Next April Aer Lingus will operate the following weekly frequency on Dublin to Brussels:
12 x A320 + 6 x A321 = 18 x weekly (and judging by load factor and prices this route is one of Aer Lingus' biggest earners)
Ryanair will operate the following weekly frequency on Dublin to Charleroi:
7 x B738
That's 25 big aircraft flying from Dublin to Belgium every week.
Surely 3 x A320 from Cork to Brussels is conceivable.
Okay I am biased. I am a Cork man living in Belgium. I nearly always fly to Dublin to get home and I see an important number of people from Munster on the flights. In the days of Charleroi to Shannon, half the plane used to have Cork as final destination from what I could see. I regularly have friends from Cork needing to come to Belgium for work. Pharmaceutical and telecommunication business links are not the only ones. Think of all the Munster people working for the European Union or for legal or lobby groups.
And then all the people like me, Munster Irish living in Belgium, and then all the Belgians living in Munster.
In 2003 Jet Magic had built up a significant customer base on Cork to Brussels by the time they went bankrupt. 99 euro tickets were few and far between. Typically it was costing almost 300 euros return.
In summer 2005 when Brussels Airlines operately Brussels to Cork 2 x weekly M--T--- in a mix of 80 and 100 seater Avro jets they had a load factor above 95% despite being very expensive and having zero marketing of the route on either side.
Aer Lingus' routes from Cork to Paris and Amsterdam are strong performers, and possibly Cork to Brussels would be a natural expansion of these routes.
An introduction of Cork to Brussels would have a negative effect on the following routes:
EI: DUB-BRU
FR: DUB-CRL
EI: ORK-AMS + KL: AMS-BRU + KL: AMS-LUX
EI: ORK-CDG
EI: ORK-LHR + BA: LHR-BRU + BA: LHR-LUX
FR: DUB-EIN
EI: DUS-DUB
FR: HHN-KIR
etc etc
Any new route will have a negative effect on an airlines' existing routes. But I am convinced that there is strong demand for Cork to Brussels.
Last edited by Charlie Roy; 17th Dec 2011 at 12:48.