Re: CORK
Yet again Cork has been given the short end of the stick, by the unions and the government. In case no one @ SNN has noticed NO-ONE wants to fly into a bog in the west of Ireland, on a voluntary basis, EI dont want to do it, and the only reason they have given a commitment is because they need to play the politics game, so that they can get funding for the new long haul fleet, which is badly needed.To gain services SNN has to massively subsidise traffic, at least ORK can pull FR,EI,U2,Malev,CSA AND WW of its own accord.
Aer Lingus has publicly stated, on numerous occaions that Cork has T/A potential for them, that the runway is not an issue, and the main constraint was/is the stopover/fleet availability. T/A from ORK will happen, as much as SNN dosent want it to, because as much as it is put down ORK has a vibrant attractive city only minutes from its door step, which despite the theoritical catchment numbers processes more passengers than SNN could ever do in its own right.(I say this because most historically PAX were forced to use shannon on their way to/from DUB).The majority of PAX embarking @SNN are from ORK hinterland.
It is also duly noted the SNN does not have to pay for its new terminal(built about 5 years back), and has copious numbers of air-bridges, most of which lie idle, as FR don't use airbridges!