The month of May was marvellous at Cork Aiport - must have been the best ever during the airport's 45 year history. June is beginning just as well today and in glorious sunshine as there are no less than seven pilgrimage flights bound for Lourdes. The ramp has been jammed with airliners over lunchtime with four aircraft from Futura doing some LDE and sun ITs along with two Airbus from Air Mediteranean and items of the scheduled traffic all packing the tight ramp. So full that even an ATR of Aer Arann had to wait with engines running for a sistership or the LOG to depart before getting a stand herself to park!
Regretably, there is a fly in the ointment for Cork Airport. It now looks like easyJet are dropping their early morning rotations from Gatwick on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and some Sunday morning flights until near the end of July when all are reinstated only to drop the evening flight for the month of August. Then, in September, bizarrely both flights are fully restored once again, at least for now.
Next week will be worse. The late evening FR907/8 from Stansted disappears from Wednesday until the start of September before being restored again but how long it stays like that is anyone's guess bearing in mind the turn things are now taking on the Cork-London routes. The Aer Lingus schedule is thankfully unchanged and remains at five daily to Heathrow through the summer.
Take note the Ryanair cutbacks on Liverpool - Cork comes into play shortly too with flights down to 4 weekly with KIR picking up the other three flights. The RYR winter schedule for LPL-ORK puts the aeroplane into Cork very late in the evening so late as to make it quite an unattractive prospect. Hard to figure out why Ryanair are doing this to the route - whatever it is the service aint gonna work too well with those timings. That is only an opinion of course and what do I know anyway!?
However, there is a lot there now for the management team at Cork Airport to think on with so much business about to be bled away from the airport over the next three months during the peak travel period. Turning away bizjets from Cork to snn and KIR for parking answers nothing when there is a new terminal to pay for and fill with passengers.
Last edited by Tom the Tenor; 1st Jun 2006 at 15:24.