I too am confident that EasyJet will do well out of Cork, and their CEO Ed Winters today stated they are here for the long haul.
I think that the people of Cork are seeing that RyanAir has no commitment to Cork whatsoever ~ Mr Cawley (a Corkman - who should actually be disowned by us down here for his previous Anti Cork comments) today stated that they (RyanAir) have no plans to open up new routes out of Cork Airport. A strange comment from him was and i quote "Aerlingus will launch a number of new routes out of Cork, and I (Mr. Cawley) think that is enough." Strange for RyanAir to have this stance. maybe they think it immoral to tread on another airlines toes - NOT
Just from another point, RyanAirs claim to be THE low fares airline does not bear out in my mind. Having to take an unexpected trip to London next Sunday, I checked the fares on EI, FR and U2. U2 were cheapest at 336, EI next at 410 and FR topped them all at 490. So much for low fares !!!