IAA issues September traffic figures

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today issued it's traffic statistics for the month of September. The majority of the IAA's revenue is generated on the North Atlantic rather than terminal traffic at the three state airports. The IAA points out in it's monthly summary that this source of revenue has been hit disproportionately by the current economic woes with mainland European traffic suffering to a lesser extent.
For the month of September, overflights totaled 24,841down 8.2% on the same month last year. North Atlantic HF communications at 33,863 were down 8.7% YoY. Whilst the general downturn in the airline business will have contributed to the September drop it should be noted that for significant periods during the month the North Atlantic Track System didn't incorporate Irish airspace due to weather patterns.
At Dublin Airport, commercial traffic movements totaled 14,288 representing a YoY drop of 18.5%. At Cork the figure was 2,228 down 28.6% YoY whilst at Shannon the total for the month was 2,467 down 13.3%.

CAR and IAA regulatory functions to be amalgamated

The Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has announced that the functions of the Commission for Aviation Regulation and the regulatory functions of the Irish Aviation Authority are to be amalgamated with the new National Transport Authority which is be established shortly. The NTA will come into being once the Public Transport Regulation Bill is signed into law. The Irish Aviation Authority will in future concentrate it's activities on the provision of Air Traffic Control services. It would appear that the Air Accident Investigation Unit of the Dept. of Transport will be unaffected by the establishment of the NTA.

IAA introduces on line flight plan filing

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today introduced an on line flight plan filing service. In order to file a plan, pilots must first register their details with the IAA. The relevant web page is On-Line Plan

IAA publish August Traffic figures

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has published the traffic statistics for August 2009. The yera to date downward trend continued for August.
En route overflights were down 11.5% YoY at 26,256.
North Atlantic HF communications were down 8.6% YoY
Commercial air traffic movements at Dublin were down 17.7% YoY while total terminal movements were down 17.2% YoY to 16,019.
Commercial air traffic movements at Cork were down 27.6% YoY while total terminal movements were down 20.9% YoY to 4,403.
At Shannon commercial air traffic movements were down 15.5% YoY while total terminal movements were down 17.6% to 3,036.


Year to date the high money earners for the IAA, en route and HF are down 8.4% and 8% respectively. 
Whilst difficult to quantify, the impact of weather patterns has certainly affected the position of the North Atlantic Track System relative to Irish air space this summer with extended periods when the traffic flow was well north or well south of Irish airspace.

IAA issues register update

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today issued the latest version of the Irish Civil Register. The file which is dated September 02 2009 can be downloaded in Microsoft Excel format at Irish Register.

IAA appoints Donie Mooney as Director of Operations

The Irish Aviation Authority announced today that Mr. Donie Mooney has been appointed as the new Director of Operations to succeed the current Director, Pat Ryan who is due to retire shortly.

Donie has been General Manager of the IAA's air traffic management operation at Shannon since 2002.Previously he served as General Manager of the North Atlantic Communications Division, as Head of Training, as Operations Manager Shannon Area Control Centre and also as a Team Leader and Instructor in the Authority's Commercial & Training Directorate. Donie spent 15 years as an air traffic controller and held tower and all radar ratings during that time.

Donie's appointment will take effect from October 1 2009.

IAA lodge planning application for new control tower at Dublin

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has announced that it lodged it's planing application for a new control tower at Dublin airport with an Bord Pleanala on Friday last August 7. If the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) decide to proceed with the construction of a second runway at Dublin it will be necessary to build a new control tower.

Since the DAA's plans to construct the second runway have been put on hold, the IAA have requested that the permission have a lifetime of ten years. The IAA has also stated that no further work, other than to facilitate the planning application, will be undertaken until such time as the DAA commits itself to 'firm and fixed dates' for the construction of the runway.

The new tower will be situated on a 1.88 ha site adjacent to the current tower which long with it's infrastructure, will be retained as a backup facility. With a height of 86.9m, the new tower will be just 10 cm shorter than it's counterpart at London's Heathrow airport.

The IAA have launched a new web site at http://www.iaadublincontroltower.ie/ where full details can be found on the application and Environmental Impact Study (EIS) along with detailed drawings of the facility.

IAA publish July figures

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today published the traffic figures for the month of July and there are no surprises.

Enroute traffic for the month was down 9% YoY for the month.

North Atlantic HF communications were down 7%.

Commercial air traffic movement s at the three state airports were down as follows : Dublin -16% YoY, Shannon -18% YoY and Cork -26% YoY.

Year to date end of July en route traffic is down 8%, HF traffic is down 8%. Commercial terminal movements at the three state airports are down as follows : Dublin -14%, Cork -26% and Shannon -14% with a combined total at the three airports showing a 15% YoY YTD decline.

For July Airport Terminal Movements were as follows : Dublin 16,019 (-17%), Cork 4,530 (-24%) and Shannon 3,084 (-23.1%)

IAA publish June traffic figures

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today published the air traffic figures for June 2009.

En route flights transiting Irish air space were down 5% YoY for the month.

North Atlantic HF communication traffic was down 8.8% YoY

Commercial air traffic movements at both Dublin and Shannon were down 17.6% YoY whilst Cork suffered a more severe decline, falling 26% YoY for the month.

Airport total terminal movements for the three state airports for June were as follows :

Dublin 15,514 down 18.9% YoY

Shannon 3,115 down 22.1% YoY

Cork 5,395 down 15% YoY

Year to date end of June there is only red ink.

En route flights are down 7.8%

North Atlantic communications are down 8.1%

Dublin commercial terminal movements have declined by 13.5%

Shannon commercial terminal movements down by 12.9%

Cork commercial terminal movements down by 25.7%

Combined commercial movements for the three airports are down by 15% YoY.

IAA board appointment

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has welcomed the appointment by the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey of Rosheen McGuckian to the Board of the IAA.

Ms McGuckian is the group Corporate Development Director of NTR PLC. She was previously the CEO of GE Money Ireland and Head of Strategy Change in ESB Power Generation. She is also a non executive director of Forfas and previously worked in public relations. She has a PhD in Change Management and an MA in Communications from Dublin City University and is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin.

Her appointment to the Board of the IAA will last for 4 years.

IAA announce recruitement of trainee officers for Ballygireen

For the first time in it's history, the Irish Aviation authority (IAA) will train it's own radio officers for it's High Frequency (HF) communications centre at Ballygireen Co. Clare. Previously officers were recruited from the Merchant Navy but this year the IAA began a recruitment process which involved selecting juct 12 candidates from 900 applications from around Ireland.

Commenting on the new jobs announcement, Eamonn Brennan, chief executive, IAA said: “This is the first large scale recruitment at Ballygirreen for many years. Despite the economic downturn and the consequent reduction in the number of flights, the IAA needed to recruit trainee radio officers so as to be prepared for retirements which are due to take place over the next few years.”

HF communications is a very important income earner for the IAA which provides voice communications with approximately 1,000 aircraft every day in the eastern half of the North Atlantic.

IAA publish May figures

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has today published the traffic figures from May 2009.

En route traffic was down 12% YoY for the month.

North Atlantic HF traffic was down 1-% YoY.

Commercial air traffic movements at the three state airports reported declines as follows :

• Dublin -14.8% YoY for the month.
• Shannon -21.6% YoY for the month and
• Cork -27.9% YoY for the month.

Year to date, end of May

en route traffic is down 8.2%

North Atlantic HF traffic is down 7.8%

Commercial terminal movements at the three state airports are all down :

• Dublin -17.7%
• Shannon -11.9%
• Cork -25.6%

Combined movements at the three state airports are down 14.3%

Irish register to June 10

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has published the latest edition of the Irish Civil Register which is in Excel format at : register

UK Ireland FAB plan published

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and UK NATS, the air navigation service providers for their respective airspace today published a three year plan for the management of the UK-Ireland Functional Airspace Block (FAB). 

Under the Single European Sky initiative, the UK-Irish FAB was established ten months ago and today's report is the culmination of the consultative process which took place between both agencies and their respective civil and military customers on either side of the Irish Sea.

The report lists 30 initiatives which it is hoped will deliver annual cost savings of €12m by 2013, rising to €40m per annum by 2018, originating from reduced fuel burn, reduced CO2 emissions and shorter aircraft routings.

Among one of the early successes of the FAB is the implementation of the P600 Irish Sea Airspace change which came into effect on May 7. The change improves the alignment of the airspace adjoining Southwest Scotland, Northern Ireland and Dublin and is designed to improve domestic traffic and North Atlantic transit traffic by delivering more direct routing's.

Of the 30 improvements covered by the plan, 15 will be rolled out in 2009 including :

• Improvements to the Oceanic / Domestic interface for UK and Irish traffic.
• Removal of ATS routes from Shannon Upper airspace to allow direct routing and flight planning from entry point to exit planning into UK airspace delivering fuel uptake and route distance savings for North Atlantic traffic.
• The creation of so called 'straight line' routes across Irish and UK airspace and into Europe for eastbound trans Atlantic traffic during quiet night time periods.

The UK-Irish FAB is the first FAB to come into operation in Europe. It should be noted that the agreement does not make any changes to sovereign airspace nor does it change any regulatory or safety roles in either country. 

April traffic statistics

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has published the April 2009 traffic statistics.

Overflights for the month at 23,657 were down 11.8% YoY over April 2008. 

At Dublin airport total terminal movements were 15,566 down 12.7% YoY while traffic movements at 14,935 were down 14.1% YoY.

At Shannon airport total terminal movements were 3,277 down 6.5% YoY while traffic movements at 2,890 were down 20.3% YoY.

At Cork airport total terminal movements were 4,305 down 13.4% YoY while traffic movements at 4,758 were down 18% YoY.

IAA announce 2008 results

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) announced it's 2008 results today. Turnover grew 8.1% for the year to €166.7m but after tax earnings fell from €14.7m in 2007 to €12.2m in 2008.

At the three state airports terminal commercial movements rose by less than 1% for the year to 269,684. En route (overflying) traffic rose by less than 1% to 309,181.  North Atlantic communication traffic handled by Ballygireen in Co. Clare rose by 1.8% to 422,086. the second half of 2008 was particularly difficult with the impact of the meltdown in worldwide commercial markets and the rise in oil prices.

The first four months have seen an increase in the rate of fall off with traffic at Dublin airport down 12%, en route traffic down 7% and North Atlantic HF traffic down 7%.

The recession doesn't appear to have had a significant affect on the Irish civil aircraft register with a total of 1,179 aircraft registered as of May 5c compared to 1,168 in December 2008. Heavy commercial aircraft accounted for 470 airframes with a total of 219 aircraft on dry lease or storage overseas. The helicopter population wouldn't appear to suffering the decimation that pundits and commentators would have us believe - there were 144 helicopters on the register on May 5 compared to 162 in early 2008. 

Irish Register Update

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has issued the Irish civil register as of today. The file, in MS Excel format can be found at : register

AAIU report into incident with G-FLTM

The Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) of the Department of Transport has issued it's report into a serious incident which occurred with Flightline MD-83 G-FLTM at Santry Cross in Dublin on August 16 2007 at 23.34 hrs.

On the day in question the aircraft was on it's third sector having positioned empty from Dublin to Belfast, flown Belfast - Lisbon and finally Lisbon - Dublin with 112 passengers and a crew of six. On the night of August 16 runway 10-28 at Dublin was closed for maintenance with Runway 34 being used for landing and takeoff. Although the crew were in possession of NOTAM paperwork which indicated the runway status, it was not until the crew listened to the Dublin ATIS on descent, that they were aware of the runway change, having assumed that R10-28 was the active. As a result, the aircraft was at Top of Descent later than required for a VOR-DME approach to R34.

The aircraft was cleared for a non precision approach to R34 but at 5nm from touchdown it veered left of track. This deviation was as the result of the crew misinterpreting the lighting on a 16 storey hotel building at Santry Cross as being the approach lights for R34. The aircraft continued to descend below the Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA) without visual identification of the landing runway.

Following hand over from Approach control to the Tower controller, the Approach controller noticed that the aircraft had deviated left. At the moment the aircraft descended below the MDA the Tower controller was distracted by a call from the ground maintenance crew working on R10-28, just as the aircraft commander called the Tower to query if the runway lighting was working ok. This radio transmission was made at the same time as the Approach Controller called the Tower on the intercom to warn of the aircraft's situation.

At an altitude of 580 ft AMSL and with the aircraft 200 ft above and 1,700 ft from the hotel, ATC instructed a go around, having identified the aircraft as being off track, and offered the crew a vectored approach to R16 where the aircraft landed safely without injury to crew or passengers.

In it's investigation the AAIU found that the incident had occurred for a number of reasons.

• The aircraft commander who was pilot not flying (PNF) had failed to ensure that company Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for non precision approaches was followed, allowing a visual approach from a height of 2,200ft.
• Extraneous lighting from Dublin city made it difficult to correctly identify the approach lighting to R34.
• The lighting on the sixteen storey hotel in Santry Cross resembled the red and white lighting of a simple approach lighting system.
• Poor communication between the pilots (Italian and Croatian) and poor Crew Resource Management assisted in allowing poor situational awareness develop.
• The final intervention by ATC although somewhat late was a primary factor in ensuring a safe outcome.

Three recommendations are made in the report -

• The aircraft operator to review it's CRM training. Flightline ceased ops in Decmber 2008. The administrators stated that they would not be taking any action in response to the recommendation
• The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) should review it's procedures for Tower manning levels during night ops or when maintenance is taking place
• That when considering it's guidelines for obstacle lighting in the vicinity of an aerodrome the IAA should consider the possibility of the lighting being mistaken for runway lighting. The IAA accepts this recommendation.

Pictured at top, G-FLTM lines up on R24 at Shannon, exactly two weeks before the incident on August 2, 2007.

Posted 090421

IAA publish March traffic figures

The Irish Avaition Authority today published the traffic statistics for Irish airspace and the three state airports for March 2009.

During March,

• En route overflights were down 6% on March 2008
• North Atlantic HF communications were down 7.8% on March 2008
• Commercial traffic movements at Dublin were down 11.8%, Shannon down 6.8% and Cork down 25.4% on March 2008.

For Q1 2009

• En route overflights are down 5.17% YoY
• North Atlantic communications down 5.7% YoY
• Dublin commercial terminal movements down 12% YoY
• Shannon commercial terminal movements down 7.7% YoY
• Cork commercial terminal movements down 24.1% YoY

Posted 090409

Irish Aircraft Register

In a welcome move the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) have updated the Irish Civil aircraft register as of March 23. In an even more welcome move the register is now available in Excel and with hex codes added !

The register can be downloaded at http://www.iaa.ie/index.jsp?p=93&n=99