The proposed merger between CityJet and Stobart Air is not going ahead. The deal was worth a reputed €80m. CityJet are believed to have spent €1m towards the proposed merger with Pat Byrne, CityJet founder saying he was ‘flabbergasted’ that the deal was not going ahead. Stobart Air released a statement saying the merger with CityJet was ‘not in the commercial interest of the group.’
The Titanic attraction in Belfast has been named the World’s Leading Tourist Attraction at the World Travel Awards attracting in excess of 700,000 visitors in 2016.
Norwegian Air International has been granted a US permit that will allow transatlantic flights from Europe to the US. It intends to fly from Cork to Boston from summer 2017. The airline is looking for more opportunities to expand in Ireland.
Dublin Airport was 12th in Europe during 2015 for arrivals and departures, with London Heathrow first. Paris and Frankfurt were 2nd and 3rd respectively. Flights between the UK and Spain accounted for 9.1% of all air travel in the EU. Spain & Germany was the 2nd most popular route, making up 6.3% of all travel trips taken in the EU. Dublin Airport passenger numbers expanded to 27m in 2016 vs 25m in 2015.
Shannon Airport traffic increased to 1.7m for 2015. Cork Airport saw a slight decline to 2m for 2015.
The average hotel occupancy for Dublin for 2016 has been 82% with a Saturday night in seeing occupancy of 89.6%.
Tourist figures for 2017 are expected to be 4.5% bigger than 2016. 2016 is expected to be the greatest so far in terms of tourist numbers, with 10.5m visitors to our shores.
Two new touring routes were launched in December by Junior Tourism Minister Patrick O’Donovan. They are the Burren Drive and the Shannon Estuary Drive.
Aer Lingus is to add a further 113 flights from Cork Airport in Summer 2017. For June – August, they will fly five times daily to Heathrow (Mon – Sat).
The Central Statistics Office reports that visitors to Ireland between January and September of 2016 increased by 600,000, a rise of 10%. Revenue for this period grew by 9% also. The Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, Shane Ross, expects the full figures for 2016 to show 8.277m visits to these shores.
The Irish Aviation Authority has confirmed that 2016 has been a record year with 1.1m flights.
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