Kerry Airport

About Us

Origin

Kerry Airport plc was incorporated as a public limited company in July 1968 with its main object of building and managing an airport at Farranfore. Various share capital fund raising programmes were undertaken and together with grant assistance from various statutory bodies over the years, the airport has developed from a runway of 1,090m x 23m commissioned in 1969 to a runway of 1239m x 30m commissioned in 1989 and a new runway 2,000m x 45m was opened in May 1994.On 25/8/69 the first aircraft to land at Kerry was piloted by Capt. Milo Carr of the Dept. of Transport and Power. For a number of years the only aircraft using the aerodrome were light private aircraft and the occasional charter or cargo flight and also extensive parachuting took place. The first scheduled service was inaugurated in July 1979 using an Islander aircraft operated by Aer Arann.

Recent Developments

Encouraged by the apparent success of other regional airports in Ireland, the Board of Directors drew up a development plan to lengthen and widen the runway to 1200m x 30m and to extend and upgrade the Terminal buildings and to install an Instrument Landing System and appropriate lighting.

The runway was completed on schedule and the first scheduled flight into Kerry was on 22/05/89 from Dublin by Aer Lingus followed the next day by Ryanair from London Luton.

On the 31st May 1993, the contract for the new runway of 2,000m x 45m and New Terminal was signed and the official " Sod Turning" ceremony was performed by An Tánaiste, Mr. Dick Spring TD.

The Runway 08/26 was licenced by the IAA on 20th May 1994 and the first flight landed at 13.23 local on 20th May, Reg. G-BLSD, a PA 28 from Manchester and piloted by C. Gurley.

This was followed by the first scheduled commercial flight by Aer Lingus, a Saab 340 EI-CFD commanded by Capt. Peter Heinz.

History of Scheduled Services

The first scheduled flight into Kerry was on 22/05/89 to Dublin by Aer Lingus followed the next day by Ryanair to London Luton.

By the end of June 1989 both airlines has increased their schedules from 1 flight per day to 2 and in 1990 they both operated 3 scheduled flights per day for the summer season. However, both airlines reduced their service for the 1990 winter season with Aer Lingus reducing to 2 flights per day and Ryanair reducing to 1. Neither airline increased their schedule for the summer of 1991.

Iona National Airways commenced a commuter flight to Dublin, which was underwritten by Kerry Airport, but due to poor support, the service ceased operating on 25th September 1992. The aircraft used was a 10 seater Cessna 404.

Ryanair ceased operating into Kerry on 31st August 1992. They also ceased operating into Galway and Waterford on the same day.

Orient Air commenced a 3 times per week scheduled service to Gloucester on 2nd December 1992 via Waterford using an 8 seater aircraft. This service was not successful and was discontinued in March 1993.

Aer Lingus reduced their service to 1 flight per day on 9th January 1993. This had a very severe effect on the numbers of Continental passengers using the service as they could only make either their incoming connection to Kerry or their outgoing connection to the continent but they could not make both without an overnight stay in Dublin.

After the opening of the new 2,000m Runway 08/26 Manx Airlines commenced a daily service to London Luton using a BAe ATP with 68 seats. This service reduced to 3 flights per week for the winter schedule.

The first large passenger jet to use the new facilities was a Boeing 757 configured for 228 seats operated by Aer Europa on 30 June 1995 from Bilbao.

The first transatlantic charter flight was operated by American Trans Air and arrived in Kerry from JFK New York on 31 July 1995. The aircraft was a Boeing 757 and transited to Dublin.

British Airways Express (Manx Airlines) started a 3 days/week service to Manchester in December 1994 using a BAe Jetstream 41 but this was terminated at the end of October 1995 due to poor passenger figures on the route.

In addition to the midday flight, Aer Lingus started an early morning flight to Dublin on 9 January 1995. This departed at 06.25 and the aircraft overnighted in Kerry having arrived at 23.00.

Aer Lingus increased their flights for the summer schedule in 1995 by introducing a flight to Dusseldorf on Sundays and they added another flight to Frankfurt for the summer of 1996.

Over recent years there has been a number of charter series during the summer months to Munich, Zurich and Jersey as well as a number of ad hoc charters.

Ryanair started a daily service to London Stansted on 12 June 1997 using a Boeing 737/200 which was configured for 130 passengers. This service was increased by an additional flight per day on 5 days/week during the summer of 1998.

Aer Lingus introduced the 110 seat BAe 146 on the early morning flight in the summer of 1999.

The Dublin Kerry route has been operated under a Public Service Order since January 1995 and was awarded to Aer Lingus at the renewal date in January 1998 for a further 3 years. In 2000, this again advertised for renewal in January 2001 and there was considerable interest this time round. Aer Lingus has stated that they were not interested in renewing the contract for other regional airports but submitted a tender for the Dublin/Kerry route. The only other tenderer was Aer Arann who were awarded the contract from January 2001 to operate 3 flights per day using a 50 seater ATR42 aircraft.

Aer Arann started on the route on 18th January 2001 on the RE 251/252 while Aer Lingus continued to operate the EI-021/027 and the EI022/023 until Aer Arann took delivery of their 3rd ATR. Aer Lingus operated the EI-021 out of Kerry at 06.05 on Monday 5th February and Aer Arann took over full operations on the route thereafter. Aer Arann increased the service on the route on Friday 1st June by operating a fourth flight to Dublin as the RE- 255/256.

In May 2007, Falcon Travel commenced the Kerry to Majorca route. An Airbus A320 aircraft operated the flight that was configured for 180 passengers.

On the 6th November 2007, Ryanair started their flight from Kerry to London Luton. This flight operates three times a week, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The flight FR842 departed Luton at 06.30 arriving into Kerry at 08.00. The aircraft then flew back to Luton as the FR843 from Kerry, departing Kerry at 8.25. This flight was serviced using a Boeing 737-800 Series aircraft, configured to 189 seats.

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KERRY AIRPORT plc, Farranfore, Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland. Telephone: +353 (0)66 9764644.
Registered in Ireland No. 26871 :: Registered Office: Farranfore, Killarney, County Kerry.

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