Airport’s charter services ‘not satisfactory’

KERRY Airport, which last year had a slight drop in passenger numbers, is falling behind in relation to charter services, the airport’s annual general meeting has heard.

Kerry Airport chairman Denis Cregan said charters had the potential to increase passenger numbers going through the facility to 50,000, if operated to standards applying at Cork and Knock airports.

But charters flying from Kerry did not seem able to sustain operations from one year to the next, he told yesterday’s AGM.

“We must be more proactive in developing tour operator business. Going forward, the airport has some work to do on charter activity. It is not satisfactory,” he said.

While there was ‘severe competition’ from Cork and Shannon airports, Mr Cregan said Kerry was unable to cash in on its advantages, especially in relation to ease of access.

“We hope Falcon/JWT will perform somewhat better than in the past. We should be doing better with charter services, but we’re not,” he told shareholders.

Charters mainly operate to sun destinations, with Falcon JWT having a weekly service from Kerry to Majorca.

The airport has regular scheduled services to Dublin, Manchester, Lorient, Stansted, Luton and Frankfurt /Hahn.

Last year, 387,943 passengers went through the airport, compared with 392,960 the previous year. The 1.3 per cent drop was due to the ending of the Kerry/Liverpool service, lower levels of diverted traffic and a reduction in charter traffic.

On a turnover of almost €7 million, Kerry Airport had an operating profit of €315,868 compared to €459,916 the previous year.

Mr Cregan said Ryanair, which replaces Aer Arann from the end of July in operating the Public Service Obligation contract for flights between Kerry and Dublin, would have bigger carriers but would be offering one flight less per day.

He said that this was a downside.