![\"Woodgate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Woodgate-Aviation-02_JK.jpg\")
Woodgate Aviation<\/p>\nThousands from around the world are descending on the North Coast this week – with some arriving in private jets<\/p>\n
16:53, 16 Jul 2025Updated 22:01, 16 Jul 2025<\/p>\n
Woodgate Aviation<\/p>\n
An influx of people from around the world are descending on the North Coast<\/a> this week for the 153rd Open Championship, and among them are the rich and famous who need somewhere to land their private jets.<\/p>\n Many of them head to Woodgate Aviation, a private enterprise at Belfast International Airport<\/a> that has been catering for customers who can afford tens of thousands to avoid glaring eyes and airport security queues, since 1969.<\/p>\n The family-owned firm, based just off the main airport’s runway, are expecting up to 90 private jets to land at their site between Wednesday and Monday for The Open.<\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE: Disgruntled golf fans endure nearly two hour waits at Park and Ride for The Open Championship in Portrush<\/a>READ MORE: Ramore: Popular Portrush restaurant reverses ‘Open’ price hike after public backlash<\/a><\/p>\n Speaking to Belfast Live<\/a> ahead of the rush, Operations Director, Keith McKay, said: “We’re the first point of contact into Northern Ireland for a lot of people, so we make sure to have a big smile and warm welcome as soon as that jet opens up. If everybody can have that welcome right away, it just leaves a wonderful impression of Northern Ireland.<\/a><\/p>\n “Thursday, Friday and Saturday look like they’ll be our busiest days for The Open. I suspect also, depending on which players make the cut, on Friday afternoon we could see maybe an increase.<\/p>\n “You might see a wee bit of a rush as players are leaving, and obviously on Sunday once the event is over we’ll probably see more of an increase too.”<\/p>\n Woodgate Aviation have their own departure and arrivals terminal, a hangar to hold private jets, and their own fuelling provision.<\/p>\n As for what the elite passengers can expect when they’re arriving into and departing from Woodgate’s hub, Keith explained: “We have more of a streamlined form of travel.<\/a><\/p>\n “We can have a chauffeur to take passengers out to the aircraft, you’re not under the same restrictions as an airline. You can literally arrive up five minutes before departure.<\/p>\n “We have a lounge that seats up to 25 people, they can help themselves to tea and coffee, alcoholic drinks, there’s TVs and Wifi too. It’s a relaxed atmosphere, and there’s a discretion too, they’re not being harrassed for autographs or anything like that.”<\/p>\n In recent years, since the last time The Open was held in Northern Ireland in 2019, Keith said they have seen a big increase in “luxury tourism”, with much of it fuelled by golf tourism.<\/p>\n He said: “There has been a big increase into private jets arriving compared to the last time The Open was held in Portrush<\/a>. According to Forbes, for every private jet that arrives into Northern Ireland, so lets say a small or medium sized jet seating four to six passengers, it’s bringing in around \u00a365,000 to the local economy. That’s the same revenue as an airliner seating 160 passengers.<\/p>\n “You think all these wealthy Americans are coming to play golf, and more will certainly come as a result of the legacy of The Open, it puts a lot of value into the local economy. People have a misconception about private jets, they don’t realise the important link to luxury tourism into Northern Ireland it brings too.<\/p>\n “We’re certainly seeing golf tourism is very big here. There’s so much potential in Northern Ireland especially with these big tournaments coming here.”<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands from around the world are descending on the North Coast this week – with some arriving in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2627,2624,59,2212,1647,2098,101,2625,2626,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-4044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-belfast-international-airport","tag-co-antrim","tag-gb","tag-in-the-know","tag-northern-ireland","tag-portrush","tag-sports","tag-the-153rd-open-at-portrush","tag-the-open-championship","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Woodgate-Aviation-07_JK.jpg\")
The departure lounge at Woodgate Aviation.(Image: Justin Kernoghan\/Belfast Live)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Woodgate-Aviation-09_JK.jpg\")
The bar at the departures lounge at Woodgate Aviation.(Image: Justin Kernoghan\/Belfast Live)<\/p>\n