RE did Cork to La Rochelle, Nantes and Lorient twice weekly in 2009.

Ryanair are going to be operating La Rochelle 3x per week in the summer, so no chance there.

Nantes would be a good option. I've mentioned before that I believe it is the only Western France destination that might work year round, so it would be good to see it just from that perspective.

Anyone any info on Jan traffic.

-1.5% , Ryanair's based aircraft appears to have a late start some mornings once the Summer Schedule gets underway. Several other gaps in its schedule at other times.

.........really like the collection of photo's on the wall just to the left,

after staff security.

A great collection, esp. the 1960's image of a swedish visiting DC 3.

Was Mr G. Desmond, the photographer, working at the airport ?

Nice to see a bit of nostalgia, in what is otherwise a thoroughly modern building.

Have we finally turned the corner? Aer Lingus plan Cork network changes
 

A well informed source at Aer Lingus has informed me that the new Cork to Brussels route has beaten expectations in terms of forward bookings and is making considerably more then expected ancillary revenue. I was also informed that bookings for the now Double Daily Amsterdam flights remain almost parallel to 2011 so far. This is quite a significant achievement for the Airport. However I forgot to ask would Brussels be continued into next Winter, this remains to be confirmed but it is know seriously likely that it will. I was also informed by my source that bookings to Sun Destinations remain positive with the exception of Palma Majorca, bookings are slightly down on the route but this is no doubt due to the competition from Ryanair which will now also serve the route. My source told me Aer Lingus want to grow at Cork but the current route structure is limited, due to the amount of seasonal routes and the over reliance on Irish Sun pax. I was informed last December that Aer Lingus reps were seeing increases in ''Flex'' bookings on routes from Cork with particular onward connection hubs or centers of Finance seeing the most (AMS, CDG, LHR). Now this may be all hopes or dreams but I have noticed Aer Lingus are branching away from their 2000-boom era focus on Sun Destinations ex Cork, for example the change they took this Winter on returning Barcelona and Rome seem to have paid off. It also is looking likely that the A319's will be at Cork next winter to maintain a 4 based Mainline operation, this however is just my own opinion and not confirmed. A lot of Likes, Likely and Hopes in the above but it is becoming clear Aer Lingus are getting serious about their Cork operation with a view to expansion on previous failed Business routes from Cork.

If Brussells is running ahead of expectations then cities like Frankfurt, Vienna and Zurich can't be out of the question.

Exactly, was surprised to say the least when I heard Brussels was performing well so far. Definitely Cork needs a Frankfurt service, a market is already there for Vienna. SkyEurope proved this with there 3 weekly Bratislava service load factors were good always annoyed me when they decided to axe it. Id have to say a Zürich service could definitely work at least it would hold the market to maintain a year-round status. Also I think its never been a better time for Aer Lingus to re-launch Berlin, with a central airport there from June this year the route would definitely be a success after-all it was only axed to increase Birmingham and Manchester flights at the time before they where handed over to Aer Lingus Regional.

It's not all about loads, though. Yields are what count. Particularly at the moment, full aircraft, particularly in the past, are not an indicator that a route will work. That said SN operated, and pulled, ORK-BRU in the past, so just because one airline canned a route does not mean it can't work.
I think there is opportunity at ORK, as you say routes like VIE, FRA, BER, ZRH could all have potential. I'm not sure how things will work out over the coming seasons, but I can see ORK becoming a split A319/A320 base. Probably 2 A319s and 2/3 A320s.
On the face of it going to a 4/5 aircraft base might seem risky, but the addition of the A319 and the ATR to the EI fleet changes things a little bit. The possible closure of the LGW crew base could change things too. Consider that an ORK based aircraft could operate ORK-LGW-NOC-LGW-ORK and take over some of the EIR rotations to MAN/BHX. This would allow the likes of EMA/LBA to be introduced on the ATR's. In that scenario adding an extra aircraft to the mainline fleet at ORK is reasonably low risk.

ork bru
 

surprised and delighted to hear the new ork bru route is ahead of expectations
just go's to show that cork need routes bring on more

Yep thats what decides if a route continues or even starts these days, thats most definitely one of the reasons why the SkyEurope service went.

I've always juggled around with this idea it would allow expansion at Cork to maybe 2 or 3 new routes or just allowing extra capacity to current routes, and to be frankly honest I dont see any of the Cork regional routes transferring back to mainline anytime soon.

Aer Lingus Mobile is to launch its first Cork service. The route which has been chosen is Brussels a further testment to high bookings on the route, I understand it wont be until June or July this year before the service is launched for all Cork routes and the Aer Lingus network as a hole (excluding US Destinations due to Security Reasons).

BCN is a bit more seasonal as a market than BRU.

That said, when SN Brussels operated BRU, loads were fantastic, but only at the expense of yields. Lots of passengers; few paying more than €120 return, even after tax.

movements
 

read in to days Irish Examiner that the number of movements at Cork Dublin Shannon down for January do anyone know what movements are counted
do they count planes like Malev going into storage and aircraft going in for painting and maintenance

I think it's commercial movements of aircraft for both passenger an freight purposes. I don't know what the story is with the Malev aircraft.

Cork's January figured will be adversely affected by the loss of the Belfast flights, which would have accounted for over 5% of movements, but only around 1% of passengers.

thanks 840 I agree that the Belfast flights would affect the no. of movements but cork had oil flights and helicopter flights which it did not have last year

Ye boys are also forgetting the loss of the dublin flights.Up to mid february 2011 3xdaily ,to end of march 2xdaily.:=

A movement = an aircraft which uses the runway.

So yes they are considered commercial movements.

Commercial terminal flights at ORK for Jan were down 12.3% on Jan 2011.

The Irish Examiner/Evening Echo have been posting figures for the last week, none of which have been the same. The figures have varied from -5% up to -35%, depending on what way you can massage them. After a bit of digging it turns up they got the -35% by comparing 2007 to the 2011 figures. All stuck up in headlines to give the impression that Corks traffic had collasped overnight.