Donegal Airport


Donegal Airport is located south-west of Bunbeg in Carrickfinn, a townland in The Rosses, a district in north-west County Donegal, Ireland. The airport is on the county's north-west coast. about a 15-minute drive from Dungloe and Gweedore and 45 minutes from Letterkenny. It is popularly known within County Donegal as Carrickfinn Airport.
Due to the large gas field in the area, non-scheduled chartered helicopter flights connect the multiple offshore installations to the airport. Eastern Airways operate a chartered service to Aberdeen for this purpose.

History

20th century

Until the mid-1980s, the runway was a grass strip. This was replaced by a hard surface runway with temporary buildings. The airport started operations in 1986 and was developed with funds and assistance from the Government of Ireland, private investors, Donegal County Council, the International Fund for Ireland and the European Regional Development Fund. In the 1990s the runway was extended to and a new terminal building with modern navigational aids and equipment was added.

2000s

On 21 February 2007, the Irish Government announced that it would be giving €3.8 million to the airport in capital grant money. Domestic service to Dublin was established by Aer Arann. Aer Arann operated flights to Cork via Dublin in 2009 until they reduced their Cork-Dublin service to six times per week. The route closed in March 2010. In February 2010, Aer Arann closed its service to Glasgow Prestwick Airport and relocated to Glasgow International Airport.
Late 2000s and early 2010s, CityJet operated a Saturday seasonal charter flight to Rotterdam between April and September using a Fokker 50.

2010s

Service to Dublin was operated from 2012 to 2015 by Loganair using a Saab 340 which rotated via Glasgow to provide aircraft and crew replenishment. Stobart Air, operating as Aer Lingus Regional received public service obligation funding from the Irish Government to subsidise the route to Dublin. A contract was awarded in 2014, and the service commenced on 1 March 2015, using an ATR 42-300. As of March 2018, the route is operated by a -600 series aircraft instead.
The airport was voted the world's most scenic landing spot in 2018 and again in 2019.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Donegal:

Statistics

Airport data