CORK - 5

[Charlie Roy]

Brussels, a Stag Party dstination..............
You must be joking!

There must be a dozen Irish stag parties in Brussels every weekend... Those 5000+ Irish lads per year seem to consider Brussels as a viable stag party destination

[840]

I'm surprised not to find a comment on this morning's power cut and ensuing chaos. Fortunately, I must have made it out on one of the last flights before it happened. It's amazing what one man in a digger can do!

So did Aer Lingus bring in an extra aircraft to operate the 724/5? I was convinced it would be cancelled with the delays that were being built up.

[EI 706]

EI 724 cancelled. EI 722 left at 8pm to accommodate 724 pax.

[SAM-EMA]

I arrived in on yesterdays FR from EMA and the flights luggage was unloaded onto the tarmac and passengers were asked to identify their own luggage and take it through passport control with them because obviously the baggage system could not work. When I got out of arrivals I got a chance to see the check-in area. It was absolute chaos, there must of been almost a thousand if not more people. There was no room to move at all. I went upstairs and sat at the bar tables - the bar was closed as was every other shop or retail outlet. At this time security was empty as no one was checking in so no one was going through security. My mistake was that I didn't go through to departures for my flight to Dublin there and then because by the time I did the queue was back to the bar (as partial Aer Lingus check-in had resumed) and having qued at least 30-40 mins I was then told that I could not use my FR Check n Go Prioity Boarding Pass as they could not be scanned. I was told to go to the Servisair Ticket Desk to get one of the normal card boarding cards. By this time the security queue was queing down the stairs. I stood queing for at least an hour if not more and just before I got to security a man come and called for anyone for Dublin and at the point I exited the queue and proceeded through another door straight to security. I then found out the reason why it was taking so long because every single person and every single bag were being searched manually as the security system was obviously down. I then hurried straight to Gate 8 from where I rushed to my awaiting aircraft, and unbelievably took off only 40 minutes late, catching up 10 minutes en route, landing only 30 minutes late. Considering all the chaos and confusion I was still impressed at the time of departure because I expected a much much longer delay.

SAM-EMA

[en2r]

Power cut

Besides the EI724 to Heathrow were there any other diversions/cancellations?

[840]

I'm surprised the 724 was cancelled as the 723 and 725 seemed to be operated by two different aircraft.

[en2r]

I'm surprised the 724 was cancelled as the 723 and 725 seemed to be operated by two different aircraft.

The plane doing the 724 normally overnights in Heathrow. The 725 is normally operated by a Dublin plane which operates the 184 DUB-LHR and then the 725 LHR-ORK before overnighting in Cork. However in the case of delays the plane doing the 724 can operate the 725. Last night however, it seems there was an extra Aer Lingus plane in Cork and a plane short in Heathrow, since the Cork originating plane stayed in Cork after the 723 and the Dublin originating plane overnighted after the 725. Sorry if I'm getting too technical.

[Tom the Tenor]

SAM-EMA, did you get any photos of the scenes at Cork yesterday? I have heard that the Cork ramp was jammed around lunchtime yesterday with no less than thirteen airliners parked up at along with a pair of bizjets, a bang up to date Global Express and a very venerable old lady of a Gulfstream. A shot of the ramp would have been some coup and would have been right up there with the shots long ago of the two diverted in Aer Lingus 707s.

As it happens the breakdown at Cork had a knock on effect at my own place of work yesterday which I now find amusing but not so much at the time when we were in a panic. We can laugh now about the irony of the situation!

Fair play to the people on site at Cork yesterday for coping the best way they could with the hand they were dealt.

The Skyeurope loads at Cork have been between 80% and 90% of late - it is very infuriating that this numerically successful route is being lost to Cork. I must ask if every possible stone has been upturned in an effort to turn around this decision and if there is no hope, well, the sooner that a replacement is found the better, be it EI to Vienna or if HRH Prince Ducksie himself starts his own flight to Bratislava - afterall, there would still be a few years of start up incentives left on BTS? I know it's as unpredictable as a baby's bottom but oil was back to $118 a barrel yesterday so what's the problem?

[SAM-EMA]

Unfortunately not I'm afraid, but at the time of my departure the following aircraft were on the ground if not more:

Aer Lingus A320 (x3 - poss 4)
Aer Lingus A321
BMI Baby B737
Sky Europe B737
Ryanair B737
Aer Arran ATR 72 (x2)
Futura B737
Eurofly A320

I'm not that familiar with Cork Airport itself but all the stand were took up from the old terminal all the way to the other end where the Atlantic Airlines ATP stands. My FR to DUB was the third stand across from the ATP with 2 Aer Lingus A320s in between us - very long walk from Gate 8.

Sorry again, hope this helps.
SAM-EMA

[ryan2000]

CSA

Budapest, Bratislavia, Krakow and Wroclow gone and Aerlingus' Prague service down to 3 per week is it time to re visit Czech Airlines and establish a hub service to Prague.

[en2r]

Budapest, Bratislavia, Krakow and Wroclow gone and Aerlingus' Prague service down to 3 per week is it time to re visit Czech Airlines and establish a hub service to Prague.

Aer Lingus's Prague service has always operated 3 weekly during the summer and 4 weekly during the winter so there hasn't been any reduction. While we may have lost Krakow and Wroclaw, we still have the Wizzair service to Katowice which is roughly halfway between the two. A connecting bus service goes to Krakow after every flight and Wroclaw is easily reachable by train from Katowice. The Wizzair Katowice service would have a better chance of survival in the medium to long term if there were no competing services to Krakow or Wroclaw.

[Tom the Tenor]

For once a tiny bit of good news. I have heard today that the work on the new stand to be built north of the widebody stand at Cork should start in about two weeks time. Hopefully, she will be a self-manouevering stand for the bigger yokes to be able to park!

Eastern Airways are in town twice today at Cork. A Jetstream 41 is doing today's out & back from Aberdeen in the welcome return of some oil exlploratory flights and Aer Arann have hired in a Saab 2000 for the day as well. Good to see those lovely new Eastern colours back in Cork again after the Munster game in Cardiff back in May.

I'd settle for a nice Saab 9-3 convertible - a five or six year old model will do grand!

[eick320]

EI pulling of ork/prg

With EI pulling off the ork to prg route from 02/11/08 does this mean either a new route coming online or the poss of the fourth overnighting aircraft no longer being based at ork.

[840]

There would need to be a lot more cuts than Prague for it to mean the fourth overnighting aircraft is going. It's possible we'll hear of more, but there are other scenarios beyond a new route or an aircraft less:

-Operating Alicante through the Winter or operating Malaga at a higher frequency during the Winter
-Increased flights to Paris (although the sector is obviously a lot shorter)
-Birmingham and Manchester. Rotations to both could be operated in the time it takes to get to Prague and back and if EI think they have BMIBaby on the ropes, it could make sense to up frequency even if there's no profit.
-Laying up the aircraft for the period it was going to be flying to Prague. This is better than making a loss and could relieve any crewing pressures. We know that other airlines are laying up aircraft for the Winter period.

[Aisle2c]

Fingers crossed for an Alicante flight during the winter then....

[dubh12000]

Could this just be linked to the Geneva service?

[840]

No. Faro is the route that will be making way for Geneva.

[ryan2000]

Ork-prg

Rome is up to 6 per week for winter, this accounts for 3 of the 4 Prague slots. Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Bratislava and Wroclaw all terminated in 2007!! CAA take note.

[en2r]

Rome is up to 6 per week for winter, this accounts for 3 of the 4 Prague slots.

Romes been changed back to 3 weekly, but on different days to before. Cork-Rome will now operate on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. This means theres a gap in the schedules on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons as well as Thursday morning. Its highly unlikely that they'd pull the fourth aircraft since there is currently only 5 free slots per week while the A320s operate on average 20 return flights per week so new route(s) seem likely or at least increased frequencies on existing routes.
I still can't understand why EI are axing Cork-Prague. It was meant to operate 4 weekly for the winter. If the route was struggling, why not operate it 2 weekly? From what I heard, loads were very good on the route but perhaps yield wasn't great. They could probably make more money during the summer with a sun route but I don't really see what they could operate during the winter that would be more profitable?

[Shanwickman]

There is an extra rotation to ACE dep ORK 0700 on Thursdays.