CORK

[hafez]

Are EI trying to do what they did to jetmagic with aer arann? Aer Arann and bmibaby fly to birmingham aswell and i cant see it being too big of a hotspot It's all a bit strange.

[840]

The route to Birmingham looks like they had time to get a short, quick rotation out of one of the planes. IMO Manchester would have been a better option considering that there are a lot of available seats on the Birmingham route already. Another alternative for a quick rotation could have been Brittany (with maybe one flight a week to Jersey).

Berlin is a bit of a surprise. I thought it might be a route that Easyjet would look at, but I wasn't expecting Aer Lingus. Services to Germany can work from Cork, but you need to attract business pax and inbound and outbound leisure pax. My worry is that Aer Lingus don't have the marketing clout in Germany to do that.

Even then, Berlin isn't the richest part of Germany. I would have thought that, if they were looking for a route to Germany, Frankfurt or Duesseldorf might have made more sense. Frankfurt would have had the benefit of attracting interlining pax. Duesseldorf may have had a negative impact on Amsterdam yields though.

[Daza]

BHX-ORK

This isn't the first time that EI have operated to BHX from ORK. If I remember they used F50 and 146 aircraft twice daily in the nineties. The route proved popular until EI changed their fleet. Birmingham has the largest Irish ex-pat community outside London and is also now a transformed city with great shopping, world class hotels, exhibitions and entertainment. Dont knock Brum unless youve tried it!!! Good luck to EI with the service
Daza

[840]

This isn't the first time that EI have operated to BHX from ORK. If I remember they used F50 and 146 aircraft twice daily in the nineties. The route proved popular until EI changed their fleet. Birmingham has the largest Irish ex-pat community outside London and is also now a transformed city with great shopping, world class hotels, exhibitions and entertainment. Dont knock Brum unless youve tried it!!! Good luck to EI with the service
Daza

I'm not knocking Birmingham. I used to live near there for a couple of years when I was a kid. Only recently, I chose to fly to Birmingham rather than Heathrow when traveling to Oxford because it spared me the hassle of Heathrow.

The point was more that RE and WW provide 3 flights and almost 300 seats each way per day already. It's quite a crowded route.

[Tom the Tenor]

I met the Mrs in Brum! No complaints from me about the new EI service to Birmingham. Yes, must have been EI squeezing the schedule tightly to get in the extra rotation.

RE are double daily ORK-BHX and WW are one daily so sure enough there will be plenty of competition for EI to deal with once the service begins in the summer.

Equally, a ORK-GLA at 3 a week would have also been a short rotation. Glasgow has the critical mass of population and notwithstanding Roy Keane, Celtic etc, Glasgow is in my opinion better than Edinburgh for the arts and music and therefore has a tourist potential all of it's own in that area.

LG from GLA have been great for Cork and I salute them but for the likes of Sean Citizen swigging his jar of Murphys in Cork tonight the sight of a venerable SF340 is hardly a turn on for a nearly two hour flight in the middle of December?

As for a FR PIK flight. Hard to see with a 189 seater? If FR do base another aircraft at Cork and if again the schedule is made really tight, well, there may be a chance? With the unexpected success of FR LPL guess anything is possible!

Berlin is a booming city and again has the critical mass of population. The western areas of Poland are also not too far away and Berlin may be a gateway for journeys home from Cork for some Polish people now working in Ireland. At three a week I am sure the new route will do just fine.

Looks like Madrid is gone for another year. The EI 174 seaters are big aeroplanes, too big in some ways for trying out new routes from Cork? Madrid is one potential destination from Cork that might be better introduced by Iberia in that interlining pax with the huge IB network to Central and South America would be as seamless as possible?

IB have A319s and have A318s on order and are still flying the equally venerable MD-87s. A 100+ seater certainly has it's attractions at trying out new routes as JetBlue are demonstrating with the ERJ-190? Sure do hope Cork gets a Madrid in the next year or two if I am pardoned for indulging in a Christmas wish list!

[ryan2000]

Aerlingus from ORK

If Glasgow works from SNN surely it would work from ORk though it would put pressure on LC and RE.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Ryanair went to PIK now. Can't understand why Aerlingus didn't jump at GLA. Its a no brainer at weekends as Celtic have a huge following in Munster and they play most of their away games in the vicinity of Glasgow as well.

Slot issues prevented a MADRID route, that was their first choice. Amazing that they opted for TFS over ACE and LPA given that they are much more popular with the Charter operators ex ORK.

Well that's all Cork will get from EI untill 2007 but they have shown great confidence in the airport.

Speculation will now switch to Ryanair and Easyjet's plans for 2006. The latters LGW schedule is bizarre 3 per day untill mid July back to 2 Daily for the peak and up to 3 a day again from September. They've now missed a chance to launch ORK BERLIN but Dortmund still looms. RE must be vulnerable on BRS and BHD to a low cost predator.

[brian_dromey]

Well done Aer Lingus, more new routes, some strange choices though.

The BHX is indeed the joker in the deck, but I would have preferred to see them introduce a MAN service. Now that BA have pulled and WW are flying a schedule that mainly comprises usless evening rotations(from a connections point of view) there was a killing to be made. Also FR have a presence @ BHX and will MOL will probably not take too kindly to an invasion by 'fungus. Next FR route ex ORK, my money is on BHX.

The Berlin service is strange, would have thought FRA, DUS or even CGN would have been better targets? Maybe trying to keep U2 off the route?

I have not had a chance to look at the schedule in full yet but I imagine its pretty tight. With the increase in frequencies on old routes an new routes I imagine that they have tightned up the schedule of the other three 320's as well, as there was some(albeit very little) slack. All in all the ORK base must be EIs most profitable, effecient and friendly. They are finally showing the commitment to ORK they mouthed off about for so long. Now use the airbridges and well all be happy!

ps Does any one know if those marvelous A321s still transit Cork, or if the fourth A320 will be a 321 instead?

[840]

The Birmingham rotation seems to be squeezed between a morning rotation to Berlin and an evening rotation to Faro.

ps Does any one know if those marvelous A321s still transit Cork, or if the fourth A320 will be a 321 instead?

No idea about the new aircraft, but I suspect it won't be a 321.

Currently, the only scheduled visit by an EI 321 is in the summer timetable when one of the Heathrow flights is operated by a London based plane.

[MarkD]

ORK-GLA is a BA/Logiebear route and I for one would be less than happy if DM went playing on it for the sake of some Keano games, BA drop it then EI do too and there's no route!

I went on it end 2000 (J41 then I think) and was very happy for a nonstop if noisy trip, not to mention free food which presumably is still the case - no free nosh if EI run it! The horrors of what EI used to charge GLA-DUB-ORK in the early nineties (especially at end of college terms) are still with me...

[Yak97]

brian_dromey

"Also FR have a presence @ BHX and will MOL will probably not take too kindly to an invasion by 'fungus. Next FR route ex ORK, my money is on BHX."

I didn't think MOL really had much time for BHX? The only route they currently operate is DUB. They seem much more interested in EMA.

There used to be a BHX-SNN link but that was operated by Flybe. FR never reacted to that.

[EI-MICK]

The cork-london flights used to be done with a london based A321,however for the summer season the A321 was pulled for operating the sun routes from dub and just the one at luchtime arrived in cork,although they are nice and long,theyre filthy compared to the 320.

[Shamrock 125]

SXF

I don't see why people see Berlin as a bit of a mystery. It makes perfect sense. The flight from DUB is full almost every morning, not with Germans or Irish amazingly but Polish. Trust me I know I'm sick of telling them that they can't buy Duty free but that isnt any good since they haven't a word of English. Can I see your boarding card there please? - "no" is the reply
All right lad suit yourself! They haven't a clue what you're saying!

[Tom the Tenor]

Yes, Shamrock 125, we are in agreement about Berlin. Regular train connections from Berlin makes the western areas of Poland a cinch.

More of an issue for EI next year at Cork will be the relatively late arrival of the 4th Airbus for the new routes and the current destinations that are to get a boost in capacity.

The aeroplane will not get to Cork until late June/start of July which is some significant way into the summer schedule. Surely, this must be of some concern as to how the potential financial rewards will be overall for EI come the end of a busy summer season?

What is the situation with A320 delivery? Does the late arrival of the 4th Airbus to Cork suggest EI will be short of airframes next summer?

[ryan2000]

Glad to hear that John Smyth is once again playing an active role in developing business at Cork. Heard that he was very involved in the Aerlingus expansion there, well done John.

[eastjimmy]

is john smyth involved with EI or the CAA...???? Which ever the expansion is more then welcomed.... Happy Xmas and lets hope its a very good and historic year at ORK.
Regs
EJ

[brian_dromey]

My reference to the "marvelous A321" is not anything more than personal prefrencefor that type. 3 full size exits on the port side just appelat to me, and the a321s had very comfortable seats, that were fer more spacious than the awful seats on BA 747-400s. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasnt an a321 based full time in Cork untill the 3rd 320 was stationed @ ORK earlier in the year? I certainly remember red-eye charters tio Faro on behalf of Irish Tour Operators, also remember full business class service throughout the cabin! Ah those were the days!

I know the expansion @ ork is fantastic, but maybe we are becomming a little forget ful that EI all but abondoned ORK in 2001/2002, when only three flights to LHR daily and AMS and CDG at only a couple of times weekly? Mind you the base must now have exceptional yields, as the fares certainly are not the bargin-basement variety that EI.com would have us believe!

I think we all look forward to the days when an A330 will operate direct flights to USA, however can we epect the LHR then to decrease in frequency, with perhaps BHX going in there, and the 3x weekly to go to GLS? EI still intend to announce 10 more routes for next summer, and perhaps if (big,big if) they manage to get aircraft I think it would be possible, and profitable.

[EI-MICK]

brian i think all the heathrow flights were done by an A321 upto last winter,not sure if it was based there.There is a market there for GLS to trounce loganair but im not sure logan would be affected if ryanair opened a prestwick route.considering prestwick is not glasgow.

[Tom the Tenor]

A North Atlantic will work ex Cork but to do so it has to be, more or less, Aer Lingus. Leaving aside the issue of aircraft availability of the A330 there remains the troublesome problem of the Cork runway. I am going to stick my neck out here a little - it is quite unlikely that we will ever see a ORK-JFK with an A330 unless some seats are blocked off and that makes a fool of the operation. Sadly, the Cork runway at 7000 feet is just too short and it is hard to ever see a runway extension in the next five years or so bearing in mind there is no money for the 2nd airbridge!

The Slatterys series was Cork's best ever hope for flights to America but it was not to be. Even if a few of the flights up to Christmas had flown it would have made all the difference looking ahead for the future.

[mark_heg]

Hmmmm yes the runway is 7000ft but there are several runways around the globe that are just over 7000 ft i.e. St Maartens is 7,150ft and it is capable of taking 747-400 and other heavies. I dont see why cork couldnt take A330-200 for example. Also EI used to lease MD-11 to operate US routes before, could they not just lease 767-200 / 300 for the same purpose??

Or how about AA, they are pulling newcastle they could easily switch their 757 to cork, and operate ork-bos. That would be ideal. I know that AA have reduced their frequency to snn over the winter, I think the same operation could be run out of cork.

[Tom the Tenor]

To get around the idea of any airline trying to ever sneak away from snn the cute people there are going to reduce charges from America by around thirty per cent in the post stopover era. Hard to see how the gang at Cork will ever compete against such discounting. Remember, again, there is no money at Cork for the 2nd airbridge! This simple decision says it all.

As regards EI and suggesting a ORK-MAN. Ryanair have generally hoovered up that market with the success of their service from Liverpool to Cork and unlike the crowd at bmi baby Ryanair shoot CATII approaches at Cork!

EI are taking out the mid galley of the A321s and are putting in more seats. The capacity will then be around 225 or thereabouts. Seat pitch should remain the same. Not sure if that kind of capacity has a future at Cork?