With the demise of Stobart Air, the Irish domestic routes became free for a new operator. Ryanair has decided to go domestic and they start flying Dublin to Kerry from 28 July.
This will see Boeing 737 jet service on the route, in place of the previous ATR72 turboprops. That means an upgrade for regular travellers on the route.
Ryanair Schedule
From 28 July through to 31 August, flights will be once daily. From Monday to Friday and Sunday, FR6691 will depart Dublin at 12:05, landing in Kerry at 13:00. Return services leave Farranfore at 13:25, arriving in the Irish capital at 14:20. Saturday services leave 40 minutes later.
Double daily services commence from 1 September, allowing day trips. On weekdays, flights leave Dublin at 06:45 and 18:00, while flights will leave Kerry at 08:05 and 19:20. Weekend services will leave Dublin at 11:00 and 19:00, and head back from the south west at 19:00 and 20:20.
Tickets will start at €19.99 each way, which is cheaper than the train, which starts at €24.99. The trains also take 3 hours and 40 minutes each way, while Ryanair flights are timed at 55 minutes.
Overall Thoughts
Kerry Airport at Farranfore is one of the few Irish airports I have yet to visit. That means I am going to get a train down there and fly back to Dublin, just for fun. KIR has a train station at the facility, which is unheard of in Ireland, so it makes connecting between the two modes very easy.
Hopefully the services are promoted well, as people will use the flights if they know about them. Irish people are not not conditioned to think about flying when travelling domestically, as there are just two routes, the other being Dublin to Donegal.
Will you be taking the new Ryanair services to or from Kerry? Do you prefer to drive, take the train or fly this route? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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This service makes zero sense to me. Who in their right mind would take a flight when you can just take the much more comfortable train?
The fight takes only an hour, but you need to be at the airport ideally 90 minutes ahead of time for a Ryanair flight at Dublin airport. You then have to collect your bag upon landing, which you pay extra to check-in. Add 20 minutes to get said bag and then you need to wait for your bus to bring you to Killarney. The bus journey to Killarney takes 30 minutes.
It takes you a minimum of 3 hours and 20 minutes via the fight assuming the bus is there waiting for you to go. But the bus timetable suggests you’ll be longer. Instead you’ll need to wait until 14.10 for the next bus. The flight leaves at 12.05 and is scheduled to arrive at 1pm. 10 minutes is not enough time to retrieve checked in luggage no matter how small the airport.
Your journey starts at 10.35am and will end at 14.40 when you arrive in Killarney. Over 4 hours in total.
The train takes between 3 hours and 14 minutes and 3 hours and 19 minutes. There are 7 journeys Monday to Saturday per day and 6 on a Sunday. Ryanair has just one flight per day.
Train fares cost as little as 16 Euro when booked in advance – if your using Ryanair you’ll likely be booking in advance.
The Ryanair fare costs 51 Euro for a checked bag. Plus 5.50 for the bus to Killarney for a total of 56.50 Euro.
You’re paying more than three times the price for a slower, much more uncomfortable option and you have the airport experience to deal with too.
Well, you make some good points. That being said, if you are flying in from or going abroad and live in Kerry, you may as well just get the Ryanair flight and save the additional time getting to and from Dublin city centre, so I’m sure that is one demographic it is aimed at. Also, if you have carry-on luggage only and fast-track security, you can get to Dublin Airport much later than 90 minutes before the flight. That will also reduce the costs. Ryanair is also moving to twice daily from September – it’s only once during August. There’s clearly a market for the service, as it was flown by Aer Lingus Regional and has done for years. Now if the train took an hour or even two, it would be a more viable option. You’re right though on the frequency of the train services – there are certainly more of them! Thanks for the comment!
there are trains nearby, Tralee and Farranfore, but only bus is on site
Yes, I checked on Google maps, it’s about 1.5km from the station to the airport, so about 15 minutes walk for me. Not on site, but close enough! Thanks for that.
This is a great advertisement for carbon pricing.
Interestingly enough, Ryanair allow you to offset the carbon as they do for their entire network. For this flight it’s a paltry amount, less an a Euro or thereabouts. I would be curious to see how many people actually pay for it. Airlines are eventually going to have to add this to ticket prices so everyone pays, instead of it being optional.
Yes, we need to price these domestic flights out of the market with carbon taxes.
The only Irish flights should be international flights and those serving islands for islanders only. 200km to 300km flights in this and age is a tone deaf joke.
Well, you should speak to the Government, as they subsidise the routes from Dublin to Kerry and Dublin to Donegal, as a public service. Each year the taxpayers foot the bill for those two routes to a certain extent. If Ireland had better rail service, it would negate the need for these, but no investment to upgrading the infrastructure for greater speeds has happened. It all goes back to the Government at the end of the day.
It takes time to update the rail network.
They have pulled all economic activity funding for Kerry Airport and they are dramatically increasing rail funding.
They now need to ban regional flights a la France.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/business/companies/arid-40312985.html
200km/h higher rail is needed, but Ireland doesn’t need true high speed rail which inevitably comes at the expense of local rail services and closed railway stations. The line speed is 160km/h from Dublin down to Mallow. It’s not bad. But Mallow to Tralee needs improved speeds.
True, I saw that and it’s right they didn’t get funding to cover an investment loss. Ryanair are currently flying the Kerry to Dublin on a commercial basis without subsidy, saving the taxpayer over €3 million annually according to the Ryanair press release. You can bet if they pull out, there’ll be another carrier to replace it who will want the subsidy. The Donegal PSO subsidy remains in place.
I agree with you on rail funding. Ireland can’t afford and doesn’t need high speed rail as it is not exactly a large country. However, the existing infrastructure should be upgraded to all be able to handle 160km/h without slowdowns and so on. I mean, there are still turnbacks at some points on the network. Lots can be done to improve the efficiency of the rail network in Ireland and it should be undertaken. More efficient rail means less cars on the road and will mean people can live further away from where they work (though that might be less of an issue now if working from home continues to be a thing!). And agree, Mallow to Tralee needs to improve, very much so.