Storms 'right up there' with worst seen at Ireland West

Ireland West Airport managed to keep disruptions to a minimum despite experiencing one of the worst storms in recent years.

When Storm Isha struck on Sunday, January 21st, just two flights failed to land at the airport. One of the aircrafts which had set off from Liverpool that afternoon chose not to land due to the stormy conditions while an earlier flight from Stansted failed to touch down due to a technical issue.

All flights due in on Monday managed to land despite the strong winds caused by Storm Jocelyn, with two flights having to make several attempts before touching down successfully on the runway.

Joe Gilmore, Managing Director of Ireland West Airport, said while the winds grew stronger during the Red weather warning on Sunday they became more westerly which enabled some of the flights to land safely.

“It’s all about the wind direction as much as the wind speed,” said Mr Gilmore, who pointed out that it is the airlines, not the airport, who make the ultimate decision on whether to land or not.

He said the airport has a weather plan which kicks in immediately in times of extreme weather.

“For Isha, we were as prepared as we could be. The airport operated as normal on Sunday apart from two diversions, one of which was due to a technical issue. It was very challenging but we had no significant damage at the airport or anything which would have impacted passenger safety which is the priority for us,” said the managing director.

Mr Gilmore said the stormy conditions were ‘right up there’ with the worst seen at the airport but the wind direction worked in favour of airports and airlines. He said while flight conditions may have been turbulent and uncomfortable for some passengers airlines were operating within safety margins and not taking risks.

“It was one of the most virulent storms we have seen particularly in terms of the timescale. It was quite condensed."

Other Irish airports suffered significant disruption as a result of the storm.