Galway Airport
People still search for flights to Galway Airport, and the honest answer is that there are none. The airfield at Carnmore, 7.4 kilometres east of the city, saw its last scheduled passenger flight on 31 October 2011, when Aer Arann pulled out. At its peak it handled more than 300,000 passengers a year to sixteen destinations; today the Galway Flying Club uses the runway and the site has hosted concerts.
Checked against the source on 2026-09-19.
瑞丽江的河水, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Eyre Square on the 3D model; tap a pin for its page and directions.
A grass strip, a German businessman, a runway
The first landing ground was built in 1918 for the Royal Flying Corps at Oranmore, later used by Aer Arann, a flying club and private operators, but it was grass and all but useless in winter. A German businessman, Ernest Steiner, built his own strip opposite his factory at Carnmore; Aer Arann moved there and began flying in 1974. The runway was extended to 1,200 metres by 2 March 1987, enough for regional turboprops such as the ATR-42 but never for jet airliners. The first jet, a twelve-seat Gulfstream II from Ohio, landed on 30 March, and business jets followed.
Closure and what came after
With a runway of 1,289 metres, scheduled services were limited to turboprops and small executive jets, and when Aer Arann ceased commercial operations on 31 October 2011 the airport lost its only airline. It reopened briefly in 2015 and has been closed to commercial traffic since. Plans announced in 2021 to turn the site into a film studio by 2022 had not gone ahead by 2023, and its future ownership has been under discussion.
Flying to Galway now
The nearest airports with passenger flights are Ireland West Airport at Knock, 82 kilometres to the north, and Shannon, 84 kilometres to the south; buses link both to the city. The old airport is 6 kilometres by road from the centre and has no public transport of its own. Each town's Getting here page on this site gives its distance to both airports.
Questions people ask
Is Galway Airport open?
What is the nearest airport to Galway?
Why did Galway Airport close?
Written from Wikipedia, "Galway Airport" (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-09-19, and from the OpenStreetMap places on the model. Nothing has been added from memory; follow the source for its footnotes.