How about the Aer Arann order for new ATR-72-500 series aircraft? At the very least this variant of the aircraft should be CAT II capable or even CATIII? Yes, I know the crews need to be firstly suitably qualified for low viz approaches but you would think that with such high capital costs for the welcome new aeroplanes the marginal cost of the having your crews signed off for such procedures would not be a prohibitive sum? Aer Arann have had a quite a few diversions from Cork in recent weeks and the knock on costs involved in my opinion would go a long way to pay for a lot of pilot qualifications for low viz landings at Cork.
In the meantime, there was an ad on the radio this morning for the Aer Arann Cork - Dublin service and it looks like RE are now offering a complementary tea/coffee service during the flights. The four Ryanair flights a day must be focusing minds in RE which amongst other things leads us nicely back to low viz procedures as well as price etc.
Wonder where the capacity from the soon to be dropped RE DUB-SNN service will go?
Any more to add to the story about Cork supposedly not having enough cash to buy some new baggage trolleys? Yet there is no stopping Dublin from having a new pier, new terminal and a new runway in the years ahead. What hope does Cork have with this kind of brother competitor in Dublin not to even mention Shannon and the stopover.
