Re: CORK
Hi Tom,
You are ill informed sir. The Ryanair service to NTE did start in November.
I have travelled on it twice already in December. Loads very light on both occasions. It took just about an hour in each direction and was 20 mins early always. NTE is a masive regional airport - gold plated.
Interesting to see that SNN have taken a real low cost approach to the Ryanair terminal facilities. The departing passengers are held in basically a wide corridor downstairs with just a handful of seats in one of the oldest parts of the terminal building. Standing room only ready for the seat scrum. It is a short stroll then to the based Ryanair aircraft which are all lined up in a row at the end of the old terminal. It is as far away from the TA aircraft as possible. The check in area and baggage hall is massive at SNN - bigger than even the new ORK terminal.
The French market goes to Connemara as much as Kerry and Cork for their holidays. So SNN seems the right location for a three times weekly NTE service. Also Ryanair does not have to compete with ferries from SNN.
Do you know how long the time limits are to prepare for CAT II ops Tom? It is not so simple for the airport or operator. BMIBaby are just correctly prudent.
Cork has a fundamental problem with fog. It has had fog problems for 30 years and it will have fog problems for another 30 years. The location and slopes mean CAT III is never going to happen. ORK is lucky that it has close diversion options at SNN and KIR which are happy to handle diverted a/c.
Aer Lingus have no commercial interest in TA from ORK. They have a long standing business at SNN and there would be too many restrictions on the use of an A330.