Ireland West Airport expecting busiest period in its history this month
Ireland West Airport is expecting more than 50,000 passengers this month.
They predict that 30,000 passengers will walk through the airport over the Christmas period, making it the busiest in the airport's history.
They said that passenger numbers estimated to arrive and depart at the airport over the Christmas period are expected to be up 6% compared with the same time last year.
Their busiest day of the year will be Friday, December 21, for passengers arriving at the airport when they say more than 2,500 are set to pass through the airport.
This year will be the third consecutive year of growth at Ireland West Airport with passenger numbers set to reach 772,000 for the first time – 3% up on 2017 figures.
Additional capacity added by Ryanair on their Bristol and Milan services and record numbers using Flybe’s services to Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh have contributed to record-breaking numbers at the airport in 2018. Also, Aer Lingus will have their busiest year to date on their Gatwick service.
Looking ahead to next year, they expect another year of growth following the announcement of a new twice-weekly service to Cologne in Germany with Ryanair, which starts on June 1 and the introduction of an additional 26,000 seats on their Barcelona and Bristol services respectively by Ryanair.
Joe GIlmore, Managing Director, Ireland West Airport, said: "2018 has been another strong year of growth with passenger numbers reaching record levels. The convenience, hassle-free nature of the airport combined with our increasing route network continues to prove popular with people in the West, North West and Midlands regions of the country and we thank them for their ongoing support.
"In addition to passenger growth, 2018 has been a memorable year as we welcomed Pope Francis to the airport for a historic visit. We also completed a number of major infrastructural projects aimed at transforming and modernizing the airport to ensure the facility will meet the future needs of both our airline customers and passengers and we thank the Government, local representatives and our local authority stakeholders for their continued support in this regard.
"I would also like to say a special word of thanks to the staff at the airport for their hard work and continued focus on ensuring the customer and passenger experience through the airport is both a safe and welcoming one in light of some very challenging weather conditions this year and for ensuring operations run smoothly over what’s a very busy time operationally over the Christmas period’.
