Ork 2010
 

Not sure its going to be that good a new year.

DUB - reduced from 7 flts per day to 4 flts per day - wed and sun particularly hit with two flts per day only and the first flt of the day from ORK to DUB is at 1300

BHD - reduced to one flt per day

EMA/MAN - bmibaby withdrawn

LHR - one flt withdrawn

Risk that ORK turns into bucket and spade airport with plenty of action during the summer months but severe reduction in flts during winter.

It appears that Aer Arann, having signed the franchise agreement with EI, are downgrading their own services from ORK. This is disappointing as RE were proactive in developing routes from ORK e.g. west coast of France, jersey, south coast of England and operate an aircraft much more suited to serve Cork's market with double daily returns more likely. Now they are not even basing an aircraft in ORK.

But Aer Lingus are introducing a twice daily LGW service instead, so Aer Lingus capacity on Cork-London is similiar to last summer.

Also Wizzair are launching Cork-Wroclaw starting next week, and don't forget Ryanair are basing an additional aircraft for the peak summer months.

and don't forget the new Aer Lingus Regional route to Glasgow
and the recently announced Ryanair routes to
Alicante
Bordeaux
Faro
La Rochelle
Lanzarote
Malaga
Reus:D

Ya all the new routes are very welcome, but N by NW has a very valid point that we shouldn't be expecting a bumper year for passenger figures because there are also some very significant reductions.

When we will compare 2010 to 2009 it's currently looking like:

• bmibaby: a lot less passengers
• Jet2: less passengers
• Ryanair: slightly less passengers
• Air Southwest: same I suppose (unsure)
• Aer Arann (incl EI Regional): same number of passengers
• Aer Lingus (excl EI Regional): more passengers (SXF replaced by MAN + BHX)
• Wizzair: more passengers

New Routes
 

any news about new routes to be annouced soon?

Less passengers???

Frequency in 2010 (Twice weekly weekend service) is exactly the same as 2009.

With the ongoing improvements to the M8, the attraction of going to Dublin by Plane is dwindling rapidly.

I drove to Dublin last week. I left Merrion Square at 19:10, and was in Glanmire at 21:35. I had the flexibility of my car while I was in Dublin, and avoided the hassle of check ins, taxis, parking charges at Cork while I was away, and it was also considerably cheaper. I could listen to what I wanted on my radio, I could make and receive calls, I could even stop for a sandwich or a coffee if I wanted. If I had left Merrion Square at 19:10 and got a cab to the airport in Dublin, I would probably have arrived back in Cork Airport at 21:40 and deplaned by about 21:55. I would then have had to get my car from the car park and make my way through the traffic to Glanmire, and would have probably got there at about 22:10. Which is 35 minutes later than I did by car.

From June/July of this year (even though the opening is scheduled for October) the M8 will be completed. Airlines and Iarnrod Eireann will be hammered on their Cork Dublin routes once this happens.

Hobby Flyer's post makes for sobering reading for the future of Cork Airport in the months and years ahead. New routes? baby ema gone, baby man a few weeks to go up to Easter and then gone.

If there is any future out there and there may well be - something kind of obvious like a return to Prague at say, twice, a week might work out fine. If Cork has any cop they should be down on their hands and knees to CSA cajoling them to return with an A319 or 735 twice a week to add a touch of connectivity once again to central and eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The Dublin Airport Authority is the curse of both Cork and indeed snn airport in my opinion. Cork needs to be completely independant. The DAA is a poison as much as and maybe even more than snn has been down the years. Even if it meant Cork was to be open only twelve hours a day in independant ownership I am now coming to the view such a scenario would be preferable than being a part of the poison that is the DAA.

Cork cannot be itself being a part of the monster that is the voraciousness of the DAA. Ducksie and me in agreement - whatever next!?

Jet2: Newcastle
 

Indeed you are right. It was trice weekly for periods in 2007 and 2008, from there my mistake...

When we will compare 2010 to 2009 it's currently looking like:

• bmibaby: a lot less passengers
• Ryanair: slightly less passengers
• Air Southwest: same I suppose (unsure)
• Jet2: same number of passengers
• Aer Arann (incl EI Regional): same number of passengers
• Aer Lingus (excl EI Regional): more passengers (SXF replaced by MAN + BHX)
• Wizzair: more passengers

Yes, for balance it must be noted that Wizzair are to start a restored Wroclaw Cork service in the coming days just in time for Easter which is a far more important holiday for the Polish folk that it is for the lapsed Irish Catholics so I guess the loads may be okay which will be a good start to the restored route.

Not forgetting Ducksie's summer routes - wonder if there will be some balance this year to the high summer fares EI have enjoyed in previous years. It should be an interesting one to watch.

Cork has in recent days enjoyed a few visits from the newly repainted RE ATR-72-500 in the Aer Lingus colours. Very nice too. Looking forward to some summer sunshine to take in a few snaps.

FR2
 

I am very curious about Ryanair's plans for Cork's extra aircraft which will be in service at Cork only in June, July and August.

Thusfar, no other Ryanair base is due to get any new routes in September! ??? So does that aircraft then go to a base where it will only be used to increase the frequencies of existing routes? Will it create as of yet unannounced new routes at some airport? Or does it get "parked up", so to speak? The latter seems rather unlikely...

Hopefully Cork Airport can convince Ryanair to keep the aircraft at Cork, and to introduce new routes like Charleroi, Weeze, East Midlands, Budapest, Prague, Madrid, Berlin, Beauvais, Gerona, Bergamo, Treviso...
Wishful thinking I know. I accept Ryanair's number one strategy at Cork seems to be to damage Aer Lingus / Aer Arann :ouch: And even if the 2nd aircraft ends up staying it's entirely likely that it will continue to be used on routes where there's already competition (Malaga, Alicante, etc)... But FR's routes like La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Reus aren't ideal year-round destinations, so would likely need to be replaced for winter. If FR are bent are damaging EI/RE then we could expect any of Bristol, Birmingham / East Midlands, Manchester, Prestwick, Edinburgh, Beauvais, Gerona, ...

It is kind of strange though that Ryanair haven't already revealed where that aircraft is going after September though, no? ...

Any news about new routes?

Just wondering are ye pilots?

I find it hard to see new routes being announced soon, unless it's EI or FR trying to get a bit more effective returns from their base aircraft (i.e. reducing frequency on other routes to do it).

Maybe Wizzair might add a link to another of their Central European bases.

Maybe, Aer Lingus Regional might add another aircraft. It would be handy in terms of frequencies to Birmingham and Manchester, which are back down to one a day.

But I'm not holding my breath.

The pilots tend more to lurk than to post on this forum as far as I can make out. I am sure there are posts by pilots, of course, but as for new routes sometimes pilots may not be amongst the first to hear of such interestings titbits of news. Down the years there have been numerous queries on Cork's runway, low visibility procedures etc and from the good quality of many of the replies some of the responses must have been from our pilot friends.

Good to see the Aer Lingus Regional services begin over the course of the past few days with the EI liveried ATR-72s. A welcome sight to have Glasgow back in the Cork fold with a six weekly ATR-72 service and good to have on board as well the new double daily service by EI from Gatwick. Reassuring also to look out on the restored Lisbon flight which restarted yesterday for the summer season. Hope the routes thrive as they should do. Just wish that FR would have stayed at three daily on Stansted for the summer though you cant have everything, can you?

Malev have returned to Dublin. Still fell pretty sure Cork could salvage something on a Budapest service if the matter could be suitably handled, be it by Malev or Wizz Air.

Charlie Roy,

They dont get parked up, but they generally do less flying daily, that includes having longer turnarounds. Its a common practice in Ryanair particularly in smaller bases.

I think Cork has done well this year so far with several generally positive announcements. I can't see much more happening, but I guess it would be a bonus.

:*Does anyone think we could see 5th Aer Lingus in October?, as we now a second ATR is on the way but im worried its just EI Regional at Cork growing from now on!

Whether another new potential aeroplane at Cork would be an ATR, A320 or even a Saab 340 it would be equally welcome.

We got to get real, folks. Have you not been watching NAMA day on the News?

Cork could very well see a 5th A320 in October. I think it will depend more on what EI want to do with the Crew base at LGW than their ambitions for Cork. If the ORK-LGW performs well but EI want to shut the LGW crew base the A320 number 5 would be close to certain, ORK would gain "half" an aircraft. Im sure there are routes on the EI radar and if LGW does work out it would seem to be a very small risk, assuming the LHR routes hold up OK too.

Brian.

I don't know if it will come to Cork, but with three more to come, the odds of one of them turning up must be decent. That said, it might be primarily used to reinstate a 2nd rotation to Birmingham and Manchester and to operate the Cardiff route, which currently uses a Dublin-based aircraft. I guess that would probably leave open the option of 1 more rotation a day, but where? It would have to be near enough to get there in an ATR, but big enough to sustain a service and presumably also somewhere currently unserved from Cork - Southampton, Leeds/Bradford, Nantes maybe.

I don't think Aer Lingus have any A320s arriving before April 2011. I still don't know what happened to the two that left Gatwick. Possibly the opportunity was used to return some to the lease companies.

I don't think you could utilise the 5th 320 to be honest. If only they had more flexibility with regard to crewing you could do some interesting things like W route the Gatwick and continue the Geneva year round.....for example. The routes that are performing badly out of Gatwick could be supported from Cork, i.e. maintain the destination slots and come from Cork instead, every other day.

I have to say, it was great to see 2 shamrocks on stand in Zurich side by side, the Dublin and Gatwick. It would have been nice if one was going to Cork....