MOST SCENIC Airport in the World: Flying from Donegal

Hello and welcome to another video. I'm Paul Lucas and today I am driving in the northwest of Ireland, County Donegal. The local airport here in Donegal at Carrickfin achieved international acclaim recently when it was voted the number one most scenic approach anywhere in the world. Now as you can see the weather today is a bit grey but I took the liberty of recording my approach into Carrickfin yesterday for you all to enjoy. It's a beautiful sunny day and it is a truly fantastic stunning approach to the airport way out here in the northwest of Ireland. Today I'm actually traveling back to Dublin on Aer Lingus Regional operated by Stobart Air and I'm really looking forward to it. It should be on an ATR 42 aircraft, a very small turboprop, only about a 40 to 45 minute flight time over to Dublin. So without further ado let's go hand this car back and get on with the trip report. Hope you enjoy this one. Donegal is a beautiful county in the very northwest tip of the Republic of Ireland. Despite being the fourth largest county on the island by area, it's also one of the most sparsely populated. About 180 years ago 296,000 people lived in this county but only about half that number live there now. Deaths from the Irish potato famine, continuous emigration and economic changes posed by the partition of Ireland in 1921 mean that Donegal is one of the most rural counties on the whole island. It's a wonderful place, spectacular and unspoilt and a wonderful tourist destination. The airport itself has had quite a short history in terms of commercial operations having only been inaugurated as a commercial airport in 1986. Today there are just two routes, one to Glasgow and one to Dublin. The only way to get to Donegal airport is by road and for that reason the car park is pretty cheap. In fact I don't recall seeing airport parking cheaper anywhere else in the world. Let me know if you know of any airports that charge less than this. The check-in area here consists of just one large room. It looks particularly busy here because there are in fact two flights due at once due to a delay to the Glasgow flight. The west of Ireland feels very different to the eastern capital, Dublin. It's very parochial and everyone seems to know each other. That was no different here. The airport staff seem to know a lot of the passengers personally. There's an apron extension project currently in progress here at Donegal. This should provide more parking spaces for aircraft in the future. Loganair are the operator of the Donegal to Glasgow route. They've actually operated this route on and off since the early 1990s. The reason that Donegal has a link to Glasgow is primarily because for various historical reasons there's a large Ulster Scots community with Scottish ties that live in Donegal. The route is important in keeping families and businesses connected. The rationale for the Dublin route is a little different. At the beginning of the last century Donegal had an intricate network of narrow gauge railways but the last of these closed in 1959. Looking at a modern map Donegal has no railway network to speak of. Dublin is over four hours by road from Donegal. The airport itself sits at the very edge of the county next to Carrickfin beach giving it a remote and privileged position in terms of scenery. The weather had really closed in in the half an hour that I was at the airport so it was a relief to see that my inbound aircraft had made it in safely with no need to divert. Most if not all Aer Lingus aircraft are named for Irish saints. This ATR42 is named for St Iter. Apparently she lived around 1500 years ago and one of the miracles attributed to her was the reattaching of the head to a dead body of a man who'd been decapitated. The record is silent however as to whether the man came back to life or not. There are just two gates here at Donegal airport and boarding is done straight across the tarmac and up the stairs of the aircraft. As I mentioned at the start of the video this route is actually run by Stobart Air, an Irish wet-lease airline. They in fact run all of Aer Lingus Regional's routes on behalf of Aer Lingus. Having flown on a much older ATR42 a couple of years ago from Newquay, this new example is a real breath of fresh air. It's much more pleasant inside, much brighter with far more comfortable seats. These rearward facing seats by the way aren't passenger seats, they're jump seats for the crew. Today's flight only has one member of crew on board in the cabin. The ATR42 is designed for routes like this, it's a short hop turboprop, but the legroom on board is really impressive given the short routes this aircraft's designed for. Welcome to this Aer Lingus Regional flight, operated by Stobart Air. 3403 to Dublin, our captain today, there we go, assisted by First Officer Mathieu Sullivan. Donegal Airport is 140 miles from Dublin and it will take us around 45 minutes to complete this journey at 18,000 feet. These new ATRs have a few interior features worth commenting on. Firstly is the attractive overhead panel where the no smoking sign is substituted for a no tablets and laptop sign. Also the seat numbering isn't in the usual position, it's actually up by the ceiling strip lights. Normally they're down here at the bottom of the overhead racks. In a few moments we will commence our in-flight service. In your seat pocket you will find our menu card and we hope you agree that the selection we offer has something for everyone. On these short regional flights, Aer The menu is named Beer, which is Irish for food. You can probably do without catering on such a short flight, but as usual I managed to partake on the outbound flight into Donegal and allowed myself a coffee. It was reasonably good and cost €3. Donegal is really trying hard at the tourism game and the airport even has an official magazine. You know that I'll always give it to you straight and this whole best most scenic airport in the world stuff is really just a marketing exercise. Nonetheless it is a stunning place to land or take off from and good luck to them for such a good and well-noticed marketing exercise. The chairman's welcome explains that this Dublin route is subsidised by the Irish government. Connecting rural communities to the main hub in the country is not just important so that people can visit the capital, but also brings significant opportunities for people from those communities to travel more widely. Passengers can connect in Dublin to nearly 200 other destinations. Meanwhile back on board this ATR42 has one of the smallest but neatest aircraft lavatories I've ever been in. I'm not quite sure though why the toilet paper is jammed into the handle. I've always had a nagging thought that the ATR just feels an awful lot more solid than its competitor the Dash 8 Q400. I also discovered a touch of luxury in this lavatory. Not only is there a personal air vent for you if you're sat on the toilet, there's also a special button here to summon the flight attendant to bring you some drinks if you're in there for a long stay. As I mentioned earlier this flight takes just 45 minutes to complete so there's no time to hang around it's time to take my seat ready for landing in Dublin. Aer Lingus are the only company operating on the Donegal Dublin route and so there's no competition unless you fancy a four and a half hour drive to get to Dublin. Still it's a good service and I really enjoy taking some of these more provincial routes. I'm always fascinated by the people that use these services and I'll always cheerlead for any air route which provides social and economic benefits to the communities it connects. I hope you've enjoyed this video and I hope that you're inspired to visit Donegal at some point too. I'll leave it here for now, please subscribe and I will see you next time with another video.