Can't believe we have 2 airlines fighting over Cork to LaRochelle!!! Is La Rochelle that popular a destination? Wouldn't it have made more sense for Ryanair to offer flights to Nantes instead, considering Aer Arann seem to have dropped this destination for 2010 after a number of years operating it.

Bordeaux is a welcome addition to the Cork network though.

The rest are pure sun holiday destinations, and as has been pointed out above, they will make up for the big drop in charter flights this year as a result of the collapse of Budget Travel.

Strange how Cork will only get a second aircraft for 3 months and then back down to one aircraft. Pity...

But a good news day for Cork :ok:

Has anyone any idea of the times for these flights with only one aircraft . will be interesting to see .
I booked ORK BOD return with EI and BA yesterday through LGW . This one would have been handier but I try where at all possiable not to travel with FR.

Flew Bmibaby from ORK to Man this morning 2/2/2010 ... had a total of 35 passengers on board ... no wonder they're pulling off the route

bmi baby - CATII Cork - bmi baby - CATII Cork - bmi baby CATII Cork?????!

Today's 35 pax is a part of their reaping what they sow. A pity as bmi baby is quite likeable in it's own way and they have been good for Cork but there is no way at all they can be left off the hook with their lack of action on their LVPs at Cork.

I have missed all the day's excitment of the Ryanair announcments due to reasons beyond my control. Drat!

Yes, La Rochelle - two sets of services from Cork? Stark raving mad! Would it not be great for FR, EI, Cork Airport and Cork passengers if you had the choice to take flights down in a line from Jersey, Nantes, La Rochelle, Bordeaux and let us thrown in Biarritz?

Nantes would work with a jet - it did fine for Jetmagic, may have even been one of their better routes? Bordeaux is great news. Really, really hope that one does well.

Guess the rest is a combination of hoovering up after the collapse of Budget Travel and getting at Aer Lingus's yield though it is still so unfathomable that neither EI or FR have done the obvious and started a seasonal service to Palma. The mind boggles at this ommision - just dont get it all. Easily fill two a week from May to September.

If the ITs are to survive in the years ahead in some form ex Cork they will start having to look at some sun destinations outside of the European Union. More Turkey, Egypt, Cape Verde or dare I utter it - Florida!

corkairport.com
 

mmm for such big news corkairport.com are slow to put it on their website its all about aer lingus new routes. Wake up cork airport.

Very surprised that there isn't a Bergamo route.

Tried to check out routes on Ryanairs site but it keeps crashing :bored:

In response to the Ryanair announcements, I think it would make sense for Aer Arann to switch their Cork- La Rochelle service to Cork-Nantes or L'Orient and increase their Cork-Dublin services for better connectivity through Dublin this year. Great start to 2010 for Cork:ok:

corkairport.com
mmm for such big news corkairport.com are slow to put it on their website its all about aer lingus new routes. Wake up cork airport.
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I would imagine the reason for this is that they have not been given the information by Ryanair
If it is any consolation the people down in Bordeaux know nothing either

I cant believe Mr O Leary flies to Cork gets front pages headlines takes over the Airwaves and does not think to have this new schedule up on his website.
Marketing guru my arse
Personally I think his own ego has got in the way of his business and maybe he should think of taking a back seat

It's spelt Lorient, but yes I'd agree. Aer Arann operated Cork to Lorient for the past 5 or 6 years, while Cork to La Rochelle has only operated since 2008 so there's definitely still a market for Lorient

The Ryanair news is definably positive. 2010 looks to be a much better year than 2009 was. While the range of destinations are a little disappointing, the increased passenger numbers will be welcome.

I too would like to have seen a Milan flight. The north of Italy does seem to be a rather large hole in the route network. The North of Italy has always been reasonably popular. There are summer charters to Verona, I believe? Didn't AEr Lingus serve Malpensa at some point?

Brian.

looking at FR's schedules for the routes that are duplicated - I can only say "Predatory" describes them best. Alicante, Barcelona, La Rochelle, Malaga and Lanzarote are all flown on the same days that EI fly and in most cases 30 mins to an hour earlier than the EI flight. You would have thought that if he must fly to the same destinations then flying on alternate days would serve him (and joe soap) best. Looking at pricing on various days throughout the season, FR are not much cheaper than EI (with the exception of La Rochelle). In the case of Malage, EI are actually cheaper on some flights.

I do hope Cork Airport realise that in the long term this kind of predatory business practice serves nobody any good and can ultimately sound the death knell for some of these routes from Cork. You would have thought that just lookin at what happened up the road would have made them a bit cautious about getting into bed with the devil !!!

Ya, there's been a topflight flight to Verona every Saturday for a good few years. Astraeus used operate it with a 757 but CSA have operated it for the past 2 years with an A321 (I think?).

Ya, Malpensa was launched previously when Aer Lingus first launched Barcelona and Munich (the first time). I can't remember why it was axed, I think it was to lauch a sun route?

They don't actually have any choice on that.

If Ryanair want to run a service and are paying the full set of airport charges, as a public body, the authorities at the airport don't have the right to refuse.

+ 1 on the La Rochelle thing. There must be some business there, MOL doesn't do nasties against other carriers unless there is some business to be got. OTOH (1), there are few enough cheap airport locations in that part of France. OTOH(2) I don't understand why they don't use Marseilles, as they do from STN and DUB, so there must be business there, but maybe not from ORK.OTOH (3), as someone said earlier, this is a fill in for the Budget travel passengers.

What mol failed to mention at his press conference yesterday is that cork is losing 3 flights mon to fri from end of march,2 to dub and one to stn.My my calculations ryanair numbers will be down this summer even with these newly announced flights.I also notice that aer arann have dropped the evening belfast city flight from the end of march.In fact after completing the morning flight their second based atr appears to have no other flights.The 2 dub rotations are operated by dub based aircraft as at present.Maybe they are planning new routes.TTT you might get to southampton after all!

Aerlingus v Ryanair
 

Aerlingus and the tour companies ignored South West France as far as Cork is concerned so Bordeaux should generate new business.

To be fair Aerlingus have been getting very high yields from Cork
on Malaga, Faro Alicante Lanzarote and Barcelona during the peak season so it was inevitable that Ryanair would go head to head with them at some stage.

Hopefully they are prepared for the challenge particularly if it only lasts for 13 weeks.

The aircraft will in fact be operating Aer Lingus regional flights for the rest of the day.

As far as I know there will be 2 Aer Arann aircraft based at Cork next Summer. One will operate exclusively for Aer Lingus regional, the other will operate Belfast in the mornings and them operate for Aer Lingus regional for the rest of the day.

Reference to the info that Aer Arann are cutting the evening flight on Cork Belfast city from the end of March, is this definite? I Know quite a large Cork business who would use the flights on this route very often and know that they have cut back on their amount of flights due cost focus, and they would often have certainly a few members of staff up and down each day, they may well need to start going through Dublin to get day trip opportunity.

Hope that the flight is to be added later?