If you are anything like us, you started making travel plans as soon as the Premier League fixtures were announced.
The league released the 2015/16 fixtures in July and sparked a frenzy of phone-calls, tweets, messages and good, old fashioned debates about what games to attend.
Irish football fans have a long, close affinity to the Premier League and this season promises to see the numbers of supporters flying from Ireland to England, once again, increase.
Fans looking to see some Premier League action in the flesh will be pleased to see Ireland West Airport Knock has announced its winter schedule, with a host of destinations ideally suited to followers of football in the UK.
They’ve marked this announcement with a video in which some passengers using Ireland West are startled by a man doing his best Mark Clattenburg impersonation.
The airport has revealed that two of its busiest services are to Manchester and Liverpool and the most popular jaunts are on Saturday mornings – with Manchester United, City, Liverpool and Everton supporters making up a sizeable number of the passengers.
Ireland West currently has flights to seven different UK airports, which is the biggest selection of destinations from any airport across the West and North West of the country.
In fact, it’s the only airport in the west of Ireland with direct flights to Liverpool. Only Cork and Dublin Airport have a wider choice of destinations to choose from.
The routes include Bristol, East Midlands, Liverpool, Manchester and three London airports – Luton, Gatwick and Stansted. The airport is served by three of Europe’s biggest carriers: Aer Lingus, Flybe and Ryanair.
This should come in extremely handy for Irish fans planning to attend Premier League games this season and the Rugby World Cup, in September and October, given that Ireland are based in Cardiff and London for the World Cup pool stages.
With 703,000 passengers using the airport, 2014 was Ireland West’s busiest year. Given the huge level of interest in the range of flight options, growing optimism in Ireland’s World Cup chances, and exciting summer signings for the likes of United and Liverpool, 2015 should surpass that figure at a canter.
For more information on UK and European flights visit www.irelandwestairport.com or follow them on Facebook and Twitter, @Irelandwest, for regular updates.
