Oddly enough, I hardly blame snn for very much anymore about what happens or not happens in Cork. It is reasonable to aruge than snn has the ear of government on it's side and for as long as the Dublin Airport Authority is in charge I think Cork Airport will continue to slip for much of the year ahead and that is hardly snn's fault at all - the confluence of Dublin Airport gaining so much ground with new routes and increased capacity on other routes and the willingness of so many Cork people happy to take the over night coach services to Dublin Airport are both making it more and more difficult for Cork to compete. More locally then, Cork is also tied by what must be more attractive terms being offered by snn for new routes - the new W routings at snn with Cork based aeroplanes would indicate this may be the case.
Neither do I buy in to the idea that Cork should be grateful and that the glass is still half full rather than half empty. Cork has been trying to regroup over the last two or three years and now, regretably, I think it is becoming too late for Cork - it is nigh on impossible to compete for existing traffic at Shannon, Dublin and even Kerry as it is to compete for any brand new traffic. The architecture seems to be all ready in place that Cork will hardly ever be able to put together a sweeter package in order to get much new business.
Keeping the airport at Cork going on Londons, Amsterdams, Malagas, Lanzarotes and twice weekly Poland flights - how can positive growth be restored on such a limited portfolio? I would argue that it cannot.
