Well, there may be strong feelings on the Ryanair topic in Cork. Observers have taken into account what FR have done at snn for the past five years and now when the deal is done and FR is not getting it's way any more they pull out most of their aeroplanes for the coming summer. This was all fairly predictable up to a point though I for one believed it would not be as drastic as it has turned out for snn and for sure no one whom has the slightest interest in Cork Airport, be it business or personal, wants to see this happen to Cork people and her airport. Now, if FR want to up the ante with EI and put more flights on Gatwick that is fine and it is indeed business though it may be argued that the hoped for result may be that EI's yield on LGW ORK would be diminshed so much that they would be inclined to dump the route to Cork. Is that good for Ryanair? Probably, but for Cork Airport and passenger choice to London? Make your own mind up on that one but remember what happened after EI started Cork - Madrid a few years ago - along came Ryanair with a Madrid based aeroplane doing a flight to snn and within some months both snn and Cork had lost her Madrid connections.

All that said, if Mr O'Leary surprises us all and announces brand new routes for Cork tomorrow it will be caps off to Ryanair as it must be taken for granted that there is still great potential for many low cost type routes out of Cork to many Ryanair destinations and great airport deals to be had in terms of reduced charges etc, etc.

Ah so you prefer the old days where friends travelling to Ireland to see family would fork out £200 (2-3 weeks pay for them) for the privelege or take the boat.

I agree with racedo, which has me worried as it seems to be becoming a habit. If you don't like Ryanair then fly with the other guy and pay loads more. The free market has a price and the suggestion that you "ban" Ryanair and protect the other more expensive options is, quite simply and with good reason, illegal.

Trying to drive the other guy out of business is the name of the game in business. Anything else is what's called a cartel which is also illegal for good reason.If you don't like it, go join the public sector and just spend other people's money instead of creating commerce, value, jobs and wealth.

People need to stop taking this to heart and making it all so personal. Who cares what MOL behaves like? Is the issue you don't like him? Fine, pay more and fly with someone else. It's naive and immature to think that airlines CEOs wake up thinking "What can I do to help Cork Airport today?" It's supposed to be vice versa!

You know it makes sense :)

Ryanair
 

I have always been a Ryanair user and never had much to gripe about. Mol did much to develop aviation in this country. But at the moment it looks like he's intent on destroying so much of what has been built up over the years. His treatment of Shannon has been unbelievable. Now he is attacking the Dublin base. I don't agree with the Govt tax, it is a detriment to increasing tourism (but not a huge one). He is really using it as a red herring. Cheap airfares are here to stay whether Ryanair is around or not (I'm sure they will be!). But sometimes I just wish MOL and Ryanair would just go away. There are so many other airlines around now that can do what Ryanair did and though they might not be Irish, I bet they would treat this country with a lot more respect than MOL and Ryanair.

FR media event
 

Rumours rampant at Cork today. The fact that nobody is sure what the Media Event is about sounds ominous for those who don't want to see a Ryanair dominance at Cork.

If it was to announce new routes and avail of the route support incentives the chances are the airport people would know what's happening.

Of course Aerlingus can't complain if FR up the frequency on ORK LGW as it was they who decided to go head to head with them on that route three weeks ago EI will have to subsidise the airport charges if they are to touch FR on price on that route.

Any move to start more UKP routes such as BRS, EDI or PIK will blow the RE/EI alliance out of the water very quickly.

Indeed, Ryanair are not the only ones guilty of this.
Aer Lingus did its utmost to put Jet Magic out of business.
Easyjet hunted bmibaby off the Gatwick route ever before Ryanair hunted Easyjet off the Gatwick route.
At that rate the CAA (Cork Airport Authority???? = DAA) would be banning most airlines, which legally they could never do anyway.

Hoping for Ryanair expansion myself tomorrow. And hopefully new (currently unserved!) routes, but I'm not holding breath :cool:

That's 25 years ago ! Of course you won't mention that it was protectionism that saved Ryanair's behind, from Aer Lingus driving them out of business i.e. the Irish Government at the time gave the Stansted route to Ryanair when it was close to going out of business.

The wheel has turned full circle, and now the airports, the other airlines and more importantly the Irish people, need protection from an overbearing and predatory Ryanair.

AND, as a business traveller, Ryanair ain't so cheap on Mondays and Fridays especially. For example Cork-STN next Monday-Friday is €207. Should I take the boat ?

Tom, it's either LGW or replacement services after Budget Travel collapse maybe ?

As I said to Racedo, how easily ye forget that it was the Irish Government's intervention that saved Ryanair in the first place, yet now ye don't want it. That smacks of short term memory !

I regularly DO fly with Aer Lingus to London. I would love to fly to Gatwick with Easyjet. But I can't. Ryanair drove them off the route. Funny that.
g to drive Aer Arann out of business
- driving Easyjet out of Cork
- driving Go out of Dublin
- holding SNN Airport to ransom
- trying to takeover Aer Lingus
Trying to drive the other guy out of business is the name of the game in business, FOR RYANAIR. It does nothing for the Cork public, and there are clear reasons for the CAA to stand up to Ryanair, in the interests of the airport, the public and ironically, competition.

:ok:, spot on. Ryanair are every bit the ugly dominant player that Aer Lingus were in the 1970/80s.

If 96fm was anything to go by this morning, taking on Ryanair would be a very popular move. There was nothing but complaints about them.

Like Joe Duffy, Neil Prendevilles show attracts whingers and complainers (not detracting from the occasional genuine hardship or touching story).

People who fly Ryanair (as I do) and are happy with getting no service because we pay half nothing to get from A to B safely don't call shows like that to sing their praises...

RTÉ Business: Today in the press

"O'LEARY TO ANNOUNCE RANGE OF 'BARGAIN' CORK ROUTES - Ryanair is expected to announce a series of routes from Cork to a number of sun destinations today, writes the Irish Examiner."

I see Aer Lingus have produced another press release about last week's changes to try to steal some of Ryanair's thunder.

RTÉ Business: Aer Lingus announces eight new Cork routes

If as expected, the routes announced by Ryanair are sun routes, it seems a strange time to launch them to hurt Aer Lingus. On those routes, a lot of seats sell well in advance and summer bookings are already in place. Yet, in the Winter only Malaga and the Canaries are operated by EI.

I would have thought relaunching Prestwick or aiming at one of the other Aer Lingus Regional routes would have been more their style.

Ryanair's new routes are

Alicante
Barcelona (Reus)
Bordeaux
Faro
Lanzarote
La Rochelle

Missed Malaga from that list

As always alot of Ryanair bashers around. People seem to forget that Aer Lingus are just as bad.

They drove away Jetmagic.

Got rid of CSA and then they withdrew their PRG flight
got rid of BMI Baby off the BHX route and rumoured to be canx their flight
same with the MAN flight with BMI baby

And lets not forget, any new routes be it by Ryanair will create and most importantly save existing jobs!!

Regards,

Corkspotter

As noted in the press release, the collapse of Budget has left a big gap in flights and packages to sun destinations from Ireland and hence the targeting of this market by FR. The extra capacity added by FR on routes from ORK is probably needed and should not hurt EI.

The number of charter flights available from ORK is dramatically down from three or four years age when ORK had almost 50 charter flights per week - now only 23 flights per week.

Hopefully this move will finally put paid to FR's claim that govt tax is hurting expansion of routes etc. out of Ireland

A damp squib. It's only for June, July and August. That's hardly going to have Aer Lingus quaking in their boots. It looks like mostly a Budget Travel cleanup and a small dig at Aer Arann & Aer Lingus.

As of midday I'm just doing a quick check on the fares of both airlines throughout the month of June. Based on the press release from Ryanair and their June fares it appears they have the Aer Lingus fares completely wrong. The Aer Lingus fares compared in the press release are cheaper than the starting fares on the same routes by Ryanair. It may just be that Aer Lingus reduced them this morning of course. Good news for the Cork Consumer all the same.