Ireland West Airport Knock has benefited from a fallout between Ryanair and Shannon Airport. Due to Shannon’s refusal of Ryanair’s offer to keep four aircraft based in Shannon, Ryanair decided to switch the popular Faro (Portugal ) route from Shannon to Ireland West Airport. Shannon’s loss is Knock’s gain and the new route is a welcome addition to IWAK’s ever expanding selection of routes.
The new route is bookable on www.ryanair.com now and has been made available due to lower costs at IWAK in comparison to higher costs at Shannon, according to a Ryanair spokesperson.
The twice weekly service from IWAK to the hugely popular holiday destination is due to commence on March 30 2010 and is the second scheduled European service from IWAK, following the introduction of the hugely successful twice weekly service to Alicante which commenced last June and will recommence on March 29 2010.
The addition of the new Faro service will complement Ryanair’s existing network of routes at Ireland West Knock which include daily scheduled services to Liverpool, London Luton and London Stansted airports in addition to the four-times-a-week services to East Midlands and Bristol, their twice weekly summer service to Alicante and the recently announced three-times-a-week service to Leeds Bradford which starts on March 25 2010. The new Faro service will operate during the 2010 summer season from March to October. It is expected that this latest expansion by Ryanair at Ireland West Knock will generate an estimated 16,000 additional annual passengers at the airport.
Welcoming the announcement, Joe Gilmore, managing director, IWAK said: “The addition of this European service from Ireland West Knock is another significant step in the airport’s development as we expand our scheduled services to now include a second popular European sun destination. Ryanair’s continued growth from Ireland West Knock is further good news for passengers and we are sure this new Faro service will prove hugely popular with holidaymakers in the west, north west and midlands regions of Ireland.
“Despite the recession, Ireland West Knock continues to attract new destinations and this latest round of expansion from Ryanair underlines the airline's continued confidence in IWAK.”
