Airline & Holiday Information

Archive for the ‘Airport Features’ Category

Officially opened in 1940 with a single flight to Liverpool, Dublin Airport is now the busiest in all of Ireland.  More than 23 million travellers pass through its doors yearly and 78 different airlines operate out of the terminals.  Ireland’s national carrier, Aer Lingus, is headquartered there, as is budget flight innovator Ryanair.  Flights from Dublin now depart for destinations all over the world. 

To be sure you reach the airport in time, hail a taxi or use one of the city’s express bus routes.  Taxis and minibuses are readily available and generally fast; buses are more affordable and can be quicker thanks to direct routes to the airport.  Most major hotels also provide a free shuttle service to and from the airport to ensure you’re always on time for your flights from Dublin.

Dublin Airport is fully accessible for disabled travellers and also provides additional amenities such as currency exchange kiosks and ATMs; a full service bank and post office; an array of restaurants and pubs; duty-free shopping and a shopping concourse; luggage lost-and-found office; business services including phones; faxes; and photocopy; meeting rooms; catering; a pharmacy; a free nursery; and ample baby-change facilities throughout the complex.

Two major hotels—The Holiday Inn Dublin Airport and Dublin Airport Great Southern Hotel—are located right on the premises.  With several other quality hotels close nearby, there’s no reason to miss early flights from Dublin.

For help with travel, reservations, accommodation for disabled travellers, information, and addition services offered at Dublin Airport, visit one of the information centres located on the arrivals concourse.

The airlines that offer flights to and from Dublin, the capital of Ireland, include Ryanair, Aer Arann, Aer Lingus, Flybe, Air France, BMI, Air Southwest, Germanwings, Lufthansa, Spanair, Iberia, TAP, SAS-Scandivinian Airlines, Swiss, Air Baltic, FlyLal, Malev Airlines, Czech Airlines, Swissair, Bulgaria Air, Malev Hungarian, British Airways, Iberia, Royal Air Maroc, Virgin Atlantic, Etihad Airways, Gulf Air, KLM, Turkish Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Virgin America, Continental Airlines, US Airways, Flyglobespan, Air Canada, United, Alaska Airlines, Emirates, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Gulf Air Australia, Singapore Airlines, Luxair, Air France, TAM and Tap Portugal.

Dublin International Airport is approximately 12km north of the city centre and has excellent public transport and road links. Facilities in this airport include airline ticket desks, car hire, national bus and rail information, hotel transfer service, left-luggage area, catering facilities, Bank of Ireland branches, Bureaux de Change and tourist information and reservations service.

Tourists can explore the city by taking a bus, using the Dublin Area Rapid Transport (DART), taxi or hire car. The DART suburban rail service operates between Malahide, the northern part of the scenic coastal trip and Greystone, the southern part of the coastal trip.

Trains have two major stations in the city, at Connolly and Heuston, while taxis are hailed, booked by telephone or hired from taxi ranks. Three of the city centre’s main taxi ranks can be found on Dame Street, O’Connell Street and St. Stephen’s Green.

Flights from London, Birmingham and Manchester, to Brussels, in Belgium, take around two hours. The city’s main airport (BRU) lies near the R0 road, some 12kms to the northeastern side of the capital. This modern airport boasts two multi-story parks; one of which is located opposite the main terminal and the other towards the northern side of the airport, around 6kms from the main terminal.

The airport has its own railway station, which is conveniently located below the main terminal building. Trains heading to the centre of the capital are usually available four times an hour, with fares costing around €3. Bus services are also frequent and reliable and there are taxis, which charge around €30 for travel to the centre of Brussels.

There are some 17 bars, cafes and restaurants in the airport, as well as money changing and cash machine facilities, retail shops, an Internet area, post office, and places of worship. The retail space, which is located at Pier A, carries a number of international brands.

Carriers that offer flights from Brussels to the UK and Ireland include Brussels Airlines, BMI, Lufthansa, VLM Airlines and Flybe.

Another international airport, located reasonably near to the city, is Brussels South Charleroi Airport, which is 46kms away. This airport is strategically located to make it accessible from key European regions, lying south of the Netherlands, west of Germany, 1-2hours by road and northeast of France and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Only a handful of airports actually qualify to have enough traffic to have an Air Traffic Control Tower.

Traffic Control Towers usually tower above other airport buildings so that staff located inside can see aircraft moving around the airport and have a unrestricted view of arriving and departing aircraft.

Air Traffic Control Towers usually have a Aerodrome Traffic Monitor which is a small screen display which runs a radar system and allows the air traffic controls to see aircraft that are flying within the area.

A Light Gun will also usually have a place within the tower, this is used for communicating with aircraft in case of and electrical problems.

Most towers will have either a computer that manages arriving and departing aircraft of they will use a older style strip board.

Sydney Airport Control Tower

What happens when a aircraft over runs the end of the runway, well you can always hope that the airport your landing at has Engineered materials arrestor system or EMAS at the end of the runway.

Engineered materials arrestor system is an area of lightweight collapsible concrete at the end of the airports runways. EMAS is aimed to slowdown and stop aircraft that over shoot runways with no human injury and minimal damage to the aircraft.

EMAS is a similar idea to run off areas that you see on steep hills for trucks if there brakes fail or lose control, except that on run off areas for trucks sand or gravel is used.

New York’s JFK airport has a Engineered materials arrestor system installed and this has potentially saved 3 fatal accidents in 1999 alone, it has even stopped a Boeing 747.

In the USA EMAS is currently installed at 41 runways ends and at 28 airports.

Runway Edge Lights are placed at side edges of the runway and are illuminated during the evening when it is dark or when visibility is poor. The Runway Edge Lights help pilots locate the edge of the runway during landing or takeoff.

They come in 3 different categories, Low Intensity Runway Lights (LIRL), Medium Intensity Runway Lights (MIRL) and High Intensity Runway Lights (HIRL).

High & Medium Intensity Runway Lights can be control to alter the brightness of the light emitted, compared to Low Intensity’s which usually only have one fixed setting.

All Runway lights are white except for those that are on instrument runways, where yellow will replace white for approximately the last 2000ft or half the runway whichever comes first.

The lights that mark the ends of the runway will emit a red light to indicate the edge of the runway to pilots. The light that faces outwards towards incoming landing planes will emit a green light to indicate where the runway starts.

Runway Edge Light

Manchester Airport is the UK’s busiest airport outside of the London area when talking in pure passenger numbers.
Located just off the M56 and A583, Manchester airport lies just south of Manchester City it’s self and opposite Ringway.

Manchester Airport was originally named Ringway Airport when it was opened on the 25th June 1938, during World War II the airport was known as RAF Ringway, a declaration of war brought an end to all civil flights in 1939, and work proceeded in the building of a new Royal Air Force Station.

The Airport was officially opened on the 25th of July 1938, the first scheduled flight was a KLM flight to Amsterdam on a Douglas DC-2 Aircraft. In its first year 4000 passengers came through the terminals of Manchester Airport which was then known as Ringway due to the parish it laid in.

After the end of World War II the airport saw rapid expansion the first Trans Atlantic flight flew on the 28th of ~October 1953 to JFK airport in New York. In 1958 Ringway was handling 500,000 passengers a year.

In 1972 Ringway airport was renamed Manchester International Airport, in a bid to attract more long haul flights the main runway was extended to 10,000ft from 7,000ft, in 1988 Manchester international Airport was handling 9.5 million passengers annually and celebrated its Golden Jubilee.

Manchester Airport 1971

The ever increasing number of passengers travelling through Terminal 1 was starting to take its toll, so in 1993 Terminal 2 opened with a airport railway station which connected to the UK’s rail network which allowed even more passengers to travel direct into the airport.

Terminal 2 only handles international flights, with 16 gates located in T2 15 of those have air bridges and one where you’ll walk along the runway. Terminal 2 and Terminal 1 are connected by the Skylink which also has long travelators to save passenger’s a 10-15 minute walk. Skylink also connects to Manchester airports railway station.

Skylink Manchester Airport

In 1997 planning was approved for Manchester’s second runway to be built, work commenced in 1997 and was completed in 2001 at a cost of £172 Million and was the first full runway to be constructed in the UK for over 20 years, 23L/05R the technical name for Runway Two.

Terminal 1 deals with all the UK internal flights, and it can handle around 11 million passengers annually, which has been greatly expanded since it first opened in 1962 when it could handle a capacity of 2.5 million passengers.

Manchester Airport fly’s to over 190 destinations via 65 tour operators / carriers, the airport offer more destinations compared to some of the biggest airports over in the US such as New York, Dallas and Chicago.

Car parking at Manchester Airport is fairly well equipped, Short stay car parks can be found next to T1,2,3 and are usually multi storeys. The parking is pretty expensive at around £2 for 30 minutes and close to £30 for 24 hours. When parking for a arrival it will usually cost you around £6-£8 depending on your time of arrival. It can take international flights around 1 hour from point of landing to coming through the arrival gates in the lounge, so don’t worry about turning up to early for a flight.