A partnership that changed the west

You would have to think that Michael O’Leary and Monsignor James Horan would get on famously if they ever came into each other’s orbit.

And we in the west of Ireland have much to be thankful to both for.

While it is fair to say that Knock Airport certainly would never exist if it were not for the vision and drive of Monsignor Horan, it also would not have grown to where it is today without Ryanair, particularly since O’Leary took over at the helm.

Both Knock and Ryanair set off on their incredible individual journeys 40 or so years ago (last year Ryanair marked 40 years and this year is the 40th anniversary of Knock’s official opening) and could very much be considered disruptors in the order of things at the time.

Knock was built more in spite of rather than because of official state support and Monsignor Horan’s determination made the impossible a reality.

Ryanair was set up by Tony Ryan and his namesake Christy Ryan in the hope of offering an alternative to the expensive flight prices of Aer Lingus and Co in the 1980s.

Affordable flights were a pipe dream at the time.

In the mid-1990s, Tony Ryan appointed a young Michael O’Leary as CEO and they have rarely looked back since.

And Knock’s success and wellbeing is heavily intertwined with Ryanair’s. Of the 970,000 to 980,000 passengers that are forecast to pass through Knock this year, an incredible 880,000 will be flying Ryanair.

Their low-cost model made foreign travel accessible to far more people in the west, while Knock removed the need for long, arduous journeys to Dublin Airport.

“Ryanair has been synonymous from day one with the success of the airport and we will be forever grateful and appreciative of all the business they’ve put through the airport. They’ve opened up the west and north west of Ireland to international markets right across Europe,” said airport CEO Joe Gilmore and the gratitude and appreciation of people in the west towards the airport often extends to Ryanair too, even if their service would not always be to everyone’s taste.

At his whistle-stop visit to Knock Airport last Tuesday to celebrate its 40th birthday (which will officially take place in May) and launch their summer schedule, O’Leary was asked about calling Monsignor Horan ‘a genius’ in Terry Reilly’s superb book on Knock Airport.

“I called him a lunatic,” he retorted in typical fashion but it was affectionate as became clear when he expanded on the legacy.

“If you look at his contribution and the contribution Knock Airport has made to the west of Ireland and to Mayo, he was undoubtedly a visionary. Now he was mad but it was still a visionary project and it has demonstrated its success over many years.

“I think he’s up there with Tony Ryan as being one of the real aviation visionaries that Ireland produced in the last 40 years and the people of Knock, Charlestown and the west of Ireland should be eternally grateful to the work that Monsignor Horan did.

“He built an airport for what at the time was chump change, £10 million at a time when our current government will waste €2.5 billion building a children’s hospital. They should bring back Monsignor Horan, he would get things done where Micheál Martin doesn’t!” O’Leary rarely misses a chance to get a drive in at someone he dislikes and his enmity towards Taoiseach Micheál Martin was clear on the day too.

For all the controversy and soundbites, what is striking watching O’Leary up close is the speed of thought with which he moves from one target to the next.

He described the Dublin Metro plans for a train from Dublin Airport to Dublin City as ‘a complete waste of time’ and lined up plenty more targets in his crosshairs too.

His warmth and appreciation of Ireland West Airport, its story and its future appeared quite sincere.

He described the airport as ‘one of the great success stories of Irish tourism’.

“Nobody believed you could build an airport on a bog on top of a hill in the west of Ireland and that even if it was to be built, that nobody would come and use it “Working together, Ryanair and Knock have disproven all the naysayers over the last 40 years,” he said.

Yet even as Knock approaches another milestone, its next phase of growth brings a fresh challenge.

This summer will see Ryanair operate its largest ever schedule to and from Knock and the one million passenger milestone is within touching distance. But, as is mentioned elsewhere in this week’s paper, that threshold brings funding challenges for Knock, which O’Leary outlined very strongly on Tuesday.

Under the Government’s Regional Airports Programme, State support for capital and operational costs reduces gradually once traffic moves beyond one million passengers.

O’Leary argued that this will make further expansion at the airport difficult, something airport CEO Joe Gilmore didn’t disagree with. O’Leary called on the Government to raise the threshold closer to two million passengers per annum, which he said is the breakeven point for airports.

It was a very significant contribution and in the 40th anniversary of the airport, enabling that growth is intrinsic to the future prospects of Knock.

Knock and Ryanair have a very strong, symbiotic relationship and both have enabled this region, one so often overlooked, to have an airport service we can be proud of.

40 years on from Monsignor Horan achieving his vision, the challenge for Knock now is ensuring it is not held back as it approaches a milestone its naysayers in the early 1980s considered impossible.