AS THE future for travel begins to take place, one bright note for travellers from Ireland to Scotland is the announcement of a service from Edinburgh to Ireland West Airport Knock to launch this September.
The service will be operated by Ryanair, and will offer flights twice weekly between the Scottish capital and the Mayo airport, opening up the west of Ireland to air travel from Scotland and encouraging travel across the Irish Sea.
The new service replaces a route lost when Flybe ceased trading, and is paired with another new Ryanair service from Knock to Manchester.
“The airport were extremely disappointed to lose these two services last year following the ceasing trading of our longstanding partner Flybe, and it has been our priority during the last 12 months to secure a replacement carrier for these services, given the importance and popularity of these markets,” Ireland West Airport Knock managing director Joe Gilmore said. “We thank Ryanair for their continued unwavering support for the airport in expanding their route network during what continues to be the most challenging period in the airport’s history, and, indeed, for aviation globally, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The announcement comes as a rare bit of good news for those eager to travel to Ireland once more, after a year in which the regular flow of traffic across the Irish Sea was reduced to a trickle, and also marks the beginning of what is hoped will be the recovery for international travel from Ireland West Airport Knock.
“Furthermore, this announcement reflects both the airport’s and our airline partners’ commitment to rebuilding and continuing to expand our route network,” Mr Gilmore continued. “And we are confident that with the support of our loyal customer base, local authority partners, stakeholders and government, the airport will return to growth in the not too distant future when international travel recovers from the effects of COVID-19.”
In a statement Ryanair shared the news of their new services, saying, “We are pleased to announce two new routes from Ireland West Airport to Edinburgh and Manchester, commencing in September 2021 and flying twice weekly as part of our Irish summer 2021 schedule.”
dan@theirishvoice.com
