CORK - 5

[Kavs8]

Its a pity alright - Jamie2k9 we've know for a few days now that BCN has been axed what was the actual point of rining when i informed you i had rang them a few days ago??? Im working in Cork Airport from January 21st-26th in dispatch, check-in & admistration and ill be asking Kevin Cullinane whats the story because its a joke these days the whay EI is starting to switch/remove routes - Its was quite clear since 2007 that EI wouldnt expand its fleet at ORK past 4 which is a shame. I usued FAO in November 07' and load factor as i can remeber was around 70% on the outbound and around 60-65% on the inbound not bad for a summer season route operating in low season. EI should be expanding to a year-round capacity i.e. not putting 4 in the Summer down to 3 in the winter - every1 noes that there are plenty of holidays available from November-March including Xmas Holidays, January Holidays, February School mid-term & Paddy's day they would definitly attract passengers to Cork aswell as outbound pax.

Hopefully things will change because having a 3rd aircraft only used to go ACE on T-T-S- and no where else in the morning is seriously underutilised!

[Jamie2k9]

It also looks like Munich is been dropped from December 26.

[840]

That one makes no sense whatsoever.

Why run it through November, which will be lean and then ditch it at the start of the skiing season?

[ryan2000]

Munich Cork flights now re unstated at the times that the Barcelona flights were meant to operate. Paris inbound times changed on Su Mo and Fr.

[Jamie2k9]

ORK - LHR will now be done by an A320 next summer insted of the A321

[irishbcn]

On airliners.net they are saying that Aer Lingus is starting SNN-CDG, so that change in timetable could mean a W pattern with a Cork based A320.

[eick320]

All the above is correct, and the regional side of the ei operation has dropped CWL as a destination.

[turas]

concerned BCN pax

I've booked Cork-Barcelona flights in December and have received no notification from Aer Lingus that they've been cancelled. As of today, the booking manager still indicates that the flights are confirmed. If the posters above are correct then I'll be well pi&&ed off with Aer Lingus not just for cancelling but for not even bothering to inform me.

[ryan2000]

Check the Aerlingus website. Looks as if ORK BCN has been pulled to make room for SNN CDG.

[turas]

Yep, the website has no bookable ORK-BCN flights in December. Yet *my* flights are still confirmed when I check them in "Manage My Booking". I even got the site to send me a reconfirmation by email. When are they going to get around to telling me?
I'm annoyed, I try to avoid the blue-and-yellow airline because of this kind of carry-on, and I would expect (slightly) better communication from Aer Lingus.

[Tom the Tenor]

This happened to relatives of mine with Cork Madrid a few years ago when it was pulled in the summer or very early autumn when they were eventually told they would be travelling from Dublin at just a few weeks notice though it was fairly well known that the game was all ready up for Cork's Madrid flight.

Well, it is becoming clearer to me what Cork will have to put up with in the years ahead in the winter time - limited Cork operations or a drive to Dublin on the motorway and then a flight from the DAA flagship airport and now again there seems to be the smell of another rat from the midwest direction with the likely hijacking of Cork's flight to Barcelona to appease the snn crowd with a Paris flight displacing Cork's operations.

It is bad enough for Cork to be dumped on for decades when it comes to the unforgiveable social engineering of Ireland USA flights in favour of snn but now Cork may be stabbed in the back just once more and this time specifically targeting Cork's own operations.

Unforgiveable.

[Copenhagen]

Tom, you really need to calm down my friend - the world isn't against Cork.

EI are flying routes they think have a chance of profitability. Obviously they believe that SNN CDG will make money whilst ORK BCN will not.

Dont Blame the DAA 'flagship' for this - this has got nothing to do with the DAA, or Shannon airport, but EI identifying and targeting specific profitable opportunities. This could become a strength for ORK - feeding Shannon airport through W style operations - next up - ORK AMS SNN AMS ORK!

As for being dumped on the face for decades - thats a bright shiny new terminal you have there!

[840]

The only way that Aer Lingus are being encouraged into Shannon is probably that lower fees are being charged for restarting the route there. If Shannon's fees and Cork's fees were the same, there may have been a case for just adding frequency in Cork. Cork Airport always has the option to change the fee structure to encourage airlines to grow routes as well as add new ones.

I'm not especially impressed by how late Aer Lingus are removing/changing the flights to Barcelona and Munich, even if I'm not personally affected. It's one thing to make these changes six months in advance, but they will have a lot of passengers booked on those flights and with accommodation arrangements made etc.

Regarding Copenhagen's ORK-AMS-SNN-AMS-ORK suggestion: I could see Ws being operated out of Cork, but for that particular route, I reckon NOC would make a better option than SNN. For all NOC's expansion lately, it still doesn't have a hub connection. I also reckon that in the summer schedule, ORK-AMS could be supported 17 or 18 times a week, if Aer Lingus wanted to do something like that. Unlike SNN, adding frequencies to NOC doesn't take from Cork's passenger base.

[Copenhagen]

Depending on who EI partners with alliance wise, we will probably see SNN, ORK and NOC services to the key alliance city

AMS / CDG if Skyteam
FRA / MUC if Star
LHR / MAD if Oneworld

[EISNN]

I'm not sure if services ex noc, dub, snn and ork to LHR will happen but only due to a limited amount of slots that are already in a tight hold.

As for NOC AMS as a W operation from ORK? Yes it's possible. However, the only problem that I can foresee is that it won't have the KLM codeshare on that route due to KLM union agreements. - only two routes per country can be operated by another carrier on KLM's behalf. To protect KLM jobs.

I totally agree though that NOC needs a hub connection but maybe as it's a smaller catchment area a smaller aircraft would be more suitable (A319 or Embraer 190??)

[CCR]

I'm sure when Aer Lingus joins an alliance (most likely Star) and with Terminal 2 opening in a matter of weeks, their key hub will be Dublin.

[ryan2000]

EI changes at ORK

EI were paying full charges on ORK BCN. There is a clause in the incentive scheme that's meant to prevent airlines from
switching from one DAA airport to another in order to avoid full charges. Interesting to see if this has been waived in relation to this cute move by Aeflingus. I can see the logic in some of the previous posts. Why not apply it in reverse and try SNN JFK ORK JFK SNN. Some chance of that happening!

[840]

As BCN is the route being withdrawn and CDG is the route being introduced, there may be a loophole in that clause.

[EI-BUD]

There is a clause in the incentive scheme that's meant to prevent airlines from
switching from one DAA airport to another in order to avoid full charges

ryan2000- was reading your post that containted the above. This seems to be a wishy washy type of rule. If Aer Lingus were to say that they were losing money in winter on Cork/Barcelona, surely they are free to make a commerical decision to end the route and open other routes that they forsee as having potential?

I can see that such a rule could be controversial?

Re Alliances-
It is hard to see that Aer Lingus will jeopardise its relationship with BA and avoid OneWorld but one cant avoid thinking that the future surely must be more focused on an alliance that benefits Aer Lingus on the atlantic?
Aer Lingus would far prefer feed passengers from Ireland to the various US cities on its own direct flights (and connect with United and Jetblue) than feed BAs long haul network at LHR where Aer Lingus only get a short haul flight in terms of revenue?

Simultaneously, by encouraging passengers to use EI transatlantic services in the main instead of via BA at LHR they could see a fall in demand for seats on DUB LHR and in turn have maybe a few slots per day to use on other flights from LHR? While they may be able to retain a relationship with BA independent of Star, perhaps any deterioration in feed may be an invitation for BA to return to Dublin?

Furthermore, with T2 kicking off soon Aer Lingus would need to make the atlantic routes as popular as possible to ensure that they will have a balance between the number of flights to satisfy EU flights feeding into Dublin and local demand.

In addition, if Star is the way forward within the context of the current 'relationship' with United, Continental will effectively be part of that soon?


EI-BUD

[Aisle2c]

As a loyal Aer Lingus customer, I am gutted by their messing us about in Cork. Barcelona was a fantastic link as it is was a compromise between Northern Spain and SW France. I still won't go through Dublin though, 160 miles to travel to get a flight is a joke.