CORK - 5

[Tom the Tenor]

Any white smoke from the CAAAAaaaa & DAAAAaaaa meeting?

Faro in the winter by FR? It must be a Cork thing - they really want to try and do it the hard way, dont they? Hard to see it work in my view though I should like to be proved wrong.

If FR wanted to do more out of Cork why start in the winter - there are just a few routes that would have any chance of doing so during the long dark days of a Cork winter. Yes, maybe, the Canaries, but why not somewhere like Charleroi, Milan Bergamo or Rome CIA, now that EI are dropping the Italian capital, or Berlin though it is very likely no discounts are left in the last two cases and that would hardly be to Ryanair's tastes!

It would be much easier in the summer, of course. The welcome surprise this summer has been how well Bordeaux is working. If Ryanair wanted they could get another month or five or six weeks out of it so maybe next year if they dont have a huff at Cork in the meantime.

Biarritz or Santiago, Pisa, Verona would all work fine in summertime in my view.

Mind you filling the 189 seater is tough at the best of times. In a way it is bizarre that Cork has seen no regional jet activity in the last few years.

I have a feeling that EI p!55ed off some of the crowd in Cork by both dropping Rome and cutting down the winter Geneva to just one day a week. That was a mad move. A shortish flight at around 1hr, 35 mins - it had the bums on seats certainly if not the yield. Beats me why Cork could not have went after Fly Baboo or Swiss. A choice there of ERJ 190s, DHC-8-Q400 or the Swiss RJs. Like, if there are discounts going for an extra Barcelona and Gatwick, well, Geneva would sure deserve it too.

Now, if anyone at Cork had any interest they should snuggle up to FlyBe and to get 'em to start a FlyBe Ireland op with one or two ERJ 175s. Hire a few local cabin crew and you are away with the locals! Such an opportunity in my view.

Fuel efficient 99 seaters - that is the way to go for Cork Airport. An opportunity to get out of the poxy Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday rotations made worse this winter by the Saturday only operation. Have you ever heard such 5h!te!