Originally Posted by
AerRyan
You said Ryanair made that comment though, my point is Ryanair don't actually maintain real European operations from Cork.
The passenger target was set by Neil Pakey, and you'll noticed he "resigned". As you've said only one carrier can deliver that, but not sustainably.
I've sadly no involvement with the route development side of things, but if I was to offer my opinion I'd aim for the following over a number of years.
Lufthansa - Year Round, up to daily.
Transavia - Year RoundParis Orly, up to 5pw
Vueling - Barcelona + Rome, 2/3pw.
SAS - Stockholm up to 4pw year round + Copenhagen/Oslo.
Finnair - Helsinki
Aer Lingus Regional - Bristol and Manchester (when Ryanair leave)
If Aer Lingus get CS100's, it wouldn't be completely implausible for a based CS100 operating AGP/FAO as well as a few other scattered European routes.
One to watch will be Norwegian short haul. If Norwegian choose to expand into the Irish market on Shorthaul, then we will be faced with serious competition from Ryanair. Up to now, it's mostly been Ryanair playing the airports off eachother. Norwegian could potentially be an airline that'll give Ryanair a fun for it's money. Is this sustainable growth if it does happen? Probably not.
Best case scenario situations above, take all of that with a large pinch of salt.
It was actually rose hynes who said that who I believe is still very much involved ??
I wouldn't disagree with your approach there but not sure all them routes would be sustainable - Couldn't see even half of them routes been sustainable on a year round basis but do agree the smaller aircraft if come on stream had also the Norwegian thing will shake things up - re legacy carriers irish people so conditioned to the Ryanair low fares model not sure how legacy carriers would cope - interesting times !!