Hi looks, Welcome to PPRuNE! Pray, tell us a little more about the very interesting EI investigations into Cork autolands etc. :confused:

I was only asking! ;) You are a tease - my appetite is really going now!

Totally unconnected with the above but at last I can give a comparison of the short Cork runway - our older Lab, Sam, was just now trying to get a good run up to climb on to his couch for the night and the runway was just too plain short. Had to give him a modest runway extension by opening up a boundary door and he has just made it!

That is exactly what Cork needs too, a modest runway extension, and who knows but there may yet be another visit by an EI A330 to Cork in over a decade. After all if she was going off again to the right destination she might even be full with fare paying pax. Now, fancy that, the prospect of EI making some money at Cork with a full widebody and have I said a word about America?

Everything does not have to revolve around America! ;)

"Have not been too much in touch in the last few days but for those folk in the know how would you rate Cork's handling of snow clearance etc in marks out of 10?"

Just spent three days trying to get out of ORK.... One was my own paranoia but the other two were weather related.... Marks out of 10 - 4/5 being generous, mostly 'cos staff were good. Snow stopped 05.00 on 11th, about 10cm - "exceptional" for ORK. Clearing started at 08.00 - the equipment is a joke, two conventional agricultural John Deeres with 3/4m blades, a JCB and two other tractors and trailers. It took until 14.00 to do the basics, 17/35 and the ramp, at least half of that time was the JCB picking up snow from various points along 17/35, dumping it in the trailes and they bring it to a point North of 17 entrypoint.

Dep to CDG on 12/01 was interesting, AirB320 full, 40Kn gusting 50 I'd say, not much runway needed....

I can't see transatlantic being done in an A320. It's maximum range is about the same as the distance from Cork to Boston, but maximum ranges are assuming you run the tanks dry, which is hardly acceptable practice!

So, with the Atlantic headwind, you're either going to have to tech stop or massively reduce the payload. Either would destroy the economics of the operation.

An A319 could do transatlantic from Cork, but Aer Lingus don't have any and I'd still question the economics of such an operation.

A B757 is probably the optimum aircraft for ORK New York or SNN New York as well if it is to sustain year round operations.

A 319 would be very dependent on business traffic and no low cost fares would be on sale.

With BMI's annoucement that it is to reduce (halve?) frequency on LHR-DUB, then it is extremely likely that EI will use these "spare" LHR slots to add in extra DUB frequency.

I wonder whether the recent addition of the fourth daily BFS-LHR might also be reversed...?

FR907/8
 

FR907/8 no longer in the Ryanair booking engine. Somethings up as surely Ryanair don't want to concede even more market share to Aerlingus.

Day returns will no longer be possible unless you want to be back in Cork for 6.pm.

Hardly suitable if you want to do a days work in London.

Ryanair Summer booking engine changes
 

Dublin is also down to 3 rotations on the days where there were previously 5 rotations: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. 1 Cork based aircraft rotation and 1 Dublin based aircraft rotation gone...
Sunday and Wednesday are down to a single rotation.
Saturday has 2 rotations (no change I think...)

So at a quick glance Cork to Stansted is being reduced from 19 weekly to 12 weekly. Cork - Dublin from 29 weekly to 15 weekly.

But also: Dublin - Beauvais from 14 weekly to 10 weekly, Dublin - Charleroi from 12 weekly to 6 weekly, etc.
I think Ryanair are about to announce "€10 Tourist tax is forcing us cull services at our Irish bases", and then we have to wait and see if they'll follow through on this :ouch:

I think Wed, Sat and Sun are the days Carcassonne (can't spell that!!) operates, so the lower number of DUB services on those days make sense.

Surprise, surprise, Ryanair will increase frequency on LGW and probably give seats away quite cheaply. Schedule-wise it looks like more LGW and less DUB. Weekdays should look something like along the lines of
FR 9852 ORK 1310 LGW 1445
FR 9853 LGW 1505 ORK 1630

FR 9854 ORK 2005 LGW 2140
FR 9855 LGW 2220 ORK 2355

Im guessing it will be once daily evening service on a Saturday and an afternoon and evening service on a Sunday. Strangely Aer Lingus do not plan to fly evening weekend services.

FR 9842 ORK 0740 DUB 0830
FR 9843 DUB 0855 ORK 0945

FR 9844 ORK 1010 DUB 1100
FR 9845 DUB 1135 ORK 1225

FR 9846 ORK 1705 DUB 1755
FR 9847 DUB 1820 ORK 1910

Im not sure if RE would be able to take advantage of this in any way, FR seem to have most of the bases covered. Perhaps an 1830 departure from ORK with a 1950ish departure from DUB might be useful though.

The block time Ryanair use at present for ORK-LGW is 85 minutes so fitting in with the Dublin rotations I'd imagine the flight times will be:
FR 9852 ORK 1255 LGW 1420
FR 9853 LGW 1450 ORK 1615

FR 9854 ORK 1935 LGW 2100
FR 9855 LGW 2130 LGW 2255

I'd imagine that a Dublin aircrat will operate at least 1 extra rotations on a Wednesday to make up for the fact that the Cork based aircraft will be operating to Carcassonne in the morning.

So overall things will be roughly unchanged from last summer with 10 flights a day from Cork to London. In summer 2009 there were 9; Heathrow 5 Daily A321, Stansted 3 Daily B738 and Gatwick 1 daily B738. Summer 2010 will be; Heathrow 4 daily A320, Gatwick 4 Daily A320/B738 and Stansted 2 Daily B738. The extra rotation will be pretty much negatted by the downgrade of Heathrow flights from an A321 to an A320.

It's a pity to see Cork-Dublin reduced but it was inevitable given the loads they were getting with the 5 daily service. Hopefully loads and yields should improve so there won't be as much of an impact on overall passenger figures.

Yep, Aer Lingus will have this market pretty much sewn up with their LHR and LGW timetables. Ryanair's will be useless for day returns unless you travel into and out of different airports.

I've just checked the booking engine and its showing up as twice daily 7 days a week, with morning and evening services every day.

EI must have added afternoon service on Sat and Sun to the booking engine, probably an omission/oversight.

Im not sure what the story is with the FR schedules. The one I posted for the LGW early afternoon service was copied directly from the Ryanair booking engine. Things are obviously changing pretty often on the LGW route at the minute.

Brian.

A young Dutch lad has posted a trip report on airliners about his and his pal's adventures flying EI and RE from AMS-ORK-LHR-DUB-ORK-AMS. Our young hero's main goal was to get to fly the EI A321 which he duely did. What is interesting from the Airlines, Airports & Routes point of view is how much he liked the new terminal at Cork on the one hand but on the other he notes more than once how Cork Airport must be the most expensive airport he has ever visited and he mentions twice on how dear grub was at Cork both on landside and on airside.

Destructive local greed spoiling the good name of Cork Airport.

>>Destructive local greed spoiling the good name of Cork Airport.<<

+1, during my recent enforced stay I found it much cheaper to eat in the Int'l Hotel!!

e.g. €30+ for two breakfasts.... :eek:

Bye, Barry

Cork Prices.
 

No wonder the restuarants are nearly empty. By the way the new private Car Park near Farmers' Cross is doing great business as its cheaper than the airport car parks..

car park prices
 

sorry guys you cant bitch all day about car parking prices and then pretend to be loyal supporters of Cork Airport...we live in a recession and remember last recession of 1980s...eg Gatwick made profit from selling duty free and car parks...the guy across the road will be gone next summer but Cork airport with all its faults will still be there....

ORK
 

Rumours abound about a new route from Cork being announced shortly but I'm not sure about it being GLA. Supporters of the airport should be concerned about high Car Park charges as that's the sort of thing that drives customers away.

Airports' should also look at their cost structures,staffing levels, work practices etc when trying to make ends meet. Hiking up charges can be counter productive.

:ok: You can now get a cooked 'mini breakfast' for a fiver at the airside sports bar. Not too bad, even if tea/coffee isn't included.

Reports suggest more competition for Aerlingus at Cork this summer if my sources are correct.