Another load of CRJ900s came on the market today as it seems Pluna, in Uruguay, have ceased operations and it is hard to see Air Canada or it's subsidaries being able to absorb them all. I should say a few could be wet leased fairly easily on reasonable enough rates if EI were interested in a small sub fleet to try out even more new routes from Dublin or try some more established unserved destinations from Cork. Are there a few bits of the CRJ900 airframe made in Northern Ireland at Bombardier facilities there - if so, it would also help to further cement the peace process as well - not that the Belfast base, be it Aldergrove or City, is not all ready doing that with the A319s etc.
Good question about Aer Lingus self sufficiency at Cork. Is Aer Lingus now wholly self sufficient with flight crew at Cork? When you think about it and the years of crews being driven around from top hotels to the airport in chaffeur driven limos - sure that cost alone must have put the costs of a Cork operation through the roof or even sky high - not to mention how it used to massage the egos of the EI sky gods!
I am beginning to consider that the UK, and in the Cork terms, that generally means Heathrow will have had it's day soon when it comes to onward connections for Cork passengers with the high cost of the UK Airport Departure Taxes on long haul routes. It might go some way to explain why it seems that both Etihad and Emirates are apparently doing so well from Dublin - between them the Abu Dhabi and Dubai based airlines have Asia, the Indian sub continent, the Far East and Australasia pretty much covered and there has got to be good savings made there by Cork and Irish cost conscious long haul travellers especially now that there seems to be so many of our so called brightest and finest emigrating live on the hoof to the far flung destinations where we hear the top jobs are now available.
Bearing in mind the above I just cant understand why there seems to have been so little action by Cork Airport on the above kind of near east/mid east route from Cork - if Dublin can absorb Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Istanbul all on a daily basis it beats me why a destination like Istanbul or say, even, Doha, could not work from Cork on say, two to three times a week?
Then again, it might not suit the current operator of Cork Airport, the Dublin Airport Authority, for Cork to have any new routes at all? After all, how many folk do we in Cork all know whom are now happy to throw in the towel and get on the Air Coach or get into the car and drive to Dublin to get a lower priced flight than you would at Cork for even the few destinations that Cork has in common with Dublin?
Yet again, Cork is so up against it in lots of ways - seasonality & reduced winter schedules, DAA's Fortress Dublin and the filling of the New Taj Mahal Collinstown and her many airbridges, the threat of Ducksie the Scarecrow scaring away maybe forever any chance of real competition.
What does Cork try to do to steer itself away from the above sort of predicament?
It puts a black Audi Q3 car in the new terminal near arrivals!
Now, that's genius!
