mark heg,
i dont think a runway extenstion is an option,mainly because 17 has a hill before it and runway 35 would mean buying people out of houses and land and mainly the main cork to kinsale road,the terrain behind 35 is also a hill so thats why i dont think its an option,25 or 07?? again this would be probably a better option to extend if they ever were going to do it because of the whole prevailing westerly winds etc (usually westerly winds at EICK) and again the 25 side is out of bounds with the main road and the 07 end with the same problems as we ahve on the 35 end.
anyway i dont think EI would need to fly an A330 into cork to test it,what a waste of money,i think the easier solution would be to do the basic maths.windspeeds,aircraft weight/speed,runway length etc etc
regards,