Hearing runours of good news on Wednesday, nothing amazing but noteworthy at the least.

An additional summer bucket and spade route or two, I guess. Maybe a winter once weekly Geneva?

Perhaps just replacing another bucket and spade route.

Seeing that a similar post went up in the Shannon thread, I wonder if it could be a based Aer Lingus Regional aircraft in Shannon, which would mean no more Ws out of Cork, so a bit of solid if unspectacular growth on UK routes.

Tomorrow is to do with EI, And it is Ryanair

For early flights it's still a haul to get to Dublin in time - even more so if you have to deal with the American formalities. The tunnel has made a huge difference in accessing Shannon but the Buttevant-Charleville situation needs sorting. Unfortunately the powers that be are insisting it be a motorway rather than decent relief roads. I came down from Shannon a few weeks ago - after 15 years in Canada the N20 south of Croom is largely unchanged. We were stuck in Charleville traffic for ages because there was an event in the town square. Ludicrous.

So with tomorrow today being yesterday, what was the news?

Cork-Budapest from 4th of April next year operating on Thursdays and Sundays, bookable on FR website.

Seems to be a Cork-based aircraft on a Thursday and a Budapest-based one on an Sunday.

At the press conference, it was also announced that Ryanair will be training 450 pilots through Atlantic Flight Training.

The Thursday slot is currently used by BGY, so I wonder what will happen there. BGY isn't yet for sale, so it might not be coming back next year?

2019 is looking like a decent year for the airport with BUD, MLA, LTN all added, PVD will be back as well. There may be some more announcements from EI and EIR, I suppose. On the negative side BGY appears uncertain, but with Volotea to VRN ORK is still connected to the region.

''The ramp-up of Ryanair operations has not gone unnoticed by Aer Lingus.

The IAG-owned airline is planning to combat Ryanair’s bid for Cork Airport domination by extending its own services in the coming months.

When asked by travel industry figures this week if it was committed to expanding in Cork, Aer Lingus chief executive Stephen Kavanagh was bullish,

He said Aer Lingus would be making announcements in the coming weeks focusing on expansion in mainly European cities.''

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breaki...on-869126.html

I have to wonder what Stobart's plans are with the 2 E-195's they are pulling out of Southend.

Its odd because some E195 routes continue into the summer. The E195s are relatively high cost aircraft and seem to be relatively troublesome. With their costs, Im not sure they are an ideal aircraft for Cork, but I think they are the right size.

Their apparent unreliability might be slightly skewed as one poster seems to take great joy reporting the smallest delay. I wonder if Stobart might sell their Southend flights through Ryanair - like Air Malta now do, I can't see them offering flights in their own right if the flyBe franchise ends.

If an E195 was moved to Cork, you’d think it’s biggest use to Stobart would be on MAN followed by BHX. It could create extra capacity and shorter sector times on a couple of business friendly routes where yield might help offset the operating costs. It’s hard to think of which new European routes would suit. AMS or CDG at higher frequency in an E195 would work, but can’t see Aer Lingus going for they are profitable in house and would mean feeding a ln IAG competitor hub.

You’d think BGY shouldn’t be in too much trouble considering the loads and what the yields appear to be (guessing from the fares charged). It is, of course, a significant base with plenty of scope to operate a rotation. However, route supports have run out, so that does reduce profits.

FAO is on sale at new times for 2019 and they have not included the W to SNN in schedules, AGP is partly on sale but current indications are SNN-FAO/AGP may be axed (on sale ex DUB/ORK/BHD). If that is correct thats an extra 7 (6 hour +) rotations.

LX, AF, IB, DY, FR, EI, V7 - daa have really turned the screws on Shannon.