regional routes to airlines, for flight schedules from Galway, Sligo and Knock end on July 21.

Ó Céidigh said passenger numbers had been continuous declining in the past few years and there were no talks underway with the Department of Transport to renew PSOs.

PSO is to continue for Donegal (Aer Arann) and for Kerry (Ryanair) after July 21

Source

Mint Sauce

Basq wrote: »

Ah well.. that's that then!


Source

Looks like its back to the train and bus unless another operater such as Manx comes in, or make more use of Knock.

Neworder79

If the 100s of millions spent on PSO flights had gone into the Atlantic Corridore we'd have high quality road to Knock in 30 mins. Probably never happen now and left with the rally track from Colooney to Curry.

GG66

I believe it's already been said:

If you're going to Dublin on Business the train is just as quick after you take into account waiting time to board and getting from Dublin airport to city centre.

If you're flying onwards, then Knock to Gatwick, stansted, Manchester or birmingham presents lots of options for international slights.

Subsidising this is a waste of public money for the few who use it.. Better spent on improving road and train infrastructure IMHO

peasant

Would be nice though if someone filled this hole with a bus service straight to Dublin airport ...possibly at more convenient times (slightly earlier and later) than the flight ever was.

Don't particularly fancy a three hour train ride, hauling luggage to Bus Aras, another three quarter hour bus ride ...just to get to the airport.

Yes I know there is one (yes one!) Bus Eirann connection in the middle of the night straight to the airport ...but surely there must be room for more at slightly more humane times.

Wester

peasant wrote: »

Yes I know there is one (yes one!) Bus Eirann connection in the middle of the night straight to the airport ...but surely there must be room for more at slightly more humane times.

Saw this in one of the local papers and a search on the bus eireann Web site confirms it. According to the new timetable, applicable from April 11, there is a bus leaving sligo at 7.15 a.m. and dropping off at the airport at 10.20 so that's slightly more sane, if still an early start. A return bus leaves the airport at 11.20, arriving in Sligo at 14.35 http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1301927133-23.pdf

Neworder79

Ireland West Airport bus times for those of an open mind:

Depart Sligo Bus Station (Journey 55min, weekdays)
0600 0800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

Depart Ireland West Airport (Journey 60min, weekdays)
0745 1030 1215 1345 1555 1745 1955

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1266419677-64.pdf

Ryanair, Aer Lingus, FlyBe, BMI have direct flights to:

Alicante
Birmingham
Bristol
East Midlands
Edinburgh
Faro
Gran Canaria
Lanzarote
Leeds Bradford
Liverpool
London Gatwick
London Luton
London Stansted
Manchester
Barcelona
Tenerife

Holiday flights to other destinations:
Cadiz
Dubrovnik
Faro
Fatima
Lanzarote
Lourdes
Medjugorie

saywhatyousee

Neworder79 wrote: »

Ireland West Airport bus times for those of an open mind:

Depart Sligo Bus Station (Journey 55min, weekdays)
0600 0800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

Depart Ireland West Airport (Journey 60min, weekdays)
0745 1030 1215 1345 1555 1745 1955

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1266419677-64.pdf

Ryanair, Aer Lingus, FlyBe, BMI have direct flights to:

Alicante
Birmingham
Bristol
East Midlands
Edinburgh
Faro
Gran Canaria
Lanzarote
Leeds Bradford
Liverpool
London Gatwick
London Luton
London Stansted
Manchester
Barcelona
Tenerife

Holiday flights to other destinations:
Cadiz
Dubrovnik
Faro
Fatima
Lanzarote
Lourdes
Medjugorie

What company flys to dubrovnik?I was thinking of goin there in the summer would be a dream if i could fly from knock

Neworder79

It's on the airports website. Concorde travel have weekly flights for the summer. http://www.irelandwestairport.com/flightinformation/charter_flight_timetables.aspx