I see that Aerlngus has announced significant expansion from Dublin for the Winter. The excuse being peddled around Cork Airport and in the local media that the collapse in traffic there is all the recessions fault is beginning to sound very hollow particularly with the amount of Cork people driving to Dublin
Come on!? you really believe Aer Lingus dont want to grow at Cork? Aer Lingus are matching demand, Barcelona/Rome may have had OK loads (pretty poor most days last winter except the weekends) but obviously ancillary revenue is not there during the winter. Ask any Aer Lingus employee at Cork there happy with the way the operation is being run, realistically. You only have to look up the road at Shannon to see how things can change when airlines take no more interest in growth at an airport. Brussels is a welcome addition which will bring inward tourism, its what we need and for Aer Lingus loads will be good and ancillary revenue is high on the route, its a no brainier. London/Gatwick has oversupply at the moment check the stats, Aer Lingus cant compete with Ryanair to Gatwick and they do Heathrow well, which is why we will see an increase in flights there in Summer 2013. The fact is people don't have the money to go places during the winter anymore and Aer Lingus will serve a schedule according to demand, I'd give it two years at this stage maybe Winter 14/15 before we have 4 stationed units again. Aer Lingus haven't grown stationed units at Dublin this Winter Ryan 2000 they're simply increasing the utilisation of the fleet which can only be good for the airline.