CORK - 5

[majik]

Originally Posted by ryan2000

I heard that there are renewed attempts to get ORK-GLA back from October.

EI I hope.

[en2r]

Ork-gla

There are still lots of holes in EI's winter schedule so GLA could probably be fitted in but it would be hard to fit it into the summer schedule without dropping another route. Perhaps it could be operated by a Cork based plane for the winter and a Dublin based plane for the summer on a W pattern? It looks like Faro and Alicante may not be operated for the winter so is there the possibility of a few new routes? Perhaps Geneva or Salzburg?

[RE72]

Ork - Gla

RE I Hope!!

[Angry Rebel]

I used the GLA flight every Sunday for 3 months two summers ago, and only once was it ever full. No idea about weekday loads.

Granted it was expensive, so not sure how a more reasonable fare structure would do demand wise, but I'd have my doubts about a large jets suitability for that route.

[en2r]

Glasgow could do Okay. RE seem to be doing OK on Edinburgh. They carried almost 50,000 people on the route last year. Considering they use 66 seater aircraft and their fares are usually €60-70 EACH WAY that is pretty well going. Especially when you consider FR fly from Shannon with fares at next to nothing. It might affect the Edinburgh route a little though, since this is currently the only route from Cork to Scotland and Glasgow bound passengers undoubtedly use it at the moment. If the fares were at a similiar level to Dublin-Glasgow I can't see why a jet service wouldn't suceed.

[Tom the Tenor]

Alternatively, RE could do a full double daily to Edinburgh from Cork rather than just four a week and also add in a Saturday flight. If Glasgow is a must from Cork guess RE might be coaxed into a minimal Fri, Sun, Monday type service. A pal of mine lived in Glasgow for many years and he thinks the main problem is that there are generally so few people from the Cork area living around Glasgow. A Fri, Sun, Monday GLA would give a choice for leisure and football traffic alike. Might do okay. A320/738 - hard to see that work.

[en2r]

Skylink Cork

Has the Skylink bus service ended? It says on the website that the service is suspended until further notice but I don't think they ever did that well so I'd be surprised if they will resume. Its a shame that we're once again left with only the half hearted Bus Eireann effort

[840]

I haven't seen it in operation for a while.

Hopefully, they're just reassessing their route structure. It seems a bit crazy to be effectively duplicating the Bus Eireann service to the city centre, when Carrigaline, Douglas, Bishopstown and Ballincollig have no bus link to the airport.

As regards the Glasgow route. I'd prefer to see double-daily to Edinburgh. Edinburgh airport to Glasgow isn't that tricky and it's nice (and rare) to have a route from Cork offering convenient business timings. However, any new business at all at the airport is not to be dismissed.

[Tom the Tenor]

Another Ryanair Cork rumor which is doing the rounds at the moment is the one that later in the year, presumably but not necessarily around the start of the winter schedule, is that the the Stansted schedule may be operated by a Cork based aeroplane. Guess that might make some sense especially if FR have plenty of based flight crew at Cork? You could start with the first STN flight around 6.30 am, go there around 3 to 4 times daily and maybe get in another rotation to somewhere else as well? As for Dublin flights guess that would be an aircraft of it's own like now - the question is would FR continue with the five DUB and one LGW rotations or would that change in any way? Doing the STN flights from Cork would allow FR to claim they are doubling their Cork base and as former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds used to say perception is what matters.

There was high drama above yesterday with the diverting in of no less than three U S Army Beech RC-12Ns from Shannon due crosswinds. Super King Airs without windows and bristling with as many as aerials as could be bolted on. Due out to Keflavik this morning.

Nice for once for Cork to get one over on Shannon - that does not happen too often.

I nearly forgot - it is interesting to note that Aer Lingus are swapping the EI711 at Heathrow from an A320 to an A321 every morning at the moment. She then goes back to LHR as the EI712 and the Cork aeroplane then returns in the afternoon as the EI715. The EI713/4 from LHR which is operated by a Dublin based A321 anyway continues as as normal. Good to see the A321 having more presence again at Cork.

Making up for some of last summer's London capacity from EZY and FR to and from Gatwick. Remember Cork is two to three EZY flights and one FR flight down from Gatwick this summer.

[en2r]

Possible Second Cork based Aircraft

If it operated on a similiar schedule to the Shannon-Stansted route it could operate the three Stansted rotations as well as Liverpool and possibly another short route such as East Midlands or Bristol. As for Dublin, there was overcapacity on the Cork-Dublin route when FR operated 4 flights per day so I can't see how 5 738 and 7 ATR72 flights (when the new aircraft arrives next month) can be supported. However we all know MOL is not one who admits defeat easily

[chrism20]

I can't see them dropping frequency on the DUB route, as en2r says MOL wont admit defeat.

However RE are not admitting defeat either and they are agressively marketing their product at the moment.

FR recently made a few jibes at RE as they had cancelled more flights than them. RE bit straight back with a press release entitled 'Small wonder we are a big headache to Ryanair'

I wonder what their next one will be? Could it be something along the lines of 'the ATR is far more environmentaly friendly than the 738' burns less fuel etc etc.

Would be interesting to see MOL come back from that one

[Tom the Tenor]

The Aer Lingus Manchester-Cork-Manchester flight is no longer bookable after the first week of June. It begs the question if EI have successfully been beaten off the route by the daily bmi flight from MAN along with the daily Ryanair flight from Liverpool? Aer Lingus have not helped themselves too much on the route though by having just a three per week service and on less than ideal days, they being Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Imagine not having a Friday and Sunday service - that was just asking for trouble.

Another bit of bad news that is in the offing for Cork is that Central Wings are reducing capacity on their Warsaw and Wroclaw flights from 17th May. The flights will now only operate on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I know a few folk whom have benefitted greatly from the Wroclaw flight and I dearly hope there are no more reductions to come on that route.

Some bad news there for Cork. Must be a cause of some concern to the team at Cork Airport. What response will there be now - surely not another Ryanair Cork-Dublin flight?

One small crumb of good news for the airport is that the initially lost summer charter to Zakynthos has now been restored from the end of May when the Astreus 757 will operate out to Zakynthos at 3am on Sunday mornings! So, Astraeus will be busy at Cork this summer operating flights to Verona, Zakynthos and Arrecife over the course of a weekend. Wonder will we get a visit to Cork from Hamrah? That would be nice!

The way things are going Cork could do with some cheering up.

[en2r]

Cork-Manchester

Just looked at the Aer Lingus website. There is an extra flight from Dublin-Manchester bookable on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from the first week in June so it seems certain that Aer Lingus will exit the route after just over two months of operation. Lets hope Baby continue the extra morning flights they have started on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On a brighter note Air Southwest's Cork-Newquay service starts on Friday. It will operate three times weekly for May and then will operate four times weekly for June-September before finishing for the year on September 30th.

[Ger Cork]

Now with the Open Skies about to come to fruition, I hope that the Cork Airport Authority are in negotiations and trying to attract more new carriers to Cork Airport; the more the better. Here is my wish list:
Fly Globespan - Glasgow
American - Boston
SAS - Scandinavian cities
Air France - Bordeaux, Paris, Lyon
Delta/Continental - New York/Newark
Lufthansa - Frankfurt, Munich
Brussels Airlines - Brussels
US Airways - Philadelphia
Austrian - Vienna
I guarantee you a lot of these carriers will come to Cork once the debt is sorted. I'm interested to see some replies.
Interesting to see on a website about some guy originally from Cork but now living in Canada say that there would be demand for flights to Canada from Cork and I happen to agree, but a flight to probably Toronto or maybe Halifax would only be for the summer season with a weekly flight with someone like, I don't know, Zoom Airlines or Air Transat.
I reckon Delta and American Airlines will be the first two carriers to start flights to New York and Boston. He also said that Cork Airport should have a second flight to Paris CDG. I think with Air France and a daily flight to Frankfurt with Lufthansa and they're flights that Cork badly requires. Cork also needs direct flights to Milan, Brussels, Stockholm, Bordeaux, Copenhagen, Munich, Vienna and Glasgow.
Now with the open skies agreement to be signed shortly the phasing out of the Shannon stopover by March 2008, I wonder what American carriers will launch flights to Cork Airport? My personal opinion is that Delta Airlines and American Airlines will be the first from New York JFK and Boston with daily flights; I also saw this on a Cork Airport forum - I am not the first person to mention these two airlines. I also think that US Airways will start flights to Philadelphia daily for the summer season. I don't see Aer Lingus starting North America flights from Cork because they have big expansion plans from Dublin Airport. Also, are the A330's too big from a 7000ft runway like Cork's, whereas the likes of Delta, American, US Airways and Continental have B757's and 767's which are ideal for Cork. Maybe Air Canada or Zoom Airlines to Toronto, Canada to follow later when they replace the bilateral between Ireland and Canada.

[Rallye EI-BFP]

Cork is more likely to attract Continental and Delta- American seem to put alot of...'thought' into the airports they serve.

The Ireland-Canada bilaterial has been ammended with an open skies - see the 'Open Skies Thread'

Correct me If I'm wrong, but what has a debt issue got to do with carriers not serving the airport? Surely, the airport is trying to attract carriers to raise money to help allieviate the debt!

[brian_dromey]

AA have got Cork "covered" to a certian extent with the EI codeshare. I dont know if tehat will sadisfy them going forward, or not.

The list of European carriers proposed is interesting. I guess AF/CityJet could be a possibility for CDG and AMS. After that, who knows. I would definately like to see a Star Alliance presence at the airport.

Pity that MAN has been pulled. It could have done really well had EI stuck with the original 1-3-5-7 days, and introduced better schedules. But WW still provide a very good service (and BD miles as well!).

MXP has been tried ex ORK, and been pulled, I dont know if it would make a comeback.

Brian.

[ryan2000]

Cork routes

Aer Arann are said to be interested in a Cork Glasgow service. Don't rule out Aerlingus for ORK-JFK.

They're not going to concede the south of the country to Delta or Continental. Runway not an issue as they can fly the cargo from SNN or DUB.

[jongeman]

Shame about the EI ORK-MAN service it its cancellation is true. Over here in Manchester, there's never been any promotion in the press or advertising hoardings of the route at all. Everyone knows that Aer Lingus flies to Dublin, they always have (since about 1765), but not Cork.

[Tom the Tenor]

Well, a lot has been said about how difficult it seems to be for Aer Lingus A330s to manouvere around Cork's dainty little taxiways so unless a little more concrete goes down it is, presumably, doubtful if we ever see any Aer Lingus heavy metal doing anything at Cork never mind any long haul flights to America. Sure would like to be proved wrong, though!

The fact that the Air Luxor A330 series 200s and 300s operated in and out of Cork fairly regularly and apparently smoothly a few years ago seems to count for little. In any event filling an A330 regularly from Cork to New York or Boston would not be an easy task.

There is no harm in having a wish list for new routes and it is good to be optimistic but if an airline like Aer Lingus that has such a local and national presence at Cork cannot sustain even a limited Manchester service for no more than two months in summer time it is hard lines for Cork. I think it is a case of Dream on for now at least when it comes to the likes of Lufthansa, Air France etc and for most of the American airlines. Again, I should be so delighted to be proved really wrong on this one too.

[Charlie Roy]

Austrian - Vienna

Hmmmm... I'd nearly prefer Aer Lingus or Sky Europe to operate Cork - Vienna. I see Austrian here in Brussels advertising a super hot deal BRU - VIE return only €199!

If that's what they can a super hot deal??! They also haven't yet learned the notion of one way flights, or not over booking.

However Austrian would be great for connecting flights...