Mayo airport gearing up for historic 40th celebrations
By Tom Gillespie
THIS year marks the 40th anniversary of the birth of Ireland West Airport - the brainchild of the late Monsignor James Horan.
One of the goals of the airport bosses is to achieve the golden one million passenger mark during this historic year.
Almost 950,000 passengers passed through the airport in 2025. However, several thousand others would have used the facility but for Storm Éowyn in January last year, which would have brought the number closer to the magic one million mark.
Joe Gilmore, managing director, Ireland West Airport, looked back on 2025 and forward to the 40th celebrations.
He said: “Our objective in 2025 was to get closer to the one million passenger target. Last year was a very strong year and we closed out the year close to 950,000, and only for Storm Éowyn we would have had a few thousand more passengers.
“This year we are expecting further growth and hopefully getting closer to the one million mark. From a passenger point of view and the airport's point of view, we are delighted with that.”
He continued: “For the 40th anniversary itself, we are approaching it somewhat similar to what we did for the 30th. We will revisit where the airport came from through a number of events throughout the year.
“The big event will be on Thursday, May 28, when we will have a gala concert. It will be in three phases - looking at where the airport came from and the people that put it in place; then we will look at the leaner years of the 1990 and 2000 when some great people at the time kept the airport open; and then we will focus on the growth period in the last 15 to 20 years with the advent of low-cost travel.”
Mr. Gilmore added: “There will be a gala evening when we hope to have 500 or 600 people here which will be held in the terminal building.
“We are also planning an event at the end of March in London, mainly to focus on the UK market. People do not realise that since its inception the airport has handled just over 16 million passengers and practically half of those travelled back and forth to and from London.
“Our diaspora, particularly in the London region, has been vital to the airport. We will be having an event in London, hopefully hosted by the Irish Embassy.
“It is important we mark that strong connection overseas. While the airport has a big portion of customers from the region here, we have just as big a customer base in the UK.
“We are looking around the charity events we do where last year we succeeded in raising an amazing amount of €54,000 for the six charities. This year we are hoping to do even better in terms of raising more money and the charity events will be themed around the 40th anniversary as well. The big one will be the runway run event in September. We are trying to enhance that and make it a memorial event.”
Mr. Gilmore said they have also developed a special emblem/logo for the 40th anniversary, which will be launched over the next few weeks. “We are trying to do a few milestone events and, of course, the challenge always is, we have to continue to run a fairly busy airport at the same time,” he said.
“Overall the celebrations will be to try to acknowledge the people that put the airport in place and remember those people and hopefully revisit a lot of the stories and the achievements of these people, and then bring the story up to the modern day.”
Already airport management have spent €2.5 million on upgrading the electrical infrastructure on site.
Mr. Gilmore said: “That is phase four of a five-year project. Overall we will have spent about €12 million in five years upgrading the electrical structure. The airport is 40 years old so we had to upgrade nearly every single area.
“Part of the project included a new sub-station for the airport to bring in a second power supply from Swinford. The existing power supply is coming from Charlestown and with the advent of Storm Éowyn we operated here last year without power for a week on our own emergency supplies. We had to take that action to make the airport more climate resilient.”
During last year’s peak summer season over 200 direct staff were employed at the airport and, in addition to that, there were at least another 50 third party staff on site between the car hire operators, airlines and a full garda/customs unit. Then there are contractors on site all the time carrying out work.
“Overall we are supporting about 3,000 indirect jobs and there is about €200 million being spent in the region with the airport being here,” explained Mr. Gilmore.