2018 the busiest year on record for Knock Airport
2018 has proven to be the busiest year on record at Ireland West Airport with passenger numbers climbing to over 770,000 for the first time in the airport’s history, surpassing the previous record of 750,000 passengers achieved in 2017. The passenger figures represent the third consecutive year of record passenger growth at the airport.
In 2018 771,619 passengers used the airport which represented an increase of 3% on the previous record year in 2017.
The airport now serves 23 International destinations and is served by three of Europe’s major International airlines, Aer Lingus, Flybe and Ryanair.
Despite the ongoing concerns over Brexit, the growth in passenger numbers in 2018 was helped by huge passenger numbers on UK services, with an extra 21,600 passengers travelling to and from the UK, which represented a 3% increase on 2017 numbers.
Passenger numbers using Flybes services to Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester reached record levels whilst over 82,000 passengers travelled on the London Gatwick service with Aer Lingus - the highest number of passengers using their service since the route started in 2009.
In addition Ryanair recorded its busiest ever year for passenger numbers using its Bristol service in 2018.
Services to Continental and Mainland Europe continued to perform strongly with over 110,000 passengers availing of flights to a range of European destinations such as Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga, Lanzarote, Milan, Tenerife and the Costa Dorada and Palma services with TUI Holidays.
2018 was a memorable year as the airport welcomed Pope Francis for a historic visit in August which marked another milestone in the airport’s history.
The airport also embarked on a €15m investment programme aimed at transforming and modernizing the airport to ensure the facility will meet the future needs of both our airline customers and passengers.
A number of major projects were completed in 2018 including the upgrading of toilet facilities, an enhanced arrivals area, new way finding directional signage and the opening of a new state of the art Visitor Discovery Centre in November.