Regrettably CityJet has informed Ireland West Airport Knock that it has decided that, due to increased fuel and aircraft costs and logistical issues, it will not be in a position to take up the PSO route from Ireland West Knock to Dublin. This route was awarded to the airline following the Department of Transport’s tendering process earlier this year.

 

Mr. Geoffrey O’Byrne White, Chief Executive CityJet said that: "As a result, and despite our sustained best efforts and the consistent and valued support of Ireland West Airport management, CityJet, having reviewed the project and the airline could not justify commencing the route as the market could not sustain the costs of allocating one of its AVRO RJ jets for the service, or wet leasing (subcontracting) a smaller aircraft from another airline.

 

“We bid to provide services from a number of Irish regional airports including Ireland West Knock and Donegal. This bid was based on the fact that CityJet had recently acquired the Belgian airline VLM, subject to regulatory approval by the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Access to the VLM aircraft would give us a much wider turboprop fleet for development of these types of routes,” he explained.

 

“We were awarded the contract for Ireland West Knock only, which limits the market at a time when costs are increasing, and critically, we are still awaiting regulatory approval for our takeover of VLM from the Office of Fair Trade (OFT). We are confident of a positive outcome, but the process is taking longer than we expected. This means that we cannot yet finalise the integration plans with VLM, and we cannot commit a VLM aircraft outside our core network at this point. As a result, and despite our sustained best efforts, CityJet, having reviewed the position, regrets that we are unable to proceed with the Ireland West Knock-Dublin service and accordingly must withdraw," he said.

 

Ireland West Airport Knock expresses our regret at this decision and is maintaining a close watching brief on the matter including seeking guidance from the Irish Department of Transport as to the next steps in this process.  We will endeavour to provide our Dublin passengers with as much up-to-date information as possible with respect to when flight booking services might be available with the airline which may be now awarded the contract and we advise passengers to keep an eye on our website www.irelandwestairport.com for this information. Aer Arann will be operating flight services on this route up until July 21^st next.

                                                           

tel.. 01 6041594