Originally Posted by
airsouthwest
I do find it a bit strange that Aer Lingus doesn't want them to operate back at Cork like they did pre Covid as there routes always used to be quite busy to Bristol, Birmingham etc,. It's certainly not something that's going to be sustainable with a 189 seater 737 by Ryanair but I'm sure a fountain of knowledge will tell me otherwise. Although I'd much rather it was Flybe as I prefer them and the Q400 to an ATR.
The initial routes leaked on Twitter did suggest that ORK was included in the plans. I think it was BHX, BRS and GLA based on the tweet. At the time FR had already stolen a march on the rest of the EIR routes from Cork. This winter they are offering Birmingham (5x), Edinburgh(7x), Liverpool (5x), Gatwick (7x), Luton(5x), Stansted (18x), Manchester (14x) and Newcastle (2x). BRS and GLA are the losers here, but with a daily 738 to EDI, thats probably adequate, BHX has also taken a big capacity and schedule hit compared to the EIR days. But FR do have LTN and STN on their network, which EI didn't.
Would it be worth Emerald's time to base a single ATR at Cork to serve the likes of EMA, LBA, GLA, BRS and CWL? Without a trunk route like BHX or MAN, Im not sure they could make it work?
I imagine their focus will be on buying a reliable operation at DUB and doing their best to defend against flyBE at BHD for the foreseeable. Why draw Ryanair on themselves at ORK?