Four new Ryanair routes from Ireland West Airport Knock to Barcelona (Girona ), Frankfurt (Hahn ), Milan (Bergamo ), and Paris (Beauvais ) will commence from April 2012 — the introduction of which is a “game changer” for tourism in the west of Ireland.
The announcement of these routes was made by CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, at the airport on Monday morning, where Mr O’Leary said: “This is another great day in the history of IWAK, which is connecting the airport with the biggest tourist markets in Europe.” The Ryanair CEO continued that IWAK is allowing these “low cost getaways” for continental Europeans— “IWAK is showing other airports how to grow.”
Ryanair’s 14 routes from Knock will deliver some 500,000 passengers a year, sustaining some 500 local jobs in the Mayo region.
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny welcomed the announcement and urged that those in the west region need to make visitors from these areas welcome and leave a good impression on them to ensure that they, and those they tell about their experience, will return.
Liam Scallon, chairman of the airport, said that out of all the announcements made at the airport over the past number of years this is the announcement that he is happiest about as “the significance of this is enormous — it’s a game changer”.
Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland, said that there is “unlimited potential” in tapping into the German, French, Italian, and Spanish tourism markets, attracting those who wish to visit Mayo and the west of Ireland.
Helen Rochford Brennan, chair of the Western Development Commission, said the announcement is great news as the WDC has continually advocated for increased international air access into the west and these new routes “mark a very significant milestone in achieving that goal”.
Minister for Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring, said: “This is a very positive development from a tourism perspective and will provide greater ease of access to the west for business and leisure travellers from the European mainland, an important target market for Irish tourism.”
