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The City of Derry Airport and Derry City Council unveiled its new ambitious first draft master plan for the development of the airport, setting out the vision to become “The Airport of choice for the north west of Ireland “. The airport has a market catchment of 1.571 million people within a 90 minute drive.
The key elements of the master plan include growing passenger numbers from 400,000 passengers per annum to 1.2 million per annum by 2030 (1.6 million by 2050), expand the route network portfolio to 10 destinations across Europe & UK, expansion of existing terminal and general aviation/business aviation facilities.
The master plan envisages the development of a new Aviation Business park and no extension of the existing runway as the passenger growth can be catered for within existing infrastructure available. The airport forecasts continued reliance on Low cost carriers (Ryanair accounts for 85% of traffic) and mix of aircraft types from the Boeing 737-800 to DHC8-400 adding increasing frequency on existing routes and double daily would make routes more appealing to business travelers.
Also the introduction of a regional carrier and ad-hoc seasonal charter flights and a lean routes with a 19 seat aircraft. In 2011 the PSO route between Dublin and City of Derry was terminated in March 2011, however Dublin and Cork have been identified as potential future destinations.
The City of Derry Airport is estimated to support 400 full time direct and indirect jobs contributing £14 million to the Northern Ireland economy and £7 million to the local economy each year, by 2022 it is estimated that the Airport will support 800 jobs in the local economy and adding £35 million to the Northern Ireland economy.
The draft plan is open for a three-month public consultation.
Irish Aviation Research Institute © 22nd November 2012 All Rights Reserved.
