Tom - At the time of the Ryanair 98MS go-around, there was the slight problem of a Monarch B752 clogging up the runway. Visibility at the time was definitely not a contributory factor.
In fairness to the Monarch crew, they offered to turn off at the intersection and enter the ramp via Bravo, but tower instructed them to continue to Charlie as Bravo is not permitted for their size aircraft (something to do with engines over-hanging the edge of the taxiway).
That parallel taxiway would have come into its own on Sunday afternoon.
The Falcon 50 crew was not "told that they can return to Cork tomorrow"; they had arranged to go to Shannon, and were only requesting a return to Cork at that stage. They were making arrangements for their apparently unplanned return, but they were not, however, being told to get lost until tomorrow.
It is very rare now that one hears bizjets positioning out to Farranfore or Shannon for an overnight. The situation has improved greatly over the past year.

747's and DC10's and L.1011'a used bravo in years gone by though things have tightened up in recent years particularly since the old ramp was redesigned.

FR winter timetable
 

Ryanair's winter timetable for Cork so far:

Stansted: not yet online
Gatwick: not yet online
Liverpool: unchanged
Dublin: Still 5 daily flights but new times. The new times don't add up but that always seems to be the way when the Cork - dublin timetable is first loaded. Corrections should follow shortly.

The reason was along those lines anyway.
Taxiway Bravo is 4m thinner that Alpha, and 7m thinner than Charlie.
Maybe someone else can shed more light on the matter?

I don't think there will be many changes. Looking at the timetable it would seem that they are running an identical timetable for the Cork based aircraft as they did last winter, with 4 Dublin rotations and a Gatwick rotation, the fifth Dublin rotation now being operated by a Dublin based aircraft. Aer Arann will be delighted with the new timetable. If someone wants to get into Dublin city centre by 9AM they will have no choice but to fly RE. Also RE's last flight of the day from Dublin will now be significantly later than FR's, unlike the 10 minute difference at present. I have to say I'm surprised that FR are going back to the very relaxed timetable they operated last Winter.

There was an interesting charter at Cork yesterday. An Eastern Airways Saab 2000 positioned in from Humberside to operate out to BIRK (cant spell the name!) on a Cork City Football Club charter to Iceland for a game in the Intertoto Cup, a competition that Cork have had a measure of good luck in over the years. Good to have a turboprop airliner doing an oceanic flight from Cork. A Challenger also stopped off at Cork yesterday on way to Bermuda. Have there been any other direct flights to Bermuda from Cork in recent times?

It has been very wet at Cork in recent days and I am sure there has been once again some substantial drenchings amongst some pax around the ramp?

Anyone know where a spare MD-80 series towbar may be had - not sure but there may be a market for one in Cork?

There was on down by the old terminal in March :p

Could Servisair borrow one from Sky handling instead of forcing MD's to park in front of the old terminal. As for passengers getting drenched at Cork what's new?

Does anyone know if Centralwings are pulling out of Cork in October? Just most of their other routes have had the winter flights for sale since April but none of the routes from Cork are bookable after October. I know there was a rumour of EI starting Krakow but that should be no reason to abandon Wroclaw or Warsaw.
On another note Madrid is to end on August 31st with Malaga going daily and Berlin increasing back to 3 weekly for September and October. The knock on effect of this means Prague is now a very late flight, only leaving Cork at 17.40, and arriving back in Cork at 23.30. These late flight times may disuade some potential passengers

A shame that Madrid is to end. Anybody know what the loads are like.

The extra Amsterdam rotations are back in the Ae Lingus booking engine for the Winter period.

I wonder why they disappeared and then reappeared again.

Good to see AMS back to 2X daily for the winter.
My guess for teh disappearence/reappearence would be that final destinations for the winter have not yet been fully finalised, so EI was not sure how best to use the four aircraft.
I dont recall hearing of any new routes for the winter. I know MAN and MUC are back, but other than that nothing, right? GVA or somewhere like that would be fantasic, IMHO!
Brian.

EI Cork yields
 

EI's yields on Cork routes for July and August must be very high if their fares are anything to go by. In contrast Ryanair's SNN fares to similar destinations are far lower.

Brian->I think the Aer Lingus aircraft are now fully utilised for the winter timetable.

ryan2000:


Not really- having just checked the "sunshine" flights fares are similar, with Ryanairs being 2/300 euro cheaper

Ryanair
 

EI-BFP, That's a fair differential for a family or even a group of 4. Save 1,000 euro by throwing a tenner each in for petrol to cover the drive to Shannon.

We all know many people who are prepared to put up with the inconvenience.

No wonder the CAA are cutting costs and reviewing work practices at Cork.

Ryan2000

I think its good that that Aer Lingus are able to get a good yield at Cork. They obviously think that they can still fill planes at Cork with higher fares that at Shannon. Cork always does well on the sun routes. I would be a lot more worried if they had to sell the seats at next to nothing to fill the planes like they do at Shannon. Even taking into account EI's higher cost base, and given the higher fares I'd say they're making a lot more profit than FR at Shannon. Surely thats important for the long term survival of the airport.

Aerlingus yields
 

I agree fully with you enr. I'm just making the point that Cork is nowhere near its full traffic potential due to the lack of real competition on Continental routes and the lack of any transatlantic routes.

There is also no sign of any real growth there this year if one excludes the Air South West Newquay route which is only replacing the Air Wales service. Aerlingus are swapping Munich for Madrid in October and we have their On/Off/On again servcice to Manchester.

It's also looking increasingly likely that the airport will have to carry some of the debt for the new terminal. The sooner that issue is resolved the better as it's being repeatedly used as an excuse for lack of Captial development etc.

Ryan2000
I'd have to agree that expansion is almost non existent at the moment. However they may still have passenger growth due to the extra 5 months of having 4 EI aircraft and the higher utilisation of EI aircraft compared last summer. Perhaps we are finally feeling the effect of overcapacity in munster. 1.1 million people is not enough to support 4 airports. Things aren't exactly rosy at Shannon. FR are constantly chopping and changing their routes, long haul carriers are about to stage a mass pullout and theres talk of a substantial reduction of US troop numbers in Iraq meaning the number of US troops passing through may fall. Kerry seems unable to sustain any new routes (Liverpool was the last attempt at a new route and that was a major flop). Waterford is the only one with any real growth but that will be at the expense of Cork. Interesting times ahead for aviation in Muntser.

"Long haul carriers about to stage a major pullout...?"

That is the biggest load of utter :mad: I have ever heard.

Look all around Europe- You'll find LCC's chopping and changing routes also. Its not just Shannon!


Some respect for Shannon, If you don't mind. :*