I also prefer flying to Dublin rather than taking the train. I always use it to catch a connecting flight to the US or continental Europe where there are no direct flights available from Cork. It beats connecting through London Heathrow any day!
But even just going to Dublin for a weekend, its far more fun to fly than take a train to Dublin that is slower than it took 20 years ago and on many occasions its more expensive than flying:ok:

Carcassonne
 

I was on the first Cork-Carcassonne Ryanair flight a week ago. I'd say it was 80+% full and if the average fare was similar to what I paid then FR are on to a very good thing indeed, ;) much better than Cork-Dublin giveaways.
Almost all passengers in both directions appeared to be Irish, and I overheard several mentions of holiday homes, so there could be a steady demand in the future. I would reckon that it will hurt SNN-CCF as I have flown that route several times and never had to pay very much, and rarely saw more than 60 % load.

It's a great destination, and there are good train links to other parts of SW France, with Toulouse less than an hour away by (infrequent) TGV. Maybe Aer Lingus have missed an opportunity?

......again..........

Well EI only have the 3 A320s available for European duties at ORK. The equivalent of one and a quarter aircraft are taken up flying to AMS, CDG, MAN, BHX bi-daily, daily, 6x week, etc.
There are only so many hours in a day, and EI do already operate to the south of france. I think if one looks at the destinations EI has launched recently in both GVA and JER, the destinations are getting a bit more 'exciting'.

Other than CCF the Ryanair route network out of ORK is hardly going to set the nations pulse racing either, it is effectively 'bread and butter' UK routes, which pay well and have contributed to the industry bucking growth at ORK so far this year.

ORK is growing off a very small base, so I think it is fair enough that the more 'obvious' destinations are tried first.

Brian.

Wizz to fly Warsaw route into winter....
 

Wizz have extended their twice weekly Warsaw flight through to the end of March 2009. The winter pattern sees a Wed and Sun arrival into Cork at 1825.
This is welcome news in these challenging times coming just before Wizz's
first flight on the route on the 23rd of June.
For information, their Gdansk service is shown as three weekly this winter with flights on Tue, Thu and Sat evening. Katowice is, as yet, not bookable for the winter period.

The news that Warsaw Cork will continue into the winter is very heartening. In these more straitened times it is almost like the announcement of a new route and must be encouraging for Cork. On the down side it looks like Ryanair are to cut some FR905/6 Stansted flights on some days in the coming winter schedule. Guess if Cork hangs on to the remainder of the schedule it will be a good save.

Around 5 pm today there was a good looking ramp at Cork with four EI Airbuses and three 737 from Ryanair, Futura Gael and XL all on the ground at the same time and later before 9 pm the XL 767-200 positioned in to overnight before taking on a load of pilgrims tomorrow morning for Lourdes. Very smart looking aircraft she is and looks great in the new XL colours. It has been very busy with Lourdes flights in the last week. Last Friday there were no less than seven departures to the pilgrimage destination and four of the outbound flights were operated by 757s.

If just one of those aeroplanes could be fixed up to do just one solitary shopping flight to New York. All ways so close but yet so far.

What a pity.

TTT - my gran is back from Lourdes to ORK with a 7+hr delay under her belt. I'm led to believe these flights are often delayed. Any story there?

Lourdes delay?
 

Mark, it sounds like a retiming rather than a delay. If I knew the airline I could check it out

don't have that info mate, thanks anyway.

Possibly the XL B762- It got held up coming from Dublin and due to other reasons at various stages

Possible silly question: fireworks at the Carlton hotel
 

I was at a wedding in the Carlton Hotel near Kinsale on Saturday night.. they have a lovely terrace out the back overlooking Oyster Haven, which is also facing out towards the approach of runway 35.

Anyway, at around 11pm we were ushered outside onto the terrace as a fireworks display had been lined up. At the same time, there was a jet on approach.

The first few 'fireworks' were fairly basic, in fact they looked like flares really, and I remember thinking they must be fairly distracting. (Obviously I had had a few jars at this stage!)

Would the hotel have had to get permission for the fireworks? Would pilots be aware that this is a possibility?

Anyway, as I said, these are probably silly questions!

JBS

Often wondered about that, I guess they don't reach very high, but if you have ever sat on the hill at Alexandra Palace in London on Guy Fawkes where you can see every inch of the city sky lit up with high powered fireworks you would wonder how the pilots feel about them, especially on finals for LHR flying low over very built up areas.

Yeah, there was no element of danger, but if unprepared, it might have been something of a large surprise.. after all, it was 11pm over the quiet, peaceful fields of south Cork!

The centreline is a few miles to the east of the hotel so it wouldn't have been a problem. I remember a massive fireworks display in 2005 for Cork's year as City of Culture. The aircraft carried out normal appraoches to 17 throughout.

Wizzair Katowice
 

Cork-Katowice flights for the winter now on sale. This is the final of the Wizzair Cork routes to be loaded. Katowice will operate 4 weekly for most of the winter meaning there will be 9 flights per week from Cork to Poland with Wizzair this Winter - 4 weekly to Katowice, 3 weekly to Gdansk and twice weekly to Warsaw. Any hope of Wizzair launching Cork-Budapest?

Ork Bud
 

I've no doubt that they were asked. I'm not sure if ORK-BUD would generate a sufficient amount of point to point traffic. WIZZ don't have Malevs route network and probably wouldn't attact those wishing to fly onward.

Ork Gdn
 

In recent weeks Wizz dropped the 4th weekly GDN summer service which was to operate from mid June to mid September on Wednesdays arriving into Cork at 1950 (posted April 12th). Still at 10 flights per week until mid September they have plenty seats available to Poland over the summer period, the first Warsaw service being due on Thursday.

Aer Arann and Aer Lingus have signed an interlining agreement on the Cork-Dublin route meaning through ticketing and baggage transfer. It's already possible to book flights from Cork to the USA on the Aer Lingus website. I think this only applies to flights to the USA and not to short haul destinations out of Dublin. This should be a nice boost to Aer Arann's fight with Ryanair on the route.

This is fantastic news about the RE + EI agreement.
The fares to the US are very reasonable too :D

Aer Lingus booking engine doesn't seem to give any options if you try to book say Cork - New York and select Business as the fare type.