Ryanair to retain London/Kerry evening flight

Ryanair has confirmed the retention of evening flights on its London/Kerry route, at weekends.

Emigrants and regular users of the service had complained about plans by the budget airline to bring forward the Friday departure time from Stansted from 7.30pm to 12 noon, which could force travellers to take a day off work to avail of the flight. The change was due to come into effect from Nov 8.

The Kerry London Association sought a reversal of the decision, saying it would inconvenience hundreds of workers from Kerry, north Cork and Limerick who regularly use the service.

The association said some of its members use the service up to 50 times a year and, on average, each member would use it 10 times a year.

Association chairman and leading civil engineering contractor Dan Tim O’Sullivan said: “This service is vital and the change of time is a disaster. People cannot afford to be taking this time off work but they have to be allowed to get home every weekend to their families.”

Mr O’Sullivan, a regular user of the service, said it would be a shame if Kerry people were forced to use airports like Cork and Shannon so they could do a full day’s work.

Kerry TDs Brendan Griffin and Martin Ferris had also called on the airline to reverse the decision.

Ryanair, meanwhile, said it was finalising flight times for Kerry and all other 179 airports in its network.

“However, we are pleased to confirm that our London Stansted-Kerry departure times for the winter season will be at 18.35hrs on Fridays (from Stansted) and at 20.35hrs on Sundays from Kerry,’’ a spokeswoman said.