flyBe have got CWL for sale through winter twice weekly with an E175. Given that the base at CWL is being downsized I think that is a very good result for the airport.

More positively, it does seem to be confirmed for summer 2020.

It was perhaps no surprise that Winter went as both EI and AF went down to 5x weekly.

It will be interesting to see if EI go back to daily now.

And there was me expecting to see reductions in those routes...

Any idea if it may take over some of the year-round routes like Budapest or Malta as it would be chronically under-utilized if restricted to those routes that were operated by aircraft based in other bases.

A small amount of additional capacity announced yesterday.

TUI will operate to Lanzarote next year, because what Cork Airport really needed was even more flights to Lanzarote. It will operate once a week on a Sunday and is directly bookable, although the prices are such at the moment that nobody will select it over Ryanair or Aer Lingus. I presume when they get a handle on how many packages are sold, they may discount the flight at the last minute.

Also, Swiss will operate an even longer season to Zurich next year. It will be 30 weeks as opposed to the 27 weeks this year. It's not going to set the passenger numbers on fire, but it's good to see the route continually strengthening.

I don't think there are any non-charter ski destinations from Cork?

I suppose Katowice could be used for skiing in Zakopane, but Poland seems to be a bit off the agenda in Ireland when it comes to skiing destinations.

There are a few routes that are served in Summer that could provide access to ski resorts in Winter - Zurich, Barcelona, Carcassonne, Nice, Bergamo. There could be an opportunity to work with tour operators to make one year-round, but none are ideal. The last four are all 3+ hours from the nearest ski resort, while everything in Switzerland is so expensive, it makes it unattractive for most people looking for a ski holiday.

Geographically GVA is good for access to the French Alps, airports like Lyon and Nice are good too. Toulouse and Barcelona are, more or less, equidistant for the Pyrenees. Innsbruck for the Tyrol is a good option too. It seems that there isn't a strong enough market from Cork. Its a shame because the 2+ hour drive to Dublin and the ~2-3 hour transfer to most resorts adds up.

From Carcassonne you have 5 ski resorts (around 1h30-2h) Les Monts d'Olmes , Camurac , Ax 3 domaines , Puyvalador and Formiguères ! it's not expensive and very nice ski resort !

A few months after canning the route for the Winter, Air France have announced that they will be going double-daily on Cork-Paris next year.

I haven't seen a timetable yet, but what has been said implies there will be an aircraft overnighting in Cork, with an early morning departure.

Unless Aer Lingus cut capacity as a reaction, it looks like Paris will become the largest non-London route out of Cork in passenger numbers. Manchester might just stay ahead on frequency depending on what timetable is actually revealed.

Flight schedule now available as I was writing the post...

AF9465 ORK-CDG 06:25 09:10
AF1094 CDG-ORK 12:50 13:40
AF1095 ORK-CDG 14:20 17:05
AF9464 CDG-ORK 20:45 21:35

I see that Lauda have announced an SNN-VIE route this morning, in fairness I think the AF announcement is better!

This is great news. I couldn't help but think the winter suspension was the end of the road for the route. The proposed timetable is pretty good for connections both east and west bound.
The overnight AF9465 seems to be a HOP! 190 while the Mon-Fri AF1094 is a HOP/170, with a 190 on Saturday and Sunday.

Nearly 4K seats a week between Cork and Paris in Winter was just too damaging to yield. Last Winter both AF and EI dropped back to 5x weekly and then AF blinked first.

That amount is fine in summer. With this announcement, it will be up over 5K, which doesn't look all that sustainable. However, it could be a sign that AF will test EI's resolve on the route.

It's worth remembering that none of the flights are getting any kind of start up deal as EI are too long established on the route and the promotions don't apply to a new carrier on a pre-existing route.

What's really not needed is for Ryanair to get involved with a route from Cork (or anywhere else in Munster for that matter) to Beauvais, so that is probably inevitable.

Both the Shannon announcement and this one are good news as they will both bring strong inbound tourism flows, while the AF one also makes CDG a really viable transfer option from Cork. Definitely better than yet another rotation to Lanzarote, which seems to be getting as frequent as the bus to the city centre.

In non-route news, it seems that Bus Eireann will introduce a twice-hourly bus route to Carrigaline next month.

Probably good news for those who work at the airport and the next-door business park, but probably won't do much for passenger numbers. It's more bus services to places that are 80km-120km away that would do that.

Glad to hear that Cork will have good connectivity with 3 major European hubs, LHR, AMS and CDG with the recent Air France announcement.
Still a little surprised that Stobart hasn't come back on the Dublin route though.
The main focus for the DAA in Cork should be to get at least one major carrier on transatlantic routes from 2020 onwards.
All the carriers flying between the USA and Shannon operate the 757, an aircraft perfect for Cork's short 7,000ft runway.
The DAA should encourage Aer Lingus to relocate their 757 US operations from Shannon to Cork or at least one of the US carriers, United, Delta or American to relocate their US services to Cork where they could operate a year round 757 services instead of just seasonal services to Shannon and with zero competition too!

Indeed but Dublin loses out as business travellers fly into and out of Cork via LHR, AMS or CDG.

No doubt they have, but airlines go where the demand is, and Shannon has an established TATL market.