[mikekilo]

Aer Arann has been re-awarded four
Public Service Obligation regional air
routes by the Transport Department.

The airline will continue to operate
scheduled services on routes linking
Dublin with the regional airports in
Galway, Kerry, Sligo and Donegal.

Scottish regional carrier Loganair has
been awarded the contract for the
operation of routes linking Dublin with
Knock and City of Derry airports.

The new PSO contracts, which will last
for three years, will receive E45.8m in
subvention funding.

[Michael J Gallagher]

Knock a bit of a surprise but overall good news.I heard that Logan were offered Sligo and Donegal but didn't accept, so the tourch went to Arann.
The Government must not be Happy with RE.

So what will happen at NOC? will RE stay?

[StephenM]

Not a great outcome for us. 1 flight a day? The only airport in Ireland with 1 flight a day! (1 flight a day as mentioned on pprune).
I suppose we will loose the Liverpool flight too.

[Michael J Gallagher]

StephenM don't get too upset this is great news for Knock,Logan in time will offer a two flights to Dublin the team in knock are confident of that.No doubt we'll be getting a flight to Scoutland soon.
And heres the hit taken from the Loganair website

"Loganair has been awarded a contract by the Irish government to operate air services between Derry - Dublin and Knock - Dublin.

The British Airways franchise partner has received confirmation that it has secured the right to operate the public service obligation (PSO) routes from July 22 for a three year period.

Jim Cameron, Loganair's Chief Executive, said: "Loganair has been operating the double daily scheduled air service between Derry and Dublin for the last four years. During that period we have developed the passenger traffic from a standing start to today's 32,000 passengers per annum.

" Even more exciting is the award of the additional route between Knock and Dublin and we are confident that we will develop the potential of this route, also through the introduction of additional services."

The services will be operated with 34 seat Saab 340B aircraft, which are the mainstay of Loganair's scheduled service operations, primarily in Scotland but now, increasingly, in Ireland.

Loganair operates scheduled services to more destinations in Ireland from Scotland than any other airline.

Loganair already has a significant presence in Derry with daily flights to Glasgow, a route it has operated for 26 years. Cork is also served by daily flights to Glasgow, whilst Galway to Glasgow operates six days per week."

Logan has more to offer this airport, bye bye Arann.

[dowlingm]

Do the Loganair flights from Derry have BA flight numbers?

[EIDEL]

M>J>R. Are you an undercover pr agent for Loganair. Back off aer arrann .Stop throwing it away. The secret agent for fair play

[StephenM]

Thanks for that Michael.

[Michael J Gallagher]

On the topic of Knock,

BMIbaby will be offering a twice daily service from Knock-Birmingham only on Mon,Wed,Thurs and Fridays. Starting from July

Good to here the route is doing good

[StephenM]

That is good news. So MYL and BMI were doing well together on that route I take it earlier in the year.

[Michael J Gallagher]

I was expecting an extra flight to BHX but not from BMI i thought they had an a/c shortage. Kinda bad for competition

MTL and BMI did very well head to head loads were good.

Ryanair are not the main airline up at NOC any more.

[StephenM]

Hmm a monopoly is'nt great either, I'll admit that. Maybe loads are significantly high enough on the BHX route to pull the aircraft from somewhere else?

I see that Swiss air and Spanair were in NOC today... Good for the charter side of things.

[Michael J Gallagher]

The summer season is well under way at knock, Spaniar are using a mixture of A321,A320 and MD-83. quite a variety there and Swiss are using the A319 a cahange from their Avro/RJ.

I sometimes see eirjet up there but dont know what route they are operating.

Not Bad for the Foggy Boggy Hill

[StephenM]

lol, no. I was up there today, to watch the EZY backtracking while RYR lined up in front of it The BMI BHX flight was about 1hr 20mins late! But interesting to hear the BMI (MAN flight) taxing with its comm's door open, the EZY pilot spotted it though.

[dowlingm]

Does the Swiss flight carry mostly Swiss or Irish pax? If Swiss, it certainly is one in the eye for those who write off NOC as a destination for charters rather than just sun hols for Connaught folk!

[Michael J Gallagher]

I think its mainly Swiss who use the flight,but this flight has been operating for many years,every summer on a Saturday.I can also remember Lufthansa used to operating flights to Germany every Saturday.I think it just shows there is a demand out there for a flight to continental Europe from Knock.

United travel have city break flights ex Knock to Amsterdam,Rome,Prague and Warshaw this year.