The fatal Metroliner accident back in February would be contraindicative to 50th anniversary celebrations too. There have been a few widebody movements to mark the year along with a lot of reasonably exotic bizjet visitors.

The DAA's focus is on their new Taj Mahal Airbridge Terminal at Dublin.

Just two hours to the Red Cow Inn and you are nearly there!

Cork Airport Authority now in existence over 7 years. Yet many staff at the airport are reporting directly to head office staff in both Dublin and Shannon. What is the point of having a board if it has no power. Can't see this situation being tolerated much longer.

It's been reported that the DAA have asked the Minister to abolish the boards at Cork and Shannon if he's not going to separate these airports from the DAA.

Happy 50th Cork!

Anyone have any idea if RYR are going to have extra aircraft for the entire Summer next year or just the usual 3 month crack?

Not sure but I heard that there's a positive development in the pipeline for Cork. Hopefully it's a new European Route.

Would be great if it was an airline other than Aer Lingus or Ryanair but anything would be welcome.

A report in today's Irish Examimersays that Transport Minister Leo Varsdkar has appointed an Internatioional Consultant to look at the best option for the future at both Cork and Shannon. It is believed that the option of allowing both airports sustain losses and have them abdorbed by the DAA on an annual basis is no longer sustainable.

It should be pointed out that the losses at Cork are entirely due to the cost of servicing the new terminal.

@Ryan2000 - that's absolutely right, the losses are primarily interest (terminal) and depreciation (terminal and not a cash item). Strip out those and it's a very different story.

Unfortunately, you could say the same thing about the entire state.

Strip out interest payments and the balance of payments looks OK.

But the same logic will be applied to Cork Airport as the national budget.

......who are "Strategic", a Luxembourg registered carrier, and why were they in Cork all day Sat/Sun ?
Maintenance problems, perhaps ?

Strategic aircraftvwent tech at Cork on Saturday and positioned out to MAN on Sunday.

Article on tonights Cork Evening Echo quotes Minister as saying that Cork is losing €14m per year. He repeats his wish for Cork and Shannon to be separated from the control of the DAA.. It seems to me that part or complete privatisation could be on the way as it's nonsensical to suggest that either of them could function as stand alone state companies. Interesting times lads!

I can't quite see the reasoning though. Who will want to take on Shannon with its losses?

And while Cork may be making an operating profit, any private operator will only touch it if the debt is left behind. So, the DAA still gets saddled with the debt, but loses the potential income stream that will help pay for it.

If it is done, I'd prefer that the government retain ownership of the airfield, but just sell the terminal buildings, car parks etc. or even just make them available on a 30-50 year lease.

14m a year is all down to the new terminal debt? How long is the debt spread over? 10 years?

My understanding of operationally profitable is that it is taking out the interest (c. 8 million) and depreciation of fixed assets (presumably around 6 million), but doesn't included the capital repayments anyway, so the term doesn't matter.

I haven't seen published accounts, so I don't know if the depreciation includes exceptional charges to take account of the general reduction in Irish property values.

Pax numbers
 

Can anybody shed light on pax numbers for 2011 to date? :ok:

Marginally down but a small increase in recent months. Will more than likely finish around the 2010 figure of 2.4 million.

numbers at end august were down 50,000 compared last year , approx -2% so far. Anna aero publishes monthly figures.it surprises me that nobody on here ever refers to them:ok:

Any figures for Shannon? Cork very slightly up for 1st half of October.

European Airport Traffic Trends | anna.aero

Figures can be seen here. SNN declined in July and August. Will get worse with LGW, CDG and DL JFK lost.