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Belfast City Airport (George Best): Belfast City Airport is making a number of improvements to the Fast Track Security channel at the airport to facilitate a quicker and hassle-free journey. The entrance to Fast track Security has moved from 1st July and is now located close to the BMI check in desks, slightly behind the landside WH Smith shop. Fast Track Parking Customers, BMI Flexible Economy Passengers, BMI Diamond Club Silver and Gold Card Holders, Star Alliance Gold Card Holders and Flybe Economy Plus Passengers can all use Fast Track Security while the airport will soon be releasing a limited number of Fast Track Annual Passes which will be available for purchase. Also at Belfast City Airport a House of Ireland store, the first in Northern Ireland has been opened. It offers an array of Ireland's finest crystal, jewellery, clothing, accessories and crafts. Waterford Crystal, John Rocha, Newbridge Jewellery and Belleek are just some of the well-known international brands that are carried by the store. Another service improvement is the new timetable of ‘business friendly’ flights between the Isle of Man and Belfast City Airport, offering a convenient link to Heathrow which is being launched in September by Manx2. It will operate up to five flights daily, starting from 07:30 in the morning most weekdays. Travellers can arrive in Belfast as early as 08:05 – from where one of BMI’s six daily flights to Heathrow departs at 08:50. The last flight back to the Island from Belfast will also depart at 19:00 daily, with the new timings designed to help business travellers enjoy a full day in the city.

Belfast International Airport (Aldergrove): A major refurbishment project, including five new food and drink units, has been opened at Belfast International Airport as part of a £1.5 million (€1.71 million) investment at the airport by food travel company SSP, creating 60 new jobs and giving passengers a much wider range of dining choices. The development comes as the airport was preparing for it’s busiest time of the year (beginning 9th July) with around 60,000 passengers expected to pass through as the summer holidays got underway. Managing director John Doran said that competition at the airport between the airlines was providing great bargains and choice to over 50 destinations. He added that it was time to level the playing field with the Republic in relation to travel tax. “Air passenger duty is bad for airlines, bad for passengers and tourism and bad for NI plc. It threatens what is already there and makes the job of attracting new carriers enormously difficult.” .He would like to see air as a tax-raising power devolved to the North’s Executive. Meanwhile Aer Lingus has announced its winter 2011/12 schedule from Belfast International. The airline will offer six European destinations, including an extension to their service to Alicante, which will operate twice a week - each Monday and Friday.

Cork Airport: According to the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) Annual Report for 2010, published on 24th June, passenger volumes at Cork Airport declined by 12% to just over 2.4 million last year. The DAA estimated that passenger numbers would have been 2.5 million but for the impact of one-off factors such as volcanic ash and snow and ice disruptions at a number of other airports. The UK market was down almost 8%, with 1.2 million passengers flying between Cork and UK destinations. Continental European traffic declined by 7%, as just over one million passengers travelled between Cork and European locations during the year. Aer Lingus increased its market share from 47% to 50% during the year while Ryanair’s market share declined by one percentage point to 27%. Cork had 25 airlines operating to 53 destinations during the year, including seven scheduled operators flying a combined total of 41 routes. Post year-end, Wizz Air announced a new Cork-Vilnius service, bringing to six the number of destinations served by Wizz from Cork. New Ryanair summer season services to Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Tenerife began earlier this year and the airline will operate a Cork-Bergamo service from June. A new Aer Lingus seasonal service to Palma Majorca also commenced recently.

Dublin Airport: On the 22nd June, the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) submitted an application to Fingal County Council for permission to increase its on-site storage of Potassium Acetate (de-icing fluid) at its Airfield Maintenance Base at Collinstown Lane, Dublin Airport.  The application, ref F11A/0238, includes the erection of seven double-skinned tanks for the on-site storage of 315,000 litres of Potassium Acetate, the construction of a concrete bund to enclose these tanks as well as four existing tanks and the erection of a lighting column. The new tanks will bring the total amount of Potassium Acetate stores at the base to 509,000 litres. These works are to be implemented together with all associated site works and services. Meanwhile although seldom noticed by most passengers the DAA has invested more than €85 million over the past four years in constructing a series of new aircraft parking stands and taxiways at Dublin Airport. Recently aircraft parking stands in the south cargo apron have been remarked and renumbered with the numbers changed from 63-67 to 411-413, Stand 63T, has been altered to accommodate A330-300 sized aircraft and renumbered and 411. There have also been changes to stands in the North Apron area beside Hangar 6 which have been altered and renumbered 101-104. New roadway markings have also been added. More noticeable to passengers is the demolition of the Temporary Boarding Gates (the pre-fab) at the end of Pier D. This continued improvement is essential to enable the airport to cater for the almost nine million passengers who have travelled through Dublin Airport in the first six months of the year, a 6% increase over the same period last year. In June passenger throughput exceeded 1.8 million in June, an increase of 1% on the same period last year, with passenger volumes to and from continental Europe growing by 1% to more than one million, UK traffic by 1.5% to just under 606,000 and Transatlantic traffic to North America recording a significant 7% increase to more than 170,000 passengers. Other international passenger traffic, which covers flights to the Middle East, remained level with 21,000 passengers travelling this route sector in June while passenger numbers on domestic routes declined by 54% with just over 15,000 passengers taking domestic flights during the month. A total of 63 airlines operated to 177 destinations from Dublin Airport in 2010, while 34 airlines operated scheduled services to 155 locations. Dublin Airport’s largest airline Ryanair saw its market share decline from 43% to 41%, as the airline reduced capacity at Dublin. Meanwhile Aer Lingus increased its market share from 36% to 37%. The airport’s two largest customers now account for 78% of total traffic. The DAA is also planning to submit a new runway planning application for Dublin Airport within the next 12 months.

Galway Airport: On 10th July Galway Airport opened its doors for its first ever ‘family day' to ‘showcase' the airport facility to the people of Galway and let them see first hand the operation of the airport. The family day was a staff initiative that provided an opportunity for people to see the airport operating first hand as a key piece of transport infrastructure for both Galway and the West region. Normal activities and scheduled flights to and from London Southend, London Luton, Manchester, Edinburgh, Waterford and Dublin continued combined with activities which included vintage cars, bouncy castles, balloon modelling, face painting, airport fire tender display, stunt plane demonstrations and much more. With a specially set up airside viewing area there was plenty to see for the aviation enthusiasts as well. Aer Arann's ATR aircraft, helicopters from the Gardai, the Air Sea Rescue and Executive Helicopters plus other flying activities kept the crowd enthralled all afternoon long as they enjoyed the sunshine, music and a BBQ. A ‘park and ride' operation from the racecourse was operated and this was a huge success. Michael Moloney, Marketing Manager, Galway Airport said that "we planned for a reasonable crowd but we were amazed with the number of people who came out to support our first family day and estimates of the crowd are in excess of 7,000 people”. The Galway Hospice and the Share a Dream Foundation, the airports nominated charities for 2011, were both present and received funds from the airport as a result of the family day and particularly as a result of a very busy and successful BBQ. Ireland West Airport Knock plans to host an ‘Airport Celebration Day’ on Saturday 23rd July from 5:30pm to 8:30pm.

Kerry Airport: The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar told the Dáil on 6th July that while the public service obligation (PSO) tender process for the Kerry – Dublin route is currently underway following publication of the relevant notices in the Official Journal of the European Communities on 3rd May 2011. In line with the EU guidelines, the process of renewal of a PSO takes a minimum of six months from the date the notices appear in the Official Journal. The deadline for the receipt of tenders was 4th July and it has been confirmed that several operators had submitted bids. These are thought to include, Aer Arann, Ryanair and Flybe as well as two other airlines. The Minister has said his Department is working to ensure that the new PSO air service commences at the earliest opportunity in November 2011. On 4th July, the airport released its annual report and accounts for the 14 month period ending on 31st December 2010. 424,599 people passed through the airport a 3% increase on the previous year. However, passenger numbers on the Dublin route fell by a third while numbers on the Kerry London routes dipped by 4%. Some of these losses were offset by a 19% increase in the number of passengers travelling from Kerry to Germany. The airport recorded an after tax profit of €326,785 in the 14 month period and this compares with a profit of €282,830 in the previous 12 month period.

Ireland West Airport Knock: The airport has recently carried out a major upgrade of it’s CCTV cameras and systems throughout the various areas at the airport including operational and commercial areas, car parks, and the passenger apron. The upgrade included the integration of 35 state of the art modern infrared and fully visual digital cameras, up to date real time recording technology and the latest video capture capability allowing real time issues to be addressed by management and security staff at the airport on an immediate basis.

Shannon Airport: In 2010 Shannon Airport experienced a 37% reduction in overall traffic to 1.8 million passengers. Terminal traffic (the number of passengers who began or ended their journeys at the airport), fell by nearly 40% during the period, principally due to the withdrawal of a number of Ryanair services. In its annual report for 2010, the DAA say that “despite Ryanair’s marketing skills it failed to meet the targets of a previous five-year agreement with Shannon and had wanted unsustainably low airport charges in 2009 to continue to operate a range of routes. Post year-end, Ryanair indicated that it wanted to pay nothing to use Shannon Airport’s facilities, and instead argued that DAA should pay the airline to deliver passengers. UK traffic was down by 28% to almost 762,000 passengers while transatlantic traffic declined by 21% to 349,000 passengers, as carriers continued to reduce capacity due to the economic downturn. Due in part to the Ryanair capacity reductions, continental European traffic declined by 64% to 323,000 passengers. Domestic traffic was also badly hit declining by 52% to just over 25,000 passengers. Shannon is now focused on attracting profitable and sustainable traffic that can deliver for the airport and the region, and on continuing to reduce its cost base. In this regard, Shannon Airport Director Mary Considine has welcomed a procedural change for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that clears a significant hurdle with regard to capitalising on business aviation opportunities for the airport and enables much faster turn-around for business jets. As a result, over 200 US domestic airports can now receive international Business Jet flights directly from Shannon that have pre-cleared US Customs and Immigration at Shannon without delay.

Sligo Airport: In spite of the announcement that the airport is to lose its state subvention its managing director, Joe Corcoran, said he was confident it would survive. It is retaining the Irish Coastguard base and it has been urged by Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar to look to local business interests and the Local Authority for further support.