Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Donegal Airport (ICAO EIDL, IATA CFN), still widely known locally as Carrickfinn Airport, sits on the wild Atlantic coast of north-west County Donegal, close to Bunbeg and Gweedore. It is a small regional airport with a single ILS-equipped runway, handling scheduled PSO services to Dublin and Glasgow alongside search-and-rescue, Air Corps and general aviation traffic, and is renowned for its dramatic coastal approach.
Donegal Airport, known to generations of locals as Carrickfinn, lies on the Atlantic coast of north-west County Donegal and serves as the principal air link for the region's Gaeltacht communities. It is owned and managed by the private company Aerphort Idirnaisiúnta Dhún na nGall Teo and hosts scheduled Public Service Obligation flights to Dublin as well as seasonal services to Glasgow, alongside Air Corps, marine search and rescue, private charter and general aviation activity. For a visiting VFR pilot the field is notable above all for its scenic setting, having been voted the world's most scenic landing spot in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
The airport stands at coordinates 55.0442N, 8.3411W at an elevation of 20 feet, on the coast about 2 nautical miles south-west of Bunbeg in Carrickfinn, a townland in The Rosses district of north-west County Donegal. It is roughly a fifteen-minute drive from Dungloe and Gweedore and about forty-five minutes from Letterkenny. A tower frequency is published for the field, indicating an active air traffic control service around the aerodrome.
Donegal Airport has a single hard-surfaced runway, 03/21, which is lit and fitted with an ILS. Published lengths are 4,217 feet on runway 03 and 4,479 feet on runway 21.
Donegal Airport provides ATIS on 129.925 MHz, with ground and tower services both operating on 129.8 MHz. The field's single runway, 03/21, is equipped with an ILS for approaches to runway 21.
The airport lies directly on the coast in Carrickfinn, close to Bunbeg and within the Gweedore Gaeltacht, with a blue flag sandy beach nearby and the rocky, mountainous coastline of The Rosses providing a distinctive backdrop for pilots approaching from the Atlantic side.
Passenger operations began on Christmas Eve 1985, with the small Scottish carrier Malinair inaugurating flights to Glasgow and later Manchester before the airline's bankruptcy in 1987. The airport's development was funded with assistance from the Government of Ireland, private investors, Donegal County Council, the International Fund for Ireland and the European Regional Development Fund, and it was originally built to give local businesses easier access to the nearby industrial estate. Until the 1990s it was almost universally called Carrickfinn Airport, a name still in everyday local use and the source of its CFN airport code, since Donegal County Council had wanted to reserve the name "Donegal Airport" for a separate proposed airport near Letterkenny that was never built. Scheduled Dublin services have long operated under the government's Public Service Obligation scheme, and in July 2021 the Swedish regional airline Amapola Flyg was briefly awarded the Dublin route following the collapse of Stobart Air. The airport's scenic coastal approach saw it voted the world's most scenic landing spot in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Today the airport operates twice-daily Aer Lingus Regional flights (operated by Emerald Airlines) to Dublin under the PSO scheme, together with Loganair services to Glasgow. Other operations at the field include the Irish Air Corps, marine search and rescue services, private charter flights and general aviation. On-site facilities include a café bar, a shop, tourist information, an ATM, wifi, car rental and hangar and office space for rent.
