Re: CORK
A sad day today for Cork Airport. Let the record show that the airport has today suffered a blow that could see Cork Airport lose more than 100,000 passengers in a full year. The final Ryanair FR903/4 arrived from London Stansted Airport at lunchtime. The aircraft for today's flights was EI-CSE and the last load out on the service to Stansted was 137+1 passengers. Yes, 137 passengers! Let us remember that Ryanair were advertising last summer a total of six daily flights from Stansted to Cork for the winter schedule on their website. There will now be three daily flights from Stansted to Cork from tomorrow except on Saturdays in the summer when there will be just two flights! Food for thought there for any airport in any future negotiations with Ryanair?
Reading some of the posts above has me thinking that the billions of euros to be spent on the tunnel across the river Shannon is almost for the sole purpose of nicking passengers from the Cork area to travel to snn for transatlantic flights! To that end I bet there will be no toll to use the tunnel either!
Meanwhile, Cork Airport may be struggling to service a debt for the 163 million euro debt for her new terminal whilst snn sits comfortably and smugly with it's smartly renovated terminal not to mention all those airbridges! By the way, heard a story the other day they want new airbridges too at snn!
A good point is made about how political pressure was applied some years ago to resurect a ferry service between Cork and Wales and that in the past Cork people have been pretty thick when it came to using the airport. It is all different now though and maybe history can teach us a thing or two?
The apologists for snn and their promoting of a continuation of a stopover type status quo post Open Skies have now too had their say and their failed attempts to categorise Cork and her airport as being regional is nothing but a slur. Cork Airport has beaten Shannon Airport in terminal passengers for the years 2003 and 2004 and those figures for snn have included it's U.S. bound passengers so by no means is Cork small or regional if you want to make such comparisons.
However, Aer Lingus chiefs need to be cross examined on the matter of the A330 at Cork. Is it possible, yes or no? I have no real problem if EI SOPs say no, it is not the case. Aer Lingus chiefs need to come clean, that is all and everyone can then move on to the next project. The Oireachtas Committe on Transport might be the right forum to have these questions addressed? Rememeber again the runway at NCL is 642 feet longer than Cork and she has flights to Orlando SFB with MON A330 so if a modest runway extension was needed at Cork for flights to U.S. East Coast we might as well begin the work here.
As for A319 & 73G, well COPA Panama fly 73G PTY to EZE with a full load and direct too and that has got to be as far as ORK-EWR? One thing to remember though is whatever treacheries are put before Cork Airport by her rivals and by those who would do her down like was done for so long in the past your way will fail. Cork Airport will prevail and she will have flights to America. Cork Airport and Cork will not be beaten.