I used fly on the Aer Arann/Stobart ATR72 services between Belfast and Cork in the noughties and the loads were always good. They had a double daily service between Belfast and Cork.
When the flight was full, I used take a flight from Dublin to Cork. There were actually 11 flights a day from Dublin to Cork between Aer Arann and Ryanair during the Celtic Tiger era.
Ryanair eventually drove Aer Arann off the route with super low fares. Irish Rail also had an impact when they introduced hourly departures between Dublin and Cork as well as the new motorway when it was completed in 2010.
The drive from Belfast to the border these days is via motorway and dual carriageway. Once you cross the border into the Republic, the roads are better and it's motorway all the way to Cork. A drive from Belfast to Cork takes 4 hours.
Thats the biggest obstacle to a reintroduction of Belfast-Cork flights, though it probably still is viable with business traffic as a double daily after the pandemic.
An Aer Lingus Regional feeder service from Belfast to Shannon for transatlantic flights would certainly attract business travellers with US immigration being done in Shannon.
That would be more profitable for Aer Lingus than the A330 Belfast to US flights via Shannon that they did in the 1990s.
The Aer Lingus Regional Belfast to Shannon service could at some stage be upgraded to the Aer Lingus A321NEO that Aer Lingus operate from Shannon to the US if demand is sufficient from Belfast. Though leisure pax will probably still drive or take the bus to Dublin airport.
Last edited by CCR; 25th Jul 2020 at 04:21.