Mr. Joe Gilmore:

Good morning Chairman and other members of joint committee. I am pleased to be here this morning to present a short presentation on Ireland West Airport Knock. The first slide shows our location and catchment area. We service a population of between 800,000 and 1 million people. Our customer base is primarily the Connacht and western region. We also have a broader catchment into counties Donegal and Fermanagh, up into the midlands and down into Clare. We have quite an extensive population and geographical land mass.

We currently service 28 international destinations. Our primary market is the UK to which we have ten scheduled services, including to three airports in London - Stanstead, Gatwick and Luton - as well as Bristol, Birmingham, East Midlands, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and up into Scotland. We have quite a number of southern European routes into Portugal and Spain, including the Canary Islands. Most recently, we have developed an important European access to Paris, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Milan, which has been positive from an inbound tourism perspective, particularly in summer 2012.

Our main carriers are Lufthansa, which is the largest airline in Europe - Knock is one of only two airports it flies to in the Republic of Ireland - FlyBe, which is Europe's largest regional airline carrier, Aer Lingus, Aer Lingus regional and Ryanair.

We also have several airlines that use the airport and provide charter services to various destinations. As I have outlined, we serve 28 international routes and our passenger growth for a small airport has been very impressive. Passenger numbers have grown by 350% in the past ten years. The rate of growth in 2011 was 11% and this year will be 5%. This is in an environment in which most other airports in the Republic are suffering significant declines. We currently account for 45% of the seat capacity to the United Kingdom from the western seaboard. This means we serve 750,000 airline seats between the United Kingdom and Ireland across ten destinations. The airport provides significant capacity and air access from the west to the important UK market.

There has been confusion at different times about who owns the airport. It is owned by a statutory trust that was signed over by the then Minister for Transport, the late Mr. Séamus Brennan, in 1991. It was effectively handed back to the people of the region to be run by it and signed over to what was effectively a community trust. The trust delegates responsibility for the running of the airport to a private limited company, Connaught Airport Development Company, CADCO, of which we are directors, with the aims of operating the airport, stimulating access, development and enterprise for the western region. We currently handle 65 weekly flights, with passenger numbers this year set to reach 700,000. Our runway is 2,300 m long, 45 m wide and the third largest in the Republic. Accordingly, the airport can cater for all types of jet aircraft. Previously, we handled services to the US east coast. We have full capability, with a category 2 instrument landing system, ILS. Prior to 2008, there were rumours that the airport had issues with fog and low cloud. Since the new landing system was put in place, this is a thing of the past. We operate independently from the State airports on a fully commercial remit. Any dividend or profit made is fully invested back into the airport operations. The trustees are voluntary and receive no dividends. The sole owner of the airport is the Horan International Trust.

We view it as a progressive modern airport, as well as a lean, low cost facility with a lean management team. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport acknowledged this on a recent visit to the airport. It was also acknowledged in a departmental value for money review. The percentage of flights without delay is over 99%. The airport staff multitask, while over 66% are cross-trained in most disciplines. The operational subvention under the core operational support scheme was 87 cent per passenger. In other State-owned regional airports the figure is in the region of €6 to €8 per passenger. The airport's turnover in 2011 was €12.5 million and there was a net loss of €390,000. We fund 94% of our operating costs which include air traffic control which is not funded by the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA. We fund our own air traffic control, security, fire service, ground services and ground handling services. The airport employs 101 full-time workers, as well an additional 50 to 60 seasonal workers. This summer we provided 40 additional jobs for seven months owing to increased traffic and new flights. A recent Ernst & Young economic scoping report indicates the airport supports 900 jobs in the region, with a tourism spend in excess of €100 million and an annual GVA, gross value added, contribution of €17 million.