Buoyant Knock Airport helps to deliver 100,000 visitors to the Galway region

One in four Irish passengers using Knock in 2013 came from the Galway region – whilst one in every two visitors who came from abroad to the West visited Galway during their stay, according to research carried out by the airport itself.

This equates to over 100,000 visitors to the Galway region in 2013 who used the airport as their access point, highlighting the importance of the airport as a major international gateway to Galway and the West of Ireland.

And this promises to be another milestone year at Ireland West Airport Knock with the year ahead forecasted to be the busiest ever year in the airports history with passenger numbers expected to exceed 700,000 for the first time.

In 2013, the annual number of passengers using Ireland West Knock reached 665,000 – the second highest traffic figures at the airport since it opened in 1986. The Airport now serves over 25 International destinations and is served by four of Europes biggest airlines Aer LIngus, Flybe, Germanwings & Ryanair.

The Gathering provided a major boost for passenger numbers in 2013 particularly from key markets in the UK, Italy and Germany with particular highlights including a seven per cent increase in traffic on London services; a 23 per cent jump in traffic from the Italian market on Ryanair’s Milan service, and a 28 per cent hike in traffic from the German market on Lufthansa’s Dusseldorf service.

New destinations for 2014 include a new twice weekly service from Eindhoven in Holland which commences at the beginning of April. This new service represents a significant milestone for the airport and western region as it provides scheduled direct air access for the first time from the Benelux region, which has a population of over 28m people and is a growing tourism market to Ireland.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.