Ireland West Airport Knock



This airport is an oddity in so many ways. IWAK, to give its rather unlovely local abbreviation, serves the village of Knock (population: 811) and its hinterland (population: not a lot more). It was built at the behest of the late Mgr. James Horan, who while he was priest at Knock also built a new basilica for the Knock Shrine, a place of pilgrimage. Mgr. Horan got the money for the airport via a lottery called the Jumbo Draw. The airport opened in October 1985, and though the number of flights remains very modest (the flight information display screens show flights 2 days off), it nevertheless handles about 700,000 passengers a year, similar to Inverness. The airport, once described as "the white elephant on a foggy, boggy hillside in Mayo" takes quite a battering from the weather, the exterior already looks dated. Inside is smarter, but basic comfort rather than shiny.






Services to and from LGW:
There is a daily Aer Lingus flight, EI911/912 with British Airways codeshare numbers BA2071 and BA2070, from and to LGW. The aircraft does a back to back at Knock. The aircraft serves Dublin before and after the LGW-NOC-LGW services. However as far as I can tell, there are no interesting fares available out of NOC, certainly compared to ORK, SNN and DUB. The inclusion of this airport here is just for completeness since there are 4 Aer Lingus mainline services to/from Ireland and the UK.

Back to back potential:
Well the potential and process is superb, but I just can't see the point of it since NOC fares are not competitive compared to ORK or SNN, let alone DUB. But the single flight requires at least 40 minutes to turn round at NOC, it takes 3 minutes to get back to the gate and it is guaranteed to be the same aircraft in as well as out.



Back to back process and timings
I timed a potential back to back in 3 minutes (I was actually going on to a Flybe service). There is almost impossible to miss your return flight give the turnaround time. The one caveat would be difficulties getting a boarding pass (see post 6), however if you can't get it via BA.com or aerlingus.com, it should be possible to get it at LGW before departure. The process is: walk off aircraft via apron, passport control (very quick), through to baggage reclaim, out to landside, then turn right towards the check-in desks, security is on the far side. The first thing you do on entering the security check entrance is pay your Airport Development Fee of 10€, see below. Then around the corner for a boarding pass check, security, the Shop West emporium and then the small seating area by the departure gate. This will then lead to a walk back across the apron.


Overnight potential:
There's no obvious reason for doing an overnight here. There aren't many hotel options locally either.

Airport Development Fee.

As stifle put it on the Aer Lingus forum: don't forget to put 10€ into the collection plate as you leave. In reality there isn't any optionality about it, a Development Fee of 10€ is charged to all departing passengers from Ireland West Airport Knock aged 12 years and over. You can pay with cash or credit card at the booth just before security, or at the landside shops / café when making other purchases. This seems to be a feature of small airports trying/hoping to get bigger, similar (but lower) fees are charged at Newquay and Durham Tees Valley, which strike me as a way of allowing low cost carriers to keep their headline fares down and then using the money to subsidise services which wouldn't otherwise run.

Lounge access for BAEC members:
Despite being one of the smallest airports I've ever used, I couldn't initially find the lounge! It's by gate 3 (and there are only 3 gates). This lounge is open to Aer Lingus Gold Circle members. But it is not available to BA cardholders, which I suspect is an oversight somewhere down the line. At some point I expect this to be corrected if Aer Lingus joins oneworld. Priority Pass is accepted as is cash. Important: the lounge is not staffed, entry is through a code number pad. You best get the code from the information desk landside. They can do it from the shop airside, but it's not the preferred way of doing it. It's not a big lounge, the middle photo was taken at the far end.







There is also no lounge for BAEC members at LGW South - this stopped when the Aspire lounge in LGW South was closed in May 2015. Aer Lingus now uses No. 1 Traveller there, but the arrangement only extends to Gold Circle members. Priority Pass is accepted there, however.


Hotel options:
There are no hotels within reasonable walking distance of the airport. There are a few hotels in Swinford and Charlestown, both about 15 minutes drive away. There is one hotel in Knock.

Travel to central Knock:
There are bus services from the airport to Knock, Ballina, Castlebar, Westport, Swinford, Charlestown - with onward connections to Belfast and Dublin. There are less frequent services from the airport to Galway, Sligo, Londonderry/Derry, In all cases the service frequency isn't good so best to research before travel.

What to see in Knock
The Knock Shrine is the obvious entry for this paragraph. Outdoor types will also have plenty to do locally, and there is also access to the Wild Atlantic Way, a long distance driving route along the rugged coastline.

Other services from Knock
There are other services from NOC with Ryanair to Stansted, Luton, East Midlands and Liverpool, and Flybe to Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham (last two are seasonal). In addition there are some European summer sunshine destinations, typically running once a week.

Airport services:
ATM machine, Knock Shrine Shop, XL News Agent, Hertz, Europcar, Budget and Avis car hire (all landside), duty free shop, several food and drink options both landside and airside. The airport has a free wifi service throughout.

Miscellaneous

• One 747 aircraft has visited the airport - this was a charter flight, carrying 500 passengers to/from Lourdes. Photos of this event are available online.

Website links:
Airport website: http://www.irelandwestairport.com/
On A Wing and A Prayer: Musical based on the story behind Knock Airport: http://wingandprayermusical.com/