Whatever the reason the fact is that inward tourism to Cork in particular is almost non existant. The terminal there is full of Irish people going on holidays and Polish immigrants going back and forward to their homeland.
Your points are very well made

There should be a multi organisational approach to this using the two Councils as well as The Airport . Most other airports and city's are doing this But Cork have yet to wake up and smell the roses

There's plenty of Dutch and even Germans come in on the Amsterdam flight in the summer. Unfortunately, the trade dies off in the Winter; it would be nice if there was some advertising of Cork as a weekend break destination.

One of the bad things from the Celtic Tiger era was the neglect of routes that bring in inbound tourists because there was easy pickings on outbound sun routes. Routes to places like Frannkfurt, Cologne or Dusseldorf would have held up far better in recent economic times.

BTW I know of a perfectly respectable pub where you can get a pint for €3 in Cork City Centre!

Cork Expansion.
 

Cork to Birmingham & Manchester now on sale, operated by Aer Lingus Regional as we expected...

ORH-BHX Twice daily except on Saturdays when there is just one service.
ORK-MAN Twice daily.

Both From October 31st. Even though there is seat reduction on the routes im glad to see the flexibility (Business Travellers) on times.

Also good to see 2 RE ATR-72/500 back in Cork (1st time since 2008).

..so ryanair cancelled a flight to spain because of a French strike?
did they not ever hear of airway Tango Nine?
only 1 hour from the southern capital to the north coast of spain, and then via Zamorra to get the pax to their dest.
why cancel, when all you need is lateral thinking?
or, would the extra fuel burn make a marginally profitable flight unprofitable?
It really let the passengers down.
It's like saying "you can't get to Dublin because the bridge at Fermoy is blocked"
Just go via Youghal or Mallow!
No refund either, I'd say, as the CEO is known to say F@@@ OFF!
Such miserable treatment of pax.
Really annoyed, but rant over!:}

There's a rule, with associated exceptions and the rest, that goes something like this: "Aircraft operating scheduled services within the EU need to adopt a flight path where the aircraft involved is never more than 20 minutes from an airport capable of accepting it in case of an emergency".

No HF radios means no entry onto the T9 and MNPS airspace.

potkettleblack put it exactly- Ryanair no longer have HF radios so no using the T9.

Charlie Roy- that rule generally does not apply in this case. If thats the case its being broken quite a bit! The 738 is certified for 180 mins ETOPS but I dont know do Ryanair have it. In that case they can be up to 180 mins away...

Slightly off-topic...

Quote -
"however the security staff were very helpful unlike the shower we have here in Cork who are overly paranoid"

You can say that again, last Sunday I complained in passing to a security guy about a woman who was parked on a pedestrian crossing on her phone, [presumably phoning someone in the terminal to come out], and I couldn't get by with the trolly - his reaction was "show me your id"...!!! I said why, and he said "have you got ID" I said I had and walked on.... he said "f... off then"

Lovely.... and then the waiting passenger came out and loaded bags etc on the crossing....the security guy watched.....

I'm a crusty oul fella, am I??

.what,FR have no HF radio's?
Yes, it's true that HF is necessary to dispatch along the T9.
But that means around the houses routings to the sun - spots!
(and very pissed off Alicante bound pax!)
Grrrr:}

Ryanair regularly route down the T9, so if they have no HF radios, what do they do?

dublinaviatior, they used to regularly, the EI-CSx and DAx series had HF radios but they are no longer fitted as standard- fitted only for delivery. I have not seen a RYR flightplan via the T9 in a long long time. They often go via TULTA and UP197 which just stays inside Brest's airspace to Canaries+Faro now.

Cork traffic
 

Cork down 14.8% for 1st 6 months. June down around 8% so the rate of decline has lessened.

EI to AGP
 

Just back from AGP on EI today, loads outward 94%(165 of 174 seats full) - loads inward 97%(169 of 174 seats full).
Not bad as ryanair had left just 30 before with pretty healthy looking loads aswell.Flights were EI882/883 to/from ORK

remember EI operate a daily AGP service and have acctually been operating the ORK-AGP route since the 1980's , they've always made a profit on it.

A number of county planning documents related to the airport for those interested.

http://www.corkcoco.ie/co/pdf/359024904.pdf
http://www.corkcoco.ie/co/pdf/57062904.pdf
http://www.corkcoco.ie/co/pdf/823978301.pdf
http://www.corkcoco.ie/co/pdf/869571405.pdf

Passenger projections look very optimistic now.

See pages 50 and 51 of the Faber Maunsell study (first link) for simple but very very effective roundabout enhancements which would make a big difference. I've been thinking for a long time how effective they'd be. They recommend immediate implementation, but shocker, nothing has happened...

Passenger projections are indeed amusing. 15 million by 2040...:confused:

Cork projections
 

Traffic projections for 2040 look wildly optimistic alright. However if in 1980 when the airport was handling in the region of 300,OOO pax per year someone suggested we'd be at 3.25 million by 2008 he'd have been laughed at.

To get to the levels projected we need the following,

(a) A return to the rapid economic growth of the Celtic Tiger era.

(b) An expansion of the airport catchment area.

(c) The establishment of routes that will generate inward traffic.


There is no sign of the first of these requirements happening but the tide has to turn at some stage. The expansion of the catchment area will occur due to the improved motorways and tunnells etc. There will however have to be a serious effort made to market the airport outside of Cork.

Growth in the short term will depend almost entirely on Aerlingus and Ryanair. The former needs to establish a genuine base in Cork to make new routes viable not one partially serviced by Dublin based pilots staying in City Centre Hotels.

A decison by Ryanair to target the UK provincial routes would almost certainly lead to a big increase in traffic.

It's unlikeley that any overseas carrier is going to make any major effort to expand at Cork given that Aerlingus and Ryanair's presence there.


It should also be accepted that efforts to attract a transatlantic service to Cork have not worked. Any potential carrier is going to look for serious marketing support from the airport and the region so people will have to put their money where their mouth is if this is ever to be a runner.

The initial challenge must be how does Cork get positive growth going and how soon can we get back over 3 million.

One thing that disappoints me looking at the documents is the way they kick to touch the issue of public transport access to the airport. It is left for some great strategy for Cork Public Transport. But if that strategy exists, they don't seem to have started the public consultation yet.

One thing that is clear is that between airports staff, passengers and business park staff, there are around 1,700 journeys being made between the airport and the Douglas/Grange area every day (i.e. 850 journeys each way). Even if only a quarter of that could be captured, a bus service should be viable. The obvious option would be to extend one number 6 service every hour to the airport. The route terminus is not far short of the airport anyway.

A service to Bishopstown and on to Ballincollig would also be borderline viable based on the figures. If growth were to return to the airport, it should be up for consideration.

RYR Routes
 

Ryanair's sun routes to Faro, Malaga & Lanzarote will contuine for winter 2010/11. Routes are not bookable yet but show as operating.

Kerry had a twice weekly service to Faro for winter but thaat has now dropped from Kerry and now Cork gets it.

FR to announce Cork expansion
 

Just in contact with my source at ORK; he told me this


FR are close to signing a ''major deal'' at Cork which would see FAO, AGP & ACE continuing as well as a ''string of other new routes'' to be announced. CAA has approved ''large discounts'' to FR to base additional a/c and launch additional routes as well as increased flights. The CAA is to meet the DAA this week to finalise the new arrangements.

Hopefully the DAA's attitude with FR at DUB wont effect this decision. My source also said that the current routes where preforming well due to large discounts, Ryanair recieved since their expansion launch in June.