It had to be a fairly light 737-500 at that, but I do remember being on one with about 45 passengers that got off to Amsterdam that way about 15 years ago.

Good news and bad news on the Zurich flights

The bad news is that the start date seems to now be 17-April, a little later than we thought.

The good news is that they go straight to 4x weekly then and that flights are at good times for connections apart from the Sunday flight. They are also showing at realistic prices, which should increase confidence that this is a timetable they Swiss expect to operate.

Air France are switching aircraft from an E170 to and E190 for the CDG route. Hopefully this is a sign it's going well. Perhaps the next year is a time to let this level of capacity bed in, but it would be great if some extra rotations were added as CDG would really start becoming an alternative hub to Heathrow and Amsterdam (although I'd always prefer to spend time in Schiphol than the other two).

Initial two new routes from EI for Summer 2019 are Dubrovnik, Croatia (2 weekly) and the return of Nice, France (2 weekly) - Both begin early May 2019.

Nice is no great surprise. Dubrovnik is more of a surprise; I had expected Rome to be the other one.

From the current timetable, it looks like SNN-AGP and SNN-FAO won't be operated by a Cork-based aircraft this year. However, it doesn't really fit the timings out of Dublin or Belfast either. Now there were rumours of an ASL 737 (although as far as I can see they only have freighters available) operating some services. Base that in Malage for the summer and all sorts of extra capacity could be brought in to any one of Cork, Dublin or Belfast.

What all that means, in a convulted way, is that it may not be a case of dropping some existing rotations to introduce the routes.

Regarding Ryanair, anyone know when we will hear more about Bordeaux, Carcassonne, Reus and Girona?

There appears to be no extra Thursday flight to BCN next summer, just those awful timed flights on Mo We Fr & Su

Dubrovnik is an interesting add, its a brilliant destination. I'm always surprised NCE didn't survive the recession, Im think it was daily at one stage.

The SNN sun routes schedule is certainly only part of the story, clearly the public schedule isn't the full version. It suggests that an aircraft is based at both AGP and FAO - unless EI are planning for a return to Dublin/ORK/BHD after midnight local time? The Belfast flights are already noted as being operated by ASL, if EI are wet-leasing there is time to finalise the operator/schedule.

There's already a scheduled 23:55 AGP-DUB, so they are more than willing to operate that late. However, that is the return working of a 19:15 DUB-AGP, so it doesn't allow for the Shannon timings.

I was also surprised that Nice was cut entirely. Not sure it was ever daily, but it was year-round with reasonable usage for ski traffic to Méribel, La Plagne, Les Arcs, Alpe d'Huez etc.

However, so many destinations in Cork run into the problem of being viable when the route incentives are in place, but when those expire, an airline can use the same aircraft more profitably on a different route with full incentives. The design of the current scheme doesn't really encourage stability. It's why we see routes like Nice and Lisbon back after a hiatus and why I'd thought it might be time for Rome's return.

I'm not sure what is with the pedantics of FR's seasonal routes to BOD/CCF/GRO/REU, they weren't released for sale again one year until early Jan! They will be back. NCE was axed after FR jumped on SNN-NCE (didn't last long), the route was never daily from my memory it reached a peak during the boom of nearly 4pw before staying at 3pw when it went to seasonal. This thread is depressing it seems with any positive steps, there's an angle too look for a negative. EI will grow weekly services in S19 as will other airlines in Cork, its a positive story.

How many aircraft do EI have based in Cork? 2?

RE Aer Lingus and the ASL 737s, They have already acquired 2 737-400s from Blue Air that are currently in SNN.They will be ferried to the US for the winter before coming back. Im led to believe theres a 3rd to come but not sure yet

Indeed, the flights are currently crewed from the US, I think. Without some sort of seasonal crew base at Cork/Shannon I don't think such routes would be likely. On the other hand 4 times weekly summer destinations from Cork and Shannon, to the sun, you would imagine there would be a reasonable list.
Its not like Norwegian is afraid of slightly unusual routes, they serve some seasonal destinations in the Caribbean from JFK with 737s - they are French Islands, so in the EU, how odd/creative.

Rome anyone?

The missing Ryanair destinations in Italy, France and Spain are now loaded.

They run from the start of June to the end of August.

I think that may be marginally longer than last year, but am open to correction

All are twice weekly, except Reus, which is three times weekly.

Seems that the AF CDG flight is changing to a morning flight on Cityjet from next summer. It's a pity that that flight isn't in addition to the existing flight.

AF W19
 

AF is on sale for W19, back to Hop and the evening schedule

It's a bit too early to have passenger numbers, but the fares being charged next Spring compare favourably with destinations like Barcelona, Malaga and Faro.