Knock figures to grow in Shannon’s shadow

AS SHANNON struggles with passenger figures, Ryanair’s new routes from Germany, France, Italy and Spain landing at Knock Airport will bring in an additional 30,000 tourists and generate 40 new jobs at the airport, it said this week. New services from Barcelona, Paris and Frankfurt with Ryanair arrived in before lunch time with German, French and Spanish tourists greeted as they landed on Irish soil by the Minister for State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring.

The new services are expected to bring over 30,000 new tourists to the region with the potential of generating an associated tourism spend of over €23m for the local economy and Ireland West Knock will be the only airport along the entire West Coast of Ireland providing direct low cost jet access to these major European markets.
The airport expects to have its busiest year in 2012 with over 710,000 passengers passing through the airport, it forecast.