Kerry Airport eyeing up new routes

Passenger numbers at Kerry Airport fell slightly in 2014, according to the regional airport’s results announced yesterday.

More than 295,000 people used the airport which has a regional connection to Dublin, along with two London connections and regular flights to Frankfurt Hahn in Germany. Summer connections include Faro in Portugal and Alicante in Spain. In all 295,521 passengers travelled through Kerry Airport in 2014. The numbers represented an annual drop of 4%. This was largely due to airline consolidation, according to the airport.

However, the Kerry to Dublin and Dublin to Kerry regional flight, which is subsidised under the public service obligation grant, saw growth of 13.5% and this is regarded as crucial to the airport’s continuing growth.

The contract was renegotiated last year and is secure until 2018. The numbers using the regional flight remain strong in 2015, according to an airport spokesperson. Tourists are accounting for much of the growth in the regional usage, it is understood.

The airport recorded a profit after tax of almost €19,000, up from just over €4,100 in 2013. Turnover amounted to €6m — a 4% annual drop. However, administration costs were cut by some €200,000, down from €4.6m to €4.4m. The PSO flights are linking with six US city flights into Dublin as well as with Etihad Airlines to the Middle East and Australia with onward baggage and other arrangements.

Chairman of Kerry Airport, Denis Cregan, said management was actively negotiating other connections with Kerry from the UK and from Germany.