Doubling of aircraft apron parking planned at Mayo airport
By Tom Gillespie
OVER the next five years Ireland West Airport will embark on their biggest ever capital programme with the doubling of the airside parking apron.
Last year airport bosses invested about €8 million in critical capital funding projects - of which close to €3 million came from their own resources.
“That is where the €10 per passenger development fee goes,” Mr. Joe Gilmore, managing director, told The Connaught Telegraph.
He added: “I want to acknowledge the continued support of government, our local authorities and our politicians in terms of ensuring that we get funding under the Airports Programme for critical capital funding.
“We get funding for air traffic control, for fire services, for security and for safety for capital related projects airside, which would be everything to do with the aerodrome, the runway and so forth.
“Of the main funding we have received in the last year, we spent about €8 million, of which we received just over €5.5 million, so we funded close to €3 million of that ourselves, so that is where the €10 per passenger development fee goes.”
He continued: “We are awaiting the publication of new Regional Airports Programme from 2026 to 2030 to cover that five-year period and we are hoping that we will continue to be provided with the capital funding we need to continue to maintain and improve the facilities here.”
Mr. Gilmore said they were looking at where they achieved growth in 2025, where the UK passenger numbers grew by 10 per cent and the European routes by 28 per cent in terms of passenger demand.
“We are looking at more of that this coming year,” he said. “We would like to have more additional routes. We are seeing strong growth in existing services and there is very strong demand for several services.
“For example, our Milan route is going from two to three services a week. Faro is getting additional capacity and starting earlier in the season in March.
“We are getting more into Spain and additional frequencies on UK routes. We are seeing continued growth in terms of passengers and we have again an extensive programme from a capital expenditure point of view.
“We are commencing what will be the biggest capital project here over the next five years - the safety expansion of the aircraft parking apron which will effectively double the size of the area for parking from a safety point of view with the advent of the new, modern aircraft that are coming on stream by Aer Lingus and Ryanair.
“That is probably going to be the biggest singular project here and you are going to see significant changes in terms of the infrastructure in the car parking side. There is probably another seven to eight million euro of capital programme being planned.”