Aerlingus
 

Cork got one Aerlingus Diversion, it was to get 3 but the others didn't materialise. Pax on the EI451 bused to Dublin. pax boarding the buses as aircraft prepared to return to the Capital.

Part of the problem with using Cork as an alternate is that neither the handling companies or airport management are over keen to accept diversions. That's also an example of negativity.

EI725 from Heathrow was cancelled this evening at 23:25.

I'm flying out at 12 tommorow, hope I wont be too affected

The EI 725 is linked to the EI DUB-LHR schedule, usually including a change of aircraft, hence the cancellation.

On DUB-ORK there were no flights ex Dublin after the 9.30am RE flight due to the disruption. So no doubt many Cork folk had to find an unexpectedly long way home, thinking positively of course all the way.

Time now 0145 hours local Cork. Could not believe my eyes but the bmi baby,the WW1242, just came out over the city on the flight back to Birmingham!

Yez are working very late tonight, lads! That is as close as we are to good news tonight for Cork following on from the news of RE's intention to chop ORK-LBA from end of August.

Pretty grim news - one would have thought LBA would have been okay with Aer Arann?

Obviously not? These oil market speculators have a lot to answer for - out and out scounderels.

Looks like Cork is facing into even tougher times in the months ahead - there are further well founded reports today that Aer Arann are to drop their remaining service between Cork and Galway and, regretably, that time may be running out for the three days a week Skyeurope service from Bratislava to Cork which would be a big as well as symbolic blow to us all in Cork.

I would hope sincerely that somehow all the above bad news reports turn out to be without foundation but the omens are not good from what updates are going around Cork today.

Phew! Looks like it is a triple whammy hitting Cork?

Thats a real pity. I think the route has become a victim of the overcapacity caused by the Aer Lingus - Bmi Baby battle on Cork-Manchester. Leeds has a direct rail line to Manchester airport and with loads of cheap flights to Manchester now available most people seem to take the cheaper alternative to Manchester and get the train rather than pay a premium to use Aer Arann to LBA. Perhaps Jet2 will consider picking up the route considering their large base at LBA? With Shannon-LBA axed by Ryanair since the start of this month passengers from Munster wanting to fly to Leeds now have to travel to Dublin.

On another note the EI725 from Heathrow was cancelled last night for the second time in 3 days presumably since it was running so late (they can't take off from Heathrow after midnight). Flights are running 90 minutes late today (as a result of the cancellation last night) so the 725 might be cancelled again tonight. The A321 really seems to be struggling to keep to timetable at busy times when high loads mean longer turnaround times. The same thing happened before Christmas when the 724/725 was cancelled a number of times since the 321 was running so far behind schedule. I hope the whole summer won't be like this. The current timetable has turnaround times of just 45 minutes between some flights which just isn't enough when the 220 seater A321 has heavy loads.

Flights are on sale for the winter so it looks like Cork-Bratislava is staying for the moment. However I have heard that Sky Europe are close to Bankruptcy so maybe its only a matter of time before the route ends?

Skyeurope
 

I have noticed that BHX-BTS in winter 2008/9 is now showing
fares at £149 each way on every single flight I checked (I checked
two weeks for every winter month until Feb). I did not check Cork
but I assume that this kind of thing can mean that the route is at
least under review?

BHX has now has FR with storming loads to compensate if the
NE service ends but I assume Cork has no such luxury.

I am aware of rumours on other forums re NE.

On a different subject, still some variable loads on the two
BHX-ORK services and I was quite surprised to see WW maintain
six a week this winter.

Pete

Well, maybe all is not yet lost as the ORK-BTS is indeed still bookable on different dates in the winter. We all need a bit of a boost so let us hope for the best and that we might be seeing the lovely red and blue 737s for some time yet brightening up the sad landscape we are so used to at Cork on so many grey, dreary days.

Mind you, it is not always sad and grey and even tonight at dusk as the Mrs and I stopped off at Cork's runway 35 for a few minutes on the way home from the pub (!) the Cork ramp was busier than ever with a pair of Ryanairs, Eurocypria, Wizz, bmi baby, Air Europa, Onur Air all working hard plying their trade with pax along with a Titan 757 that was relocating for the night to Stand 18 for a rest after doing today's EI flight to Nice.

Maybe it was the atomostpherics of dusk but Cork looked great. As well as it looked though I still wish we could have been on the completely full eurocypria flight to Crete. We really must take advantage of the Greek aunty the Mrs has in Crete before it is too late!

SkyEurope are shortening their sector lengths, and just like Malev and Czech, ORK is one hell of a long sector length for a regional city route.

Shareprice in Sky is also performing really badly.. down 84% in a year.

SKYEUROPE HOLDING AG: Chart, Kurs, ISIN: AT0000497003 (SKY) | boerse-express.com

skyeurope
 

Bratislava: -

All Cork fares set at euro 249 through the winter one way

All Dublin Fares sets at euro 229 one way

All BHX fares set at £149 one way

MAN, Orly, FCO KSC, IST & LUT have variable fares.

I trust from this Cork, BHX and Dublin are under review?

Cork & Dublin are their longer routes and BHX now has FR,
it seems more than a co-incidence.

If they re-time the MAN service they could reduce the base
by one aircraft - not looking too good for ORK, BHX & DUB.

Pete

Oh how I laughed at the delicious irony of Mick O'Leary of eulogising Seamus Brennan for saving Ryanair from the dastardly Aer Lingus's attempt to drive them out of business. Mick so easily ignores his OWN airlines monopolistic tendencies such as, adding 3 flights a day with tens of thousands of free/below cost seats on the Cork-Gatwick route to drive out Easyjet. And then of course he reduces the Cork Gatwick route back to one a day. :rolleyes:

Can someone fill me in where we stand as regards the New Terminal/HMV Gantly/Ridiculous debt/new member & chairman CAA board, situation ?

Have we moved from a state of chassis to a state of flux ?

Breaking up is hard to do!
 

Looks as if Cork is immobilised by indecision! Despite all the drama last April, another 3 months have passed without the slightest hint of the break up taking place. Even Shannon (where there's no debt controversy) still remains firmly in the clutches of the DAA over 5 years after the late Seamus Brennan made the announcement about the break up of Aer Rianta.

It makes you wonder if the Government's heart is really in it.

So Gantly is still there ? :*

I'd nearly take the debt just to get out of the clutches of that shower in the DAA.

ORK v BFS
 

Would make sense for EI to re-locate one of the A320s from BFS to ORK based on the following:

ORK or BFS/AMS: Out 21st of July/Back 25th of July
ORK fare: €515
BFS fare: £80 [€101]

ORK or BFS/CDG: Out 18th of July/Back 21st of July
ORK fare: €416
BFS fare: £128 [€161]

ORK/FARO: Out 18th of July/Back 21st of July
Fare: €549
BFS/FARO: Out 19th of July/Back 22nd of July
Fare: £291 [€367]

BFS may be a lower cost base but with these price differences, ORK based aircraft must be more profitable

Aer Lingus won't be pulling aircraft out of Belfast any time soon. However, I wouldn't expect to see any expansion there either.

I think there are two new A320s coming next year and Cork must be in with a fair shout of one. Fares to Amsterdam in particular have been through the roof all year and yet almost every aircraft is full in the summer and even in Winter loads are 80%+. They could easily allocate another aircraft to Cork and just have it doing extra rotations on some of the existing routes.

EI ORK base
 

I'd day northern Italy 3 days per week to either Verona, Milan or Venice would do well ex ORK as would Vienna if Sky Europe pull out of Bratislava, Apart from those greater frequency on existing routes would seem to be the best option for a 5th aircraft

I wonder if the problem with the 321s is not so much turnaround times but that the FD has been told to strictly maintain econ cruise rather than increase speed to make up time, even if it means taking the hit on cancellation charges and that the timetable has not been adjusted to compensate?

Ork-lhr
 

Heard that Cork and Dublin crews will swop over in London in order to keep disruption to a minimum from now on if delays occur . Titan 757's hired at short noticed to operate Malaga and Nice flights from Cork on two separate occassions last week as a result of the delays. This obviously is unsustainable.