Dublin route?
Just some ideas and thoughts on route development; I've always been curious as to whether there is opportunity to restart the Ork-Dub service, and if there is demand for a service offering connectivity through Dub rather than relying on point to point traffic alone. Such a service could have the potential to boost passenger numbers at Ork, transit numbers in Dub, car park revenues at Cork, incremental connecting traffic with the airline(s) and associated incremental revenue from such a service offering.
Would there be any potential interest in Stobart or even EI offering a Dublin route with the main aim for connectivity to EIs long haul (or even short haul?) flights? Yes there are cheap aircoach fares to Dublin, but surely there would be a proportion of people that would pay for the convenience of through checking to/from Cork with the convenience of baggage transfers and transit security function in Dublin? Would the arrangement between Stobart and EI allow for this? Between the Daa and EI, there must be stats showing volume of origin of pax from Cork, with the opportunity to make incremental revenue based on offering the transit between Cork and Dublin by air rather than by car, train or bus.
Could Stobart also consider combining such a service with a Dublin departing service, such as Dub-Ncl, thereby also offering Ork pax a Ork-Ncl service via a stop in Dublin on the same aircraft? This would then split the capacity between point to point, an indirect route and interconnecting traffic.
If such a Ork-Dub service was 3 times a day on an ATR it could equate to similar traffic to a direct once a day operation to the States for example.
Short-haul connecting flights are quite prevalent in the States and Norwegian and Ryanair offer such a service in selected Countries in Europe. Perhaps Aer Lingus would consider offering this facility through a Cork-Dublin flight, offering onward connections to their short-haul network in addition to their long haul network? This could indirectly boost Cork services such as Munich which has a limited direct schedule and could benefit from being offered in conjunction with connecting services on results for return flight searches on the airline website.
I have also seen that FR are offering connecting flights in countries like Italy. Would they perhaps be willing to roll out such an offering to allow Ork passengers connect to their Dublin network if a flight was re-established between Ork and Dub, benefitting from any incremental margin from offering such a connecting service?
Perhaps a survey via the airport or Cork Chamber could help gauge demand for such a service, and what premium passengers would consider paying to start/finish their journey at Cork Airport and to connect to Dublin via air?
Any thoughts, comments or opinions would be welcome