CORK

[neidin]

Good News - Seems Aer Lingus have quietly been having the PCN and ACN runway ratings checked at ORK to see if they can op a 330 to JFK ex ORK to challenge the new entrants. How daft - 300+ seats to New York from ORK. Daft.

Bad News - the Malev loads to Budapest are very poor and Malev feel that no effort is being made to help them by ORK airport mgt. They may pull it as soon as Autumn. They also not so happy about being left on distant stands.

Good News - Current Chairman Gantly is going to get shafted by Fianna Fail. He is creating lots of potential unfair dismissal cases with the local staff. Sad that he also recently collapsed on a flight returning from a holiday. Hope he gets better soon but takes a breather from ORK board - if you can't stand the heat.....

Bad News - Major changes on cards for Aer Arann services in Autumn 2005 ex ORK. They are really fed up of the way they are being treated - being parked out on the old short runway etc... Uk routes losing shedloads of cash. BHX is crap. Major changes afoot.

Good News - Ryanair looking at new service DUB-ORK just to hammer RE for PSO debacle. That will teach them a lesson.

Bad News - no sign of a replacement for John Smyth.

[Centre cities]

Perhaps Baby have something to do with the Cork birmingham loads, plus Coventry pulling pax a little thin in that area.

Centre cities

[TwoDeadDogs]

Hi all
Why would Ryanair "punish" RE for operating the DUB-ORK route? Ryanair hadn't a ghost of a chance of ever getting a PSO. As for using remote stands,it's up to RE to kick ass and take names if they feel they are getting short-changed.
Maybe the Hungarian Tourist Board need to spend a few quid touting their wares in Cork.If they have a few cheap apartments for sale...
regards
TDD

[MarkD]

With Malev joining oneworld, it will be interesting to see if co-operation with EI leads to service changes.

[Tom the Tenor]

I had a look at the Pavement Classification Numbers and the Aircraft Classification Numbers a number of months ago when a very large Jepp book came my way.

Looks only just barely within limits with ORK-JFK kinds of weights. Sure, EI would be the most credible on a Cork New York but with an A330? No way, boy, as they'd say in Cork. The wrong aeroplane. Too many seats to fill.

Malev are picking up a little. Their billboards ads locally are appearing again - it would need to be something more though than just a photo of an airliner meal and an upside down Budapest travel guide! Yes, they must be mad as hell at having to park in Togher especially when they see CSA parking in stands two and three!

Hope Mr Gantley is feeling better soon. Sure enough, Cork Airport is a tormenting sort of place. Sure, it has me driven half cracked!

Aer Arann are no longer parking their aircraft on runway 25 overnight at the weekends. The practice ended last weekend. Nothing wrong with the South Ramp for parking if so needed?

Ryanair Cork - Dublin? Interesting! Base an aircraft at Cork and start a whole series of new routes? Nice in theory and ORK-DUB would be another good source of hours building for new low hours FR pilots? But in practise not so sure?

WW BHX is beginning to outperform EMA. Cant see the two routes continuing being timed so closely together every evening.

Cork Airport continues to remain in a sorry state since John Smyth's departure. Agreed, this is the worst negative.

Malev have good connections to China. Would make a good marketing strong point to have an EI codeshare via BUD to Bejing and Shanghai?

[jetsetterbfs]

I worked with First Choice Airways last year in Cork and the parking situation for us was pretty poor. We were frequently stuck right down at the end of the apron next to the Cargo buildings. Seemed a bit crap seeing we were the only based charter airline in the airport, yet Futura and Spanair got parked right beside the terminal. It wasn't very pleasant for our customers to have to run in the howling wind and rain just to get onto the aircraft.

And we wonder why FCA didn't go back to Cork this year...

[MarkD]

Can't help but feel that if this is how EI are thinking, a wingleted 757 is the answer, together with a few more for SNN services, with the entire 330 fleet being kept in Dublin. Either that or some 310s if cargo is a requirement. bmi are replacing their 330 MAN-IAD with a leased 757 because they want to expand LHR services.

The more I see CO make use of them the more I like the idea for non-DUB services. The A320/321 don't have the legs and a 319 seems a bit small for a JFK run unless it was configured mostly business class in a semi-LH/Privatair kind of way - and niche ex Cork didn't really work out for Jetmagic.

As for pilots for these 310s/757s - have the 146 pilots been sorted yet?

[840]

A few observations:-

- It's not greatly surprising Malev's early loads are poor. They only started selling tickets in February. People won't have made plans to travel on a service that didn't seem to exist. Hopefully, loads will start picking up now.

- Would Aer Lingus code-share with Malev now that they are coming into OneWorld? Personally, I doubt it. I see no benefit for them. How will Malev's entry to OneWorld affect the Dublin-Budapest market where both operate?

- If Aer Arann are getting hurt on Birmingham by BMIBaby, is there any possibility of them taking an arrangement like Air Wales have on the Cardiff route?

- Is DUB-ORK going to continue being a money-spinner for Aer Arann even without Ryanair's involvement? With the improvement in the rail service planned for the fourth quarter of this year, it will be difficult to justify flying to Dublin unless taking a connecting flight or travelling to somewhere very near Dublin Airport. Scarily, Irish Rail have a better record for punctuality than Aer Arann.

- Will Cork ever consider getting buses? A lot of people have mentioned how far the remote stands are from the terminal. Otherwise, I spent 25 minutes waiting to get off EI845 last Friday because they didn't want us to walk to the terminal when other aircraft were manoeuvring.

[Tom the Tenor]

Cork Airport likes to pin the blame for having no buses back on the airlines instead of the airport itself getting involved in providing buses. A tongue in cheek sort of attitude if there ever was one? I bet if Shannon wanted a few buses....

However, the latest is that Cork is to provide covered walkways along the pedestrain paths to the stands. It is a start and is something that would not have been acceded to except for agitation? Cheaper too than buying buses and paying wages to drivers, no doubt!

I just cannot help wondering how long the covered walkways will last at Cork in gusts of 50 plus knots!

[terrier21]

If Bhx-Ork loads are So Bad why don't they operate a BHX-BRS-ORK once a day giving BRS and ORK the needed route people are begging for also you may find a few pax for the BRS-BHX sector

[fuelsurcharge]

Does anyone know anything about the new entrants for the ORK-JFK - what are Slatterys like - are these the same that are doing the DUB-CPT?? Will Aer Lingus move in on to the route now that they have started it?

[Tom the Tenor]

Slatterys have been on the go for decades. They are a Tralee, Co Kerry based company and their reputation is generally good. Among other things they would have been well known in the 1980s for the Tralee, Cork coach service via the ferry at Rosslare-Pembroke to London. Remember, these were the days of massively high Aer Lingus and British Airways fares between Ireland and London and the bleeding heart from EI saying the huge price was as low as the price could possibly be!

Many's the emigrating Paddy from the south Munster area would have used the coach and ferry serivce in the eighties heading off to London when the Irish economy was really in a bad, bad way. The thing is a lot of those emigrants have now returned, a lot of whom are now doing well and will be easily able to try the Slatterys organised charter to New York.

There are regular ads in the local media in Cork promoting the New York service so the concept is certainly forming in people's imagination. By launch date Cork, her airport and her people along with the neighbouring travelling public from elsewhere in the south Munster area will be ready and at long last the Shannon stranglehold on the North Atlantic will be brought to an end.

As much as it would be attractive EI may look at the PCNs and ACNs all they like but it is hard to see full A330s flying out of Cork to New York. A 757 or perhaps a 767-200 service is more credible.

Yes, Slatterys are the operator for Dublin-Cape Town.

[lowfaresbuster]

from Breakingnews.ie (http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/06/01/story205201.html)

Ryanair in talks on new Cork flights

01/06/2005 - 15:06:43

Ryanair has opened talks with the Cork Airport Authority to see if a deal can be struck to open up cheap flights to destinations on mainland Europe.

Michael Cawley, the deputy chief executive of the budget airline, told the Evening Echo a new route had been opened up to Liverpool out of Cork and there was a lot more passenger capacity on the London route.

“We are in discussions with the airport. The new management is very good and they are obviously busy getting the new terminal organised.”

Mr Cawley, originally from the South Douglas Road in the city, said he hoped that when the new terminal is up and running, management at Cork Airport will come up with a landing charge package to entice Ryanair to open scheduled services to France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Scandinavian countries.

Mr Cawley said any decision to open a hub at Cork would all depend on costs.

“If there was a suitable cost structure in place, we would be very keen to do it,” he said.

If a discount deal could be done on landing charges, Mr Cawley predicted Ryanair would fly as many routes from Cork as it does from Shannon — to between 12 and 14 destinations.

“I would be very hopeful it will come about.”

The average price of a one-way ticket with Ryanair is now down to €40.

Mr Cawley denied reports it was considering going head to head with Aer Arann on the busy Cork-Dublin commuter air service.

“We will not be doing it at the moment. I’d never say never — but not in the next couple of years,” added Mr Cawley.

[840]

Is it a coincidence that Michael Cawley said this the day after the story about landing fees in Dublin going up by 40%?

I'd like to think not, but I can't quite convince myself.

[Tom the Tenor]

The opening quote from Mr Cawley is comic.

Now, if FR wish to try new routes from Cork that is fine but let them be genuinely new routes and not a spineless cut at trying to destroy Cork's good routes by going to places like BVA etc.

A lot of hard work has gone in to getting some of Cork's continental routes up and running over the last number of years and it would be deplorable if any Cork airport management be it new, old or whatever did any kind of deal with Ryanair that would harm any of Cork Airport's more choice destinations.

It would be an insult to the hard work all ready done by Mr John Smyth.

I should hope Cork is not for sale in the same way Shannon is and that no suicide deals are entered in to with Ryanair. Remeber, the only reason FR went back up to 4 daily on Cork - Stansted was because easyJet started LGW - Cork. They were quick enough to dump that fourth Stansted service when it did not suit.

Ryanair's Mr Cawley would need to remember that words are cheap and actions speak louder than words.

[riverrock]

Why may I ask does everyone assume that just because John Smyth has left Cork Airport that the place is going to fall down? Is there nobody else there capable of doing the job?
:confused:

[Tom the Tenor]

Is there nobody else there capable of doing the job?

Good question.

No.

Again, actions speak louder than words. Still no replacement for John Smyth and if trying to make any kind of funny deal with FR is as far as Cork has come since Mr Smyth's departure that speaks volumes? Another thread has news of EZY announcing new routes ex Belfast and from other airports on the British mainland at frequencies of two and three per week. Great news I am sure. The kind of deals Cork may have been in line for with easy if the cat had not been let out of the bag to the Sunday Tribune?

[neidin]

Rumour has it that J.Smyth may be returning to COrk Airport in not too distant future. NOC NOC.

[840]

I've been told that the real reason we were held on EI845 for 25 minutes was because there was a number of flights in at the same time, it was raining and the immigration queues were already stretching out of the terminal building onto the apron.

If this is true, the sooner the new terminal opens the better.

[Tom the Tenor]

There was one hell of a letter in yesterday's edition of the Cork based broadsheet daily newspaper, Irish Examiner, from a Canadian visitor about their recent experience at Cork Airport.

I have no idea on how to create links etc so I type out in full. The letter speaks for itself:-

"Dear Sir,

We read all the time about the chaos at Dublin Airport but have you experienced the chaos at Cork Airport?

I arrived into this shamble of an airport at 9.15 pm, after walking 300m in the rain from the plane. It was dusk and hard to see equipment which was left all over the place.

Then were arrived at immigration, which had long queues out onto the ramp - with passengers all standing out in the rain.

Once inside, there are only two baggage belts, with people running from one to the other - chaos.

I sought a manager but none was available. 'He left,' I was told. I wonder why - he must have seen the chaos.

They told me they were building a new airport - I only hope it is miles away from this one. From what I saw, parking also seems to be a nightmare, and any type of planning seems to be non-existent. In addition, doors to the building were blocked by people smoking and the place was filthy.

How can people invest in Cork if its airport is so bad? I will avoid Cork Airport in the future.

Jonathan Zdilla
Lakehead University
Thunder Bay
Ontario P7B 5EI
Canada."

None of this kind of above history happens overnight. There has been decades and decades of neglect at Cork Airport. A certain kind of attitude prevailed where the place was hardly looked on as an airport at all. Nationally and locally the focus was all Shannon. Whatever Shannon wanted Shannon got.

Look at all the recent fuss at Cork about a couple of airbridges?

Cork Airport did not matter in the mindset of protecting Shannon at all costs.

Cork Airport was screwed big time.

[Tom the Tenor]

Cork Airport suffered other major upsets today.

This morning's Pegasus flight from Bodrum diverted to Shannon as the RVR was 250 metres being below Cork's CATII minima. Shortly after the weather improved but the pax were still bused to Shannon after a long wait for coaches. From an update received this pm there was a lot of anger among the outbound Bodrum pax likely due to all other traffic landing shortly after the PGT diverting and it did indeed get very busy with many FUA, EI, FR, JKK, BACX, and even RE landing successfully without problem.

Midnight's outbound Zakyntos Eirjet did not operate until around 11.30 am today. The flight was operated by a North American 757 which has been working ex Cork since Thursday by Eirjet and with the crew needing sleep the ZAK could not operate until around 11.30 am.

The later outbound EIR Malaga flight was then subject to the knock on effect of a long delay. A decision was made to bus the pax to snn to coincide with an outbound snn-agp flight. I understand there was a furious reaction from the passengers to this news. At last it looks like some Cork passengers stuck up for themselves and were not ready to be treated as second class.

Fortunately, it proved impossible to find any coaches to undertake the job of driving to snn so in the end EIR had to hire in an Air Luxor A330-300. She positioned in empty from Lisbon and eventually left Cork for Shannon around 8 pm to collect the snn pax before then continuing on to destination at Malaga.

The crew rest issue was the sting in the tail today for Eirjet.

I am curious to know what the outcome of the EIR Cork bound pax will be later tonight!

The ramp looked chaotic today regularly with pax milling about everywhere. The pedestrian pathways near the baggage out area was cluttered all the time with bag carts and pax were having to jump out of the way in order not to get knocked down. Pax were boarding the wrong aircraft and there were so many orange dayglo jackets around you would be dazzled!

It would be so much cheaper to have a few buses for helping boarding and cheaper too than paying wages to so many orange glowing new faces?

Even when the new terminal is in use next summer passengers are still going to be all up in a heap on the Cork ramp when a few ITs are around?

[neidin]

Any update on the return of John Smyth Tom.

[WHBM]

I've used Cork many times over the years and went through again last Friday (June 3). Although the building is the same as a few years ago it has obviously been "let go" and seemed a mess. The baggage belts are covered with more sticky baggage labels than I think I have ever seen before - the excuse of "new terminal next year" is surely no excuse for not cleaning them now. Likewise the buffet upstairs - just not kept tidy.

Outside the terminal in the mess of new roads the temporary signage to the Great Southern Hotel was pointing in the wrong direction which wasted 10 minutes of our time (but unfortunately for an airport hotel it's not worth the walk).

On what must have been one of the busiest evenings of the year so far one of the two security stations had broken down although the staff on the spot were trying to be making the best of the situation, speaking pleasantly and competently to everyone (contrast to Dublin). We even were in the minority who got an apology (possibly because of being in a suit) for the queue from the security pre-screener. When you compare the squitty little area allocated to security, and the far larger space alloted to selling plastic Leprechauns, you have to wonder what business airports are actually in.

[Tom the Tenor]

Sure enough, there was a sequel to the EIR Cork bound flight from Malaga and it is now time to give the authorities at Cork a little praise. Yes, praise!

The flight was flown by an Excel Boeing 737-800 and she arrived at Cork at the early hour of 5 am. The aeroplane went tech and there were no staff around to handle her and it was left to two Cork Airport Duty Officers to unload all the bags!

Now, this action was certainly above and beyond the call for the two Duty Officers and it is hats off for helping out today. I hope both are suitably rewarded for this extraordinarily kind gesture.

There could have been little argument from the Excel flight crew if it had been left for them if no handler was around?

What does this say about Circusair at Cork? Today is a public holiday in Ireland so that would mean double pay at least and why was it so difficult to get some people to work this morning? Hmmm!

Why is there not a second handler at Cork Airport?

[840]

Does Aer Lingus not operate its own handling at Cork Airport?

[riverrock]

John Smyth has no intention of returning to ORK. He realises what many don't.. that its time to move on. there's only so much any one person can do in one place. Maybe its time for someone fresh to take over anyway... any candidates within the airport? surely he didn't work by himself??!

[MarkD]

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1415797&issue_id=12616

[lowfaresbuster]

for those of you who cannot be bothered registering for Unison to see the story that MarkD entered, here is the text


Man pleads guilty to firearm possession at airport


A MAN pleaded guilty yesterday to possessing a firearm at Cork Airport as he prepared to board a flight for London.

But Gary Coyne must now wait a month to see if a Cork District Court judge will deal with the case or refer it to a higher court.

Coyne (31), of Woodville, Rochestown, Cork was charged earlier this year that, contrary to the Air Navigation and Transport Act, he was in possession of an article which could be used as a weapon.

The weapon - a vintage revolver - was detected on April 5, 2004 as Coyne had his bags passed through an X-ray security machine. He was arrested by gardai and released without charge some time later.

Cork District Court earlier heard that the DPP required, in the absence of a plea, for the matter to be dealt with in the Circuit Court. However, if a plea was entered, the DPP agreed to allow the case be dealt with in the District Court.

The judge will rule on the matter on July 11. If sentencing is handled in the District Court, the 31-year old could face a fine of up to €1,200 and, or, up to three months in prison.

[LTNman]

A HOLIDAY dream turned sour for 200 travellers who were stranded at an airport for 24 hours.

The 200 passengers had been scheduled to fly from Cork to Lanzarote in the Canary islands with EirJet on Thursday evening but a combination of poor weather and technical issues led to the delay.

Yesterday morning, furious passengers contacted the Irish Independent and radio stations to voice their anger at the delay and the fact that some parents had to clean their children in airport toilets.

The plane had been scheduled to depart from Cork at 4.45pm on Thursday, but ended up leaving Cork shortly before 4pm yesterday. The airline, EirJet, blamed the delay on heavy fog at Cork airport.

EirJet denied passenger claims that the delay was related to pilot rest periods or the availability of aircraft. After an initial four-hour delay, accommodation was provided for passengers at the Sunset Ridge Hotel via holiday firm Falcon.

Plans for a 3am departure eventually fell through; passengers were then informed that the plane would leave before lunchtime yesterday.

Falcon stressed that its reps tried to address passenger concerns at Cork airport, such as providing accommodation. They worked all yesterday to help secure the delayed flight.

[Tom the Tenor]

I have not commented on the story above as I have not been able to keep in touch with the story over the last few days due to work and family committments.

However, it has once again been another disappointing weekend at Cork Airport due to weather and the lack of CATIII and diversions below CAT II minima. Also, one way or the other Eirjet have come in for heavy criticism for their operations out of Cork over the last number of weeks since May with many delays and hire ins etc and you can read the previous post to get a flavour of the story. Today, the delayed Eirjet flight from Reus diverted to Shannon around 5 am so mid morning they tried to bus Verona bound Cork passengers to snn for their flight.

That stunt failed after uproar in the departures hall at Cork Airport with many passengers refusing to board coaches to Shannon! It has been said some pax were being called bullies by a certain clown hiring company when the said pax would not meekly board for snn!

Well, it is hurrah for the bullies in this instance as Eirjet eventually agreed to bring the aircraft down from Shannon and the flight successfully operated out to her destination at Verona.

After tea the weather got bad again with lowering visibility. The first flight to divert was an Air Adriatic flight from either Dubovnik or Split, not sure where. All the London flights got in, thankfully but both Malev and Onur Air diverted to Dublin and Shannon respectively as the minima went below CATII. The EuroCypriot doing a Crete flight also diverted to Shannon as they needed a minima of 650 metres RVR. The returning Eirjet flight from Verona was also lost to Cork and she diverted to Shannon. An Aer Arann flight diverted also but to Kerry Airport at Farranfore.

A Spanish aircraft landed at Cork on a CATII approach just after midnight flying the EIR805 from Palma so at least the outbound pax should get out soon.

Cork Airport is this weekend once again lettering her passengers down. As usual the weather and low cloud will be blamed - a handy excuse indeed but it is all a load of rubbish isn't it?

Yet again, it is necessary to call for the installation of a CATIII approach at Cork Airport and without the silly excuses about cost, maintenance, the rad alt issue at the dip and the most stupid excuse of all that of a CATIII not being justified at Cork!

Can you believe this kind of utter tosh!? No where else in Ireland, Britain or Europe are passengers being dished out so much shabbiness by an airport. Perhaps some of tonight's lost flights at Cork would still have had to divert even if CATIII was installed but look at the huge numbers of flights that would be saved over the course of say, three, six, or twelve months? The saved revenue would easily help pay for maintenance etc for the installation?

It is time to save Cork Airport and to save what is left of her credibility as the most important international transport asset in the south Munster region of Ireland and if the people who are charged with managing Cork Airport are so not up to the task they should resign.

Cork Airport and her passengers deserve better - they deserve the best.

[LTNman]

Cat 3 required in Mid June? Does Cork get a summer?:cool: :cool: :cool:

[Tom the Tenor]

Good point LTN man. The very same question was posed yesterday morning by the landing FR901 pilot. It went somethinhg like - Everywhere else in Europe it is summer but not Cork to which the the ATCO replied - This is our usual summer!

Says it all?

The campaign to save Cork Airport and any remaining credibility she may still have begins here.

[eoinok]

Well in Cork during the winter it is the rain and bad weather, during the summer it is the fog!!!!

I dont have any stats bt just making an off the cuff remark, there seems to be more diversions in the summer than the winter???
I know there may be a higher volume with charters etc.....

As for cat III, yea it is defo needed but can only be installed on one side, due to the terrain falling away on the other side. Cant remember which one is 17 & 35.

But CAT III poses another question. How many operators flying into ORK are actually CAT III enabled?? Or even more important, their pilots are CAT III certified?? RE definatley are not anyway.....
I also think that some airlines SOP specifys CAT I approaches only! I think WW are the main culprits here as their SOP specifys cat I only due to the cranes up there for the new terminal being built??
Heard this myself Friday morning. A Baby trying to get in on CAT I but couldn't and went into a hold. Dunno what happened as I had to switch off the scanneer and go to work!!!

But I definately agree, if even only 1 in 4 diversions would be avoided by a cat III installation, would be well worth it....

[neidin]

Speaking at dinner on weekend with a senior Aer Lingus director. Seems all the new flights ex ORK with EI are perfroming badly and are being closely examined with likely major cuts. Rome and Munich are poor but Faro is apparently very low loads and yield. EI making decision mid July on this. They are rethinking complete strategy at ORK now and are getting little help from ORK management.

Bad news for Cork.

[840]

I'd heard that Munich and Faro were poor, but heard that Rome and Nice were doing OK. Also, the extra capacity on Amsterdam and Malaga was OK. My source would have been nowhere near as senior as the board of Aer Lingus though:D

I was a bit surprised they went for 3 flights a week to Munich and Faro considering these are only 1x daily routes from Dublin. Switching capacity to Alicante and Barcelona, which sell well, could be in order.

BTW I hear BMIBaby are cutting frequency to Cork this winter, including going down to 1x daily to Manchester. Anyone know more about this? The way BMIBaby have been treating the Manchester route makes me long to see the days of 3 expensive BA flights to Manchester return.

[Tom the Tenor]

Debate has been raging all morning on local radio (96 FM) about Eirjet operations out of Cork. Eirjet now being referred to as Onejet!

The Eirjet Zakynthos flight arrived at Cork about 11 am so all in all the passengers to and from ZAK were 14 hours late going and 25 hours late returning to Cork.

Yesterday's outbound AGP Eirjet passengers got away this morning around 9.25 am, some 23 hours late.

Cork TD (MP) Noel O'Flynn, FF, wants Eirjet investigated.

All of this poor operation by Eirjet towards Cork passengers is a huge disgrace and Eirjet are now deserving of nil credibility by anyone?

What is worse though is the harm being done as a result of the above on the name of Cork Airport. Eirjet blaming bad weather at Cork Airport for they not having enough capacity to meet all their committments is hollow and this line fools no one.

Cork Airport is also being brought down even more in the eyes of the travelling public by the goings on of Eirjet and Cork Airport needs to stand firm and to deal with this matter forcefully.

[123 O'Leary]

Dont know much about 'Onejet', but do know that the weather in Cork IS frequently a MAJOR problem.
If anybody is trying to operate a schedule using one aircraft with
regular visits to Cork, they better have a good 'back up plan'!
Certainly no excuse for not trying to source an alternative aircraft to get its schedule back on course, but until Cork sorted itself out
with regard to Cat 2 or 3 - i would avoid it like the plague!:*

[Tom the Tenor]

Well, the Eirjet flight from Izmir just landed back at Cork a few minutes ago. The flight had been due at 1910 hours local. Thankfully, the crew on the hired in Omni 757 did not go out of hours this time like they did at Zakyntos!

Eirjet had five different aeroplanes on the go around the same time on Monday evening operating out of Cork, dub, snn and Belfast.

That is some hire in bill?

[irishcc]

What other aircraft have they been using lately..?

Dublin has had the Aeroflight Airbus, and last weekend, had a Titan B757.

[DW11]

North American 752, White(Portugal) A310, Air Luxor A330, Travel Service 737, Spanair Md80, Slovak 752, Blueline Md80, Air Plus A310 and probably many more.

There are supposed to be two Eirjet A320's arriving from Hamburg soon, so hopefully they might put some sort of an operation together before the end of the summer.

[jetsetterbfs]

Such a shame.

Eirjet have taken over the majority of Falcon/JWT flights this summer from Cork and Shannon. Last year, First Choice Airways were operating these flights using a based A320, with Cork-based crew and Canadian Skyservice flight deck crew. The flights were a resounding success with the customers, gaining the highest satisfaction scores from FCA passengers across all of the company's bases, and also the highest onboard sales. The customers loved the crew and the onboard experience. Yes, there were some delays due to weather and the odd technical hitch, but no more than usual over a summer period.

Unfortunately, the company decided not to return to Cork this summer. Whether or not that was to do with Cork airport management (rumour has it there was no assistance from Aer Rianta in setting up the base, and that the airline was charged to the hilt from catering, rent etc. - bars had to be shipped from Shannon) or if it was a Falcon decision not to use FCA again, we don't know.

Certainly wouldn't have been the debacle of Eirjet though. I hope that Falcon don't lose any passengers over this.

[Tom the Tenor]

Things are going far better for Eirjet at Cork this weekend. Once again an Omni 757 has been hired in and got off more on less on time for Verona.

Later, this evening should see the arrival of an Aeroflight A321 for the flight to Crete. Eirjet were scurrying around like mad last night trying to grab up hotel accomodation for crews. ;)

It is now confirmed that Eirjet's next aircraft, A320, EI-DKG will be delivered on next Monday. The aircraft is ex 6Y-JMG of Air Jamaica and the aeroplane should be in the colours of her former operator so all the photographers should be well pleased.

Shows you what a week or two of agitation can achieve?? No more Onejet!

It has been an interesting week at Cork. The Canadian Prime Minister arrived in Cork on Wednesday evening aboard CanForce 1, an A310-300 of the Canadian Armed Forces for services at the 20th anniversary of the Air India disaster.

The Prime Minister stayed about 21 hours (!) in the Cork area before flying out again directly to Ottawa aboard the Canadian Forces A310-300, a great circle distance of 3,001 miles!

No problems there with the Cork runway! Would have had to take on about 35 tonnes of fuel or so at Cork for the flight to Ottawa?

Last Tuesday saw five bizjets in Cork around the same time. None overnighted. Cannot help thinking if Cork's policy of not welcoming corporate aircraft to overnight has anything to do with this state of affairs?

There must be a lot of revenue being lost to Cork Airport here when no bizjets are welcome to overnight? The kind of revenue that would help pay for an ILS CATIII and more ramp and parking space?

It is time to manage Cork Airport as a business and not the holiday camp it was for so many decades.

Jetsetter, last year some of the FCA/Skyservice flights ex snn had some Cork bars so it would have worked out even enough in the end.

Just got some bad news! It would have to happen. A Futura flight has gone tech in Las Palmas due out to Cork and the outbound pax ex Cork are what - being bussed to Shannon.

Just had to happen to Cork pax, didn't it!

[Tom the Tenor]

The latest is that Futura were to position in an aircraft from AGP at 1730 local to Cork to operate the FUA1216 out to Las Palmas to arrive back in Cork again at 0330.

Hope it works out. Weather becoming quite murky now again at Cork.

[jetsetterbfs]

Tom,

I hate to disagree, but ALL of the FCA bars from Cork last year were shipped from Shannon by road to Cork. There was no bonded warehouse facility available in Cork Airport for First Choice to use, so the only facility from Cork was Alpha Catering. At the start of the summer, bars were shipped down from Dublin, using FCA's bond there. An agreement was then reached with Aer Rianta Shannon to use the bonded store there.

Cheers.

[Tom the Tenor]

Thank you for your update, Jetsetter. The remarks in your original post about the bars were well talked about last week! It had been thought that snn were doing sweet deals with FCA but that some of the snn bars had come from Cork. Thanks for the correction.

The long days must have been pretty grim last year on days the crews were coached up for the duty ex snn?

At least we still have a FCA presence of sorts at Cork this summer on a Tuesday with the Canadian 757 crews on an inbound W from Palma and back out again.

The Aeroflight A321 was in the end not required at Cork as EIR brought in their own aeroplane, EI-DIJ.

Cork was unbelievably busy yesterday - it was great, of course, to bear witness to the drama of it all but might have been a kind of hell for the pax. The screening queue stretched back as far as the bar. Wonder might it have been Cork's busiest day yet?

Airport Policemen on point duty on some of the roundabouts doing a flow control! He, he!

[eoinok]

Well as I type here at 8.15pm it aint quiet up there either this Monday evening

Just out the back here soaking the sun and on the net.

For 3 minutes I thought I must have been in windsor on the flight path into LHR instead of the path into ORK.

In the afore mentioned time space 4 aircraft one after the other passed over on finals into ORK!!!

1 WW, strange looking 757 I think, strange looking 737-500 (i'd say 500 anyway) and a EI bus.

All I could think of the poor PAX waiting for their bags in the hall!!

[Tom the Tenor]

I heard a funny one at Cork yesterday. Watched a girl ask a spotter what was he doing as he got out his scanner and binoculars.

Well, young lady, says the spotter, we are spies for the CIA (Omni 757 on ramp at time!). Yez are not says she!

No, you're right, says the spotter, we are tuning in to Duffys Circus and it's all free entertainment!

[eoinok]

lol TTT!!!!!

Quick one for anyone here???

Was out for a walk after I posted my last post. Thought my eye sight was paying tricks on me but she spotted it as well. At night/dull evening I can see the runway approach lights and make out the bare top of the control tower from where we walk.

Whay ever way we looked we could see an aircraft manovering above at the airport!!!! Have never seen an aircraft up there from where we were, cuse obviously they are not big enough. But this was clear as day!!!

trying to figure out what it might have been?? 747??

It must have been something big to say that we could see it. Looking at the arrival/departures on the site. The only movement to me that may look out of place is this one?

BURGAS FB7491 27/06/2005 20:00 ARRIVED 2000

Any idea what sort of aircraft this was??

[metalboymike]

Saw eirjets new a/c at EIKN today in Air Jamaica colours.

looks great:ok:

Hopefully they'll get themselfs back on track.

[Tom the Tenor]

Significantly bad news on the way down the line for Cork Airport.

If evidence was needed that Cork is screwed without the presence of John Smyth it is now all there.

Are things are likely to get worse? Very likely!

Whom is in charge at Cork Airport? It seems as if there is little command or control?

Cork Airport has lost out a new route. Central Wings of Poland are to begin a new Warsaw to Shannon service later in the year.

This is a huge failure by Cork Airport and it's servants. Makes you wonder what other business is being lost?

Cork Airport now has next to nil credibility.

Cork Airport is a disgrace both physically and spiritually.

[eick320]

has anyone heard of new routes ex ork for winter 05 ? will aer lingus continue having 3 over-nighting aircraft , and if so where to ?

[piston pete]

Tom,

It was only a matter of time before SNN got a service to Poland. There are currently more than 3,000 Poles in Limerick city and recently Ireland's first ever Polish pub opened there. Polish publications are also in circulation in the region and I'm sure there will be strong demand for the SNN-WAW services.

[Tom the Tenor]

One unexpected but nevertheless welcome bit of good news is the signifcant increase in Ryanair services from Stansted to Cork starting with the introduction of the upcoming winter schedule.

Ryanair Stansted Cork will increase from 4 to 6 daily services! At first I thought this a little bizarre but thinking about it somehow makes sense. My family and friends in the London area come over regularly and a few times in recent weeks I have been checking availability and on a good number of times I have found just two or so flights available on certain days indicating the other flights are full?

However, I wonder if Ryanair have missed an opportunity not to try a new route from Luton to Cork? I am sure a potential new route like this would attract some kinds of incentives at both Cork and Luton Airports?

Well, if Ryanair are not interested in LTN-ORK maybe easyjet may be temped to give it a go? I mean, why not?

The biggest surprise of this season to date is the relative success of Ryanair Liverpool-Cork. A cousin has family in the Liverpool area and he has flown the flight now about 4 times since the start and all the loads on his flights have been strong.

This is mind boggling when you think of some of the light loads poor Jetmagic used to have on the route and they had some pretty good fares on offer too at the time!

Long may FR LPL-ORK survive. A nice little extra it has been!

Eirjet are in a pickle of sorts again tonight. A hired in Omni International 757 has gone tech in Verona that was bound for Cork and the passengers have been put up in hotels for the night.

Coincidentally, (almost like Continental that!?) Omni sent in a second 757 this evening to Cork on a another EIR hire in from Palma so nice to see a bit of variety there. Cork has been doing well for itself with 757s with so many EIR and Lourdes flights being operated by 757s, she being the new Queen of the Skies n' all but it would be just the icing on the cake if only the Omni DC-10 at Dublin decided to give us all a visit here at Cork. Afterall, the Air Afrique DC-10 had no problem some years ago! Guess, this wish is more in hope than anticipation!

[FlyCorkInternational]

As for new routes from Cork for Winter 05/06. Rumour has it that EI will add Madrid (in place of Faro) and Warsaw from Cork.

[Tom the Tenor]

Well, some of the Eirjet hired in aircraft had problems over the weekend. The Omni 757 that went to Verona from Cork on Saturday did not get back until about 10 pm Sunday night! Not sure if it was a technical problem or if the crew went out of hours? The aeroplane has since headed off again to Zaykyntos many hours late!

The second hired in Omni 757 that arrived in Cork for the first time on Saturday evening from Palma also ran into problems at some point over the weekend and I understand she is currently receiving attention to her windshield at Frankfurt.

At least the weekend saw the arrival at Cork of the newly delivered second Eirjet A320. Still very much painted up in the colourful scheme of her former operator, Air Jamaica, but with Eirjet titles, she brightened up the cold and wintery ramp ramp on Sunday morning before heading off to sunnier climes at AGP.

Ryanair had a big delay too on Sunday evening. The FR907 was three hours late and did not make it to Cork until 00.05 hours Monday am. Anyone know the cause? We had friends on the outbound FR908 so it has been quite a grueler of an evening for them with one of the party being in her 85th year.

An easy option for EI would be to go double daily to AMS on at least 4 or 5 evenings a week and to go fully daily on AGP.

Let's get the simple things right first? Any more news on how the EI study of the Cork PCNs is going? Dare we dream that we may one day see an EI A330 boarding at Cork for New York?

[eastjimmy]

Yeah i agree with ttt, ive been on the fr ork liverpool flight a few times going to liverpool and onwards to milan( bizare connecting hub ehhh...) and the flight was jammers. it was a surprize really as i thought the timing was nt suited to the football brigade but well done to them, will be on it again next week so ill watch out., i saw first hand how bad the jetmagic loads were, so its good to see that with the right company having an identity at both ends of the route will work. on another issue i saw that omni 757 in verona the other day, was wondering what it was doing there it was closed up most of the day, did nt look like there was any tech work going on so i guess it may have been a crew thing.?? little did i know it was heading to cork!! would have jumped on as iam sick of the pasta!!
iam also interested in any news on new routes from cork for winter am glad to hear that fr are increasing the stn frequency,, that will be handy,.... any info on replacement for js???
regards
ej:cool:

[840]

Looking at what Aer Lingus are actually selling out of Cork for the Winter at the moment [not the most reliable, I know], it looks like Munich is down from 3x weekly to 2x weekly. Rome is up from 2x weekly to 3x weekly. Faro is gone. All other routes have the same frequency, but some have different days.

That would seem to free up 3 aircraft rotations for other routes.

As for the routes suggested by others.

Madrid: It would struggle to attract enough volumes in its own right. However, give it an Iberia code share and timings that would suit connections to Iberia's intercontinental network (and Spanish regional), it has potential.

Warsaw: There's certainly enough Poles living in Munster to support flights to Warsaw. However, I'm not sure that services to both Cork and Shannon could work.

Amsterdam: I've flown on the Friday evening flight from Amsterdam a number of times recently. It always seems to be 85-90% full. Judging by the prices Aer Lingus are charging , the Cork-Amsterdam leg is even fuller. However, when Amsterdam was a 2x daily route previously, the evening flights struggled to perform in Winter. The addition of a Sunday evening service would probably suffice.

Malaga: Could almost certainly fill the extra capacity if it went daily.

The route I'd really like to see brought back from Cork is Frankfurt, but I can't imagine that Aer Lingus will be the airline to do it.

As regards the extra Ryanair flights. I know they're gunning for Easyjet, but the biggest impact this will have is on Ryanair's loads and yields. The choice of airport for people flying to/from London is often based as much on geography as price. I would never fly anywhere other than Heathrow when visiting my sister in Hounslow. Similarly, there are a lot of people in South London/Sussex who will use Gatwick regardless of how cheap Ryanair are. It would have been a lot more interesting if the extra flights had been to/from Luton.

Off topic completely: How are VLM's Cork-Jersay flights doing? They're an airline I'd love to see a lot more of in Cork. They're also the best chance of getting a London City service back.

[neidin]

JS has gone to NOC.

The aircraft rotations left out from ORK are more likely to be placed system wide. EI senior staff not the least bit happy with ORK currently.

[Tom the Tenor]

Aer Lingus is presently like Cork in many ways, no one has been in charge there now for some time? Cork is just as likely to have a new transatlantic A330 service soon just as much as you might see an EI pull out from AMS, CDG, FCO etc, etc. No one knows what is going in EI at the moment!

EI have failed to make any money this year so whatever the ills there may or may not be in Cork there is far more going wrong elsewhere in the airline too. For example, unlike last year when all EI flights ex snn to America were jammed the loads this year have not been near as good. AA from Boston and a surprise flourishing of US snn bound charters may be contributing to this state of affairs? Snn-lhr has not been too hot either this year and there have been some very low fares on offer! The crazy situation with regard to the successful Dublin Orlando route and the proposed dropping of the service next January is another indication of how all at sea EI is just now. Mind you, the stopover issue is a factor too with Orlando? That stopover again!

So, saying EI senior staff are not the least bit happy with Cork currently is just one part of the many other ills the airline has in 2005?

[Tom the Tenor]

Should have reported yesterday that the first SN Brussels Airlines flight SN2007 from Brussels to Cork arrived just after 4 pm. The flight was operated by an RJ85 aircraft and the frequency will be two flights weekly for a few months during the summer months. Very nice she looked in the warm afternoon sun. Hats off again to John Smyth for this achievement.

[840]

Assigning the Faro rotations systemwide would imply that there are profitable routes out of Dublin to use them on. There are routes ex-Dublin (e.g. Toulouse) that are being abandoned for the Winter.

It's more likely that the aircraft would just be laid up until next summer.

[Tom the Tenor]

Parking up aeroplanes for the winter is no way to do business? Just like parking up the BAe 146s in Arizona last year. That must have been costly enough never mind going down the road of parking up brand new A320s! As for the Cork - Faro rotations well an easy solution would be as you suggest - up AMS by one and AGP by two? There would sure be far more money in that than parking but for what it is worth it must be nuts sending over A320s to a lot of regional UK routes ex DUB notwithstanding the all ready announced winter cancellation of DUB-TLS?

[metalboymike]

neidin,

What position will John Smyth have at noc?

[eick320]

have heard from a close friend in ei that cork-warsaw has been confirmed for winter 2 days a week (replacing ork-fao).
Looks like flt will operate in the am with their agp flt returning to an afternoon departure, as for their other services they are keeping the evening flt to lhr so looks like a price war on the cork-london route between the 3 airline sservicing the city.

good luck to js at noc (their gain without a doubt)

[riverrock]

ttt, i wonder do you know what you are talking about at all most of the time? JS had nothing to do with the brussels route ex ork whatsoever! It was actually confirmed after he left!

[Tom the Tenor]

If it is talking you are on about, there was far too much talking done to The Sunday Tribune? :rolleyes:

[neidin]

Fill us in Tom - on the Sunday Tribune. Don;t be shy - this is a PPRUNE after all.

JS was responsible for the SN flights - they were talking to him since Routes '03.

[Tom the Tenor]

Go to your nearest public library and ask 'em to dig out the four editions of The Sunday Tribune for last February - you will find what you are looking for in one of 'em. Forgotten which one.

The article was unhelpful and it must have p!55ed off easyJet? Far too much ol' guff.

As for the securing of the SN Brussels Airlines BRU-ORK a gentle reaffirmation is necessary: Hats off to John Smyth for the achievement!

[Tom the Tenor]

Cork Airport has been caught out again today. This morning's announcements of new Ryanair services from snn to Bristol and Nantes are a fresh kick in the teeth.

Both Bristol and especially Nantes were there for the taking by Cork Airport. Jetmagic's most succesful route was Nantes so there is no acceptable excuse not to have found a replacement carrier and Bristol - Cork by a 737 is about 30 mins. BRS would have been such a limited risk for easyJet to try?

Two lost opportunities. The RE to BRS hardly counts - they wrecked that themselves. RE must be looking ahead to big headaches now?

The past week has seen Warsaw, Bristol and Nantes announcements from and to Shannon.

Cork Airport 0 : 3 Shannon Airport.

Time again to wheel out Noel O'Flynn TD (MP), the Great Airbridge Man to save the day!

[MarkD]

Tom

have you been following the ORK v SNN hairpulling on flyinginireland.com?

At the end of the day, while I use and appreciate both airports, when you subtract transit pax SNN has about 1.8m pax to ORK's 2m+

Making scorecards of routes won/lost only plays in MOL's hands when he tries to give ORK the same screwing he is giving SNN.

[Tom the Tenor]

FR are now consolidating their position at snn and as long as they get 2 euro per pax kickback on top of whatever fare they charge they will be searching high and low throughout Europe for more routes.

Snn is so centrally positioned it can draw easily from the entire western seaboard, parts of the midlands, Munster and is certainly attracting a lot of Cork passengers on certain routes.

However, it remains an unlevel playing field doesn't it? The smell of the State inspired stopover remains in place at snn making it impossible for Cork to go after new scheduled services to America.

The stopover means one hand stays tied behind Cork's back and does Cork kick up about it? No! All happy to be one happy airport family giving away traffic to snn is so many ways.

Snn has had a long history of attracting the German tourist, that is conceded but when a solid route to Nantes from Cork is allowed to slip through her fingers to snn it must be asked what is happening?

Why is Cork Airport in this state of affairs?

[riverrock]

I hear Cork have announced new CX this morning? Keohane, who's brother was on old Aer Rianta board...glad to see nepotism is alive and kicking!!

[Tom the Tenor]

Good that a CEO has at last been appointed at Cork Airport!

Looking forward to hearing more details about Mr Keohane, his business history and any past experience he may have of dealing with semi state bodies and the like. Any past experience or interest in aviation?

The best of luck to him in his new challenging role at Cork Airport!

Working agenda? (i) completion of new terminal, (ii) more ramp, (iii) CATIII ILS, (iv) more concrete on the runway?

To have the operational and business interests of Cork Airport at heart.

[neidin]

I know him. No aviation exp. Little general management experience in such a unionised and regulated environment.

The salary package was poor for such a big appt and scared off better candidates. Should have hired Seamus Kearney.

Keohane - golf club acquaintance, trainee Cork merchant prince and yes man for the Chairman I would think.

Just been told we cannot park a bizjet 2nt at ORK. Is that really true that the ramp is full? Seems crazy. Never heard of such a thing.

[Tom the Tenor]

Cork bound bizjets in summertime looking for an overnight stay after disemarking their VIP passengers park remotely - mostly at Shannon!

The ramp at Cork can be pretty jammed with airliners late on a Thursday evening.

The Canadian Prime Minister's Airbus A310 stayed overnight on 22nd June.

Cead mile failte go Corcaigh! :p

[EI-MICK]

I cant see a CAT3 Fitted,no way,airlines wont pay,insurance reason a stinger and the thought of having pylons suspended from runway 17,i doubt it,tink d rad alt wont be accurate enough due to terrain on app,runway 35? the weather is always good when that is in use.extend 25!! thats my idea!!

[Tom the Tenor]

There appears to be a growing sense of foreboding elsewhere on this forum about easyJet's possible intention of quitting their operations from LGW to Cork, Knock and snn.

It seems the Irish operation is being looked at as a whole by easyJet - is this the case? If so, why should easyJet have such a surely flawed policy? Any route should succeed or fail on it's own merits and not have to be looked on as a part of a block of a number of particular routes? What credibility does a theory like this have?

Yes, it looks like easyJet are being beaten by Ryanair at snn but why should it follow that the other parts of an Irish operation should also be brought down when there is popularity, especially in Cork, for the easyJet product?

Ryanair have never had much respect for Cork Airport. No later than last week or so O'Leary was flinging out shocking insults at Cork Airport and her new terminal buildings, running us down in the kind of nasty way Ryanair do best.

Is easyJet going to allow itself to be bullied into submission by Ryanair at an airport which it (Ryanair) despises? I know little about beancounting but I understand shareholders expect a return on their investment and that is fine. Well, why does easyJet not just get on with it at Cork Airport and serve both it's shareholders and it's LGW-ORK customers who have said 'Yes' to easyJet?

Sure, Cork Airport has been quietly deaf and dumb - at times it seems as if there is no eye at all on the ball but for God's sake this time more than any other it is proper to put Cork and Cork Airport first above all and save this route to Gatwick.

This is it, this is the bottom line for Cork Airport. Save Cork Airport's gateway to Gatwick and everything that means or just lie down and die and let yourself be more and more humiliated by Ryanair and Shannon Airport.

This is Cork Airport's end game. No one, no new CEO or anyone else or anything else such as the new terminal or even a runway extension will ever mean one jot if Cork Airport is brought so close to it's knees by such a failure.

[Wycombe]

Nice photo on airliners.net of some typical Cork Summer weather!

On the ILS Rwy 17 at ORK (http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=878748)

[The 5Q]

I see that Aer Arann are starting cork to Lorient from the 23rd, operating with a 72 every Saturday.

[EI-MICK]

ha that pic is a bit optimistic!! its normally worse,dont be fooled!!!

[Tom the Tenor]

Better news today! Aer Lingus have today announced a new three weekly service from Cork to Warsaw beginning in November!

There is a growing Polish community working in the Cork area now so there is every chance the new route should do very well.

The news of a once weekly(?) Cork - Lorient service by Aer Arann must also be welcomed. Guess they all count!

Would like to comment more on all of the above but must dash today!

:D

[Tom the Tenor]

Much as it must have galled them to do so the crowd that are nominally in charge at Cork Airport had at last to open the new multi storey car park for use by the public this weekend!

The lifts have yet to be commissioned but the overall quality of the work looks good and Cork Airport takes on a completely new aspect from the quick view I had out from the top of the new car park. Okay to be there on a nice day like today but would be no fun at all in Cork's more normal howling wind and rain! It would almost be as bad as getting a good drenching on a long walk up or down the ramp to an aeroplane!

Is there any update on what easyJet's intentions are? If Cork loses easyJet because of weakness on LGW-snn it will be a bitter pill to take. It would be interesting to know what the Cork Airport Authority has done in the line of trying to save the Gatwick service?

[eastjimmy]

well itll be a shame for sure, ill be on the evening easyjet from gatwick to cork tomorrow so ill keep an eye on the load factor. ive been on it a number of times and i have to say its been a pleasure on all ocasions in that the a/c is in very good nick internally decent leg room and very frendly staff.
the airport authority should be bending over backward to keep this service its a joke if it goes honestly. instead of this sort of thing happening we should be having a london luton service along with all the others no cutting back. it just does not make sence. london is a big place and a lot of people will travel to a particular airport as its convenient. no one will travel to stanstead if they need to do stuff on the south side of the city. i usually just pass thrugh so iam looking at connections rather than place. i mean ive taken to going with fr to lpl latley to get to milan.... !!! but it works for me and thats what its all about.
i perhaps was nieve a number of months ago to venture to think that easyjet may set up some sort of base at cork but sadly i thinki may be well wide of the mark
please may i be wrong.. they have a good name and it serves cork well... long may it continue and thrive....

[840]

In a bit of bad news, I notice that FlyWest have stopped flying altogether, which means that their 1x weekly Cork-Brest service is gone. Did it ever even start? Perhaps this helped prompt Aer Arann to set up the Cork-Lorient route.

[EI-MICK]

Dont think this ever started,over to you tom...

[Tom the Tenor]

There were a few early morning flights all right on the Sundays. I was still in the cot each time but one flight at least was flown by a 737. Cant remember the airline. Sorry!

Have heard a rumor that RE now want to do Lorient not once but twice a week. My, my we are generous, aren't we! :rolleyes:

[840]

I guess Aer Arann have a relationship with Lorient, but I can't help but feel that Nantes, Rennes or Brest would prove more popular in that part of the world.

[airhumberside]

Cant remember the airline. Sorry!
Europe Airpost I think

[123 O'Leary]

:confused: Tom, you are never happy! - very quick to jump at Easyjet when they might be pulling out of Cork and in the next breath belittle others (RE in this case) who announce a new route
Anyone with a modicum of intelligence knows that companies will try out a route and if it proves unsuccesful, they will focus their attention elsewhere
As for Lorient or similar, these are '1 week or 2 week' holiday destinations and would not support a daily service!
:8

[Tom the Tenor]

There is but little extra gain for Cork with the new RE flight to Lorient. The rotation is being achieved by the dropping of a Cork Dublin flight? I hope RE make money from Cork to Lorient and also with the extra capacity to Edinburgh and like I said earlier they do all count.

What I will give to RE is a bualadh bos mor (a big round of applause) when they start shooting CATII approaches to Cork in low visibility.

Cork passengers have been far too patient with Aer Arann and with a lot of their ol' guff.

[EI-MICK]

i remember seeing an article that said RE were getting CAT2 installed and crew trained ages ago??? why hasnt it happend.

[840]

The reason I felt that Nantes or Rennes would be more popular is because there would be more demand than just the single week holiday demand that you'll see on Lorient.

TTT -> What extra Edinburgh capacity? I must have missed this anouncement and I didn't see a press release on the Aer Arann website. Are we talking bigger aircraft or extra frequencies? I hope it's the latter.

Does anyone know why Aer Arann still don't offer a Belfast service on a Sunday? Their current timetable is great for the business traveller, but is completely shunning the weekend break and people going home to see their family market. It's strange considering how long it would take by train/car.

And on that point, could anyone see a market for Cork-Galway services? The bus takes 4 1/2 hours (and still manages 18 departures a day) and there is no train service.

[ALLMCC]

840

I asked the question about weekend service to Belfast before - I think a shortage of a/c was the main reason why it hasn't happened - this summer would been an ideal time to capitalise on the Jet 2 saga from BFS and introduce a single Sat & Sun rotation.

It would be too late now to consider this and it's unlikely to happen in the winter schedule - hopefully it may be in the pipeline for 2006.

[Tom the Tenor]

Extra RE frequencies from Cork to Edinburgh on Mondays, Thursday, Fridays and Sundays.

Aer Arann have all ready been contacted in relation to ORK-GWY. A missed opportunity to be sure as is a single ORK-BHD on a Sunday.

A shame really.

[eastjimmy]

hi all
will be traveling with sn brussels next week on the brussels cork run. anyone have any idea how its going for them load factor wise. it looks fairly cheap... my company paid 29 euro for the the flight one way i think. its my first time traveling with these guys i didnt think they were a low fare airline but if it works out it will be very convenient for me. would love for them to upgrade it to a daily service though. its very restrictive as it is.
as a side issue id like to pass on my condolences to all at eujet hope you all bounce back quick smart.. dont let the bastards grind you down.....
regards
ej

[840]

eastjimmy-> The flysn service isn't continuing for the Winter. I understand this is what was always planned. I'm hoping we see it again next summer. I understand what you're saying about the frequency. I need to travel back to Cork fortnightly and for me BRU is almost as convenient as AMS. Yet since the route has been running, I've still continued to use AMS because the flights are so much better timed. Of course, if someone would grant me my wish of an RTM-ORK flight...

[Actually, I believe BA operated this route with a single stop in LGW many years ago]

And talking of LGW... There still seems to be no idea about what Easyjet's plans are for ORK-LGW. However, if they were to go, could Aer Lingus be persuaded to put one rotation a day to Gatwick? Their plane that is operating 2 rotations a day looks woefully underused to me and a trip to Gatwick could surely be squeezed in. Gatwick is an important destination in its own right for people travelling to Brighton, Crawley, Reigate and South London. Getting to these places from LHR and STN is a complete pain in the...

Finally, does anyone know what the hell was going on at ORK last Friday night. Between baggage delays and delays in getting out of the car park (20 minutes to get through the barrier!!!), it took me 1 hour between arriving on EI845 and getting onto the Kinsale Road. I normally travel hand-baggage only. Are those delays normal when getting your bag? In some ways, we seemed to have it lucky. There were passengers from Reus who started giving out stink when the Amsterdam bags appeared on the belt. Apparently, their plane had touched down 20 minutes before ours and there was still no sign of their bags when I left the area.

[neidin]

EasyJet have not finalised plans for ORK yet - but it is likely that they will continue on ORK-LGW - as to give into Ryanair would cause further damage to their shaky share price.

They will close on plans later this week and booking data for whatever operates from Ireland will go live next week.

[eastjimmy]

been woking in italy of late and have been in verona (Vrn) quiet a bit. and have seen Eirjet in and out of there a good few times on behalf of aer lingus. I was wondering does any one share my view that this would be a very good seheduled route for the summer months for a perspective airline to operate ie.. aer lingus easyjet etc... its the closest access to lake garda and the place seems to be heaving all the time. we all know the sun holiday destinations in spain etc. are being flogged to near death ex cork but this is a market i feel could do with a little more exposure.
on the easy jet issue it would be a major shame to see gatwick lost to cork, how ever i traveled with them last week and the a/c was less than half full......
watch this space eh.......
regards
ej:\

[840]

You can read this on the Easyjet and Ireland thread, but in summary LGW flights are now bookable from Cork and there is a frequency increase to 3x daily on weekdays and 2x daily on weekends.

[MarkD]

MOL at it again :rolleyes:

Ryanair have suggested ORK's old terminal be reserved for "low cost carriers" rather than converted to storage space as currently envisaged.

(free rego required)
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=184&si=1443210&issue_id=12810

[eoinok]

Yup, was on the front page of the Evening Echo as well so it must be trust and must definately going to be happening as well :cool:

Cant access the unison link but the slant in the echo is that Ryanair want to take over Corks old terminal exclusively for themselves???
Now, that was just reading the news paper down in the petrol station so I didn;t read the full article from top to bottom but it was the general gist of it....

[840]

Why do I smell politics...

There's no way Ryanair will want two bases in Munster. The only region where they have two bases is Greater London, which has 16 times the population (and it's wealthier).

Are they just trying to screw Shannon into an even tighter deal?

I know Cork has a slightly larger catchment area, but I can't see them abandoning Shannon with the deal they have there.

[eoinok]

Agree with you 840.... dunno what is going on there really but politics is definately involved some where.

I could even suggest Dublin? Threaten to pull routes out of Dublin down to Cork because "we have our own terminal down in Cork" type of a deal......

I will believe it when I see it.

[EI-MICK]

someone commenting in the evening echo in cork gave a crap excuse why ryainair couldn't operate the terminal,something alongs the lines that it wont have planning permission once the new terminal opens!!! thats a bit sad

[MarkD]

here's a snippet from d'Indo:

Cork Airport is due to open a new €163m terminal early next year when the existing terminal is due to be used as stores or, perhaps, office space.

Ryanair has suggested that Cork devote the existing airport to low-cost carriers.

Michael Cawley, Ryanair's chief operating officer, said: "There is no point in having an asset there which is not generating revenue. In the current year Cork probably has enough growth. It is currently carrying 3m passengers a year. But this has the potential to grow to 5m or even 5.5m passengers, and that's not even factoring in population growth.

"We have already given plenty of business to Cork," said Cawley, who is himself a Corkman. "We'd like to expand on that but we can't do that until Cork becomes competitive and I think that Cork Airport understands the problem. It knows it needs to be competitive."

Joe Gantly, the chairman of Cork Airport, which is in the process of establishing itself as a standalone entity, declined to be drawn on the use of the old terminal. He said: "We are currently exploring a range of opportunities but it is far too early to be drawn on possible uses (for the old terminal)."

if it was as simple as PP all he had to say was "we talked to MOL and told him it couldn't be done for PP reasons"

[Tom the Tenor]

Well, Mr Cawley is finding a fresh regard for Cork Airport? Curious. Ryanair have never had much time for Cork Airport and it has been a pretty begruding operation to say the least. For example, for the past few winters Ryanair were quick to dump the fourth STN-ORK service. Then, this year easyJet arrive at Cork Airport and even before they start Ryanair sneak in and for the first time in recent winters reintroduce the fourth Stansted flight and, of course, they immediately clean up. Why, then, drop it in the first place?

[buzzmebaby]

Flying into Cork on Friday night I noticed that Malev had a Fokker 70 on the ground rather than their usual 737....is this a bad sign for the loads they're getting?

[840]

I noticed the Fokker 70 too on Friday night. It was the first time I'd seen it there. I have no idea whether it was a one-off or a regular occurence.

Is Cork-Budapest not pretty close to the operational limit for a Fokker 70?

[buzzmebaby]

Cork - Budapest is around 1104 nautical miles

Fokker 70 range is (with 79 passengers and baggage at standard weights) 2010km (1085nm), or 3410km (1840nm) for high gross weight option with extra fuel.

[Tom the Tenor]

I understand it is a temporary measure from Malev. From November Malev are being being sensible and are adapting a schedule like CSA had in 2004 so coming in on Wed, Thurs, Sun and Monday evenings and overnighting making weekend options more attractive. A mixture of 737-700s and 737-600s.

The Fokker 70s are nice too see too though at Cork and are definitely worth a few photos!

[840]

Seeing that BA seem to be pulling off the Manchester route this Winter, what are the chances of BMIBaby providing a decent frequency.

Cork-Manchester needs a morning and an evening flight. Now we are just going to see one flight in the morning.

At one point this route had 3 BA flights a day. It peaked at 3 BA and 2 BMIBaby flights. Even this summer, it was at 2 BMIBaby and 1 BA. One flight a day is surely not enough.

[MarkD]

840

ORK management persuading bmi to put a regional aircraft on it and replace baby, and therefore have through ticketing to bmi longhaul and codeshares ex MAN, would be more useful I think!

[Tom the Tenor]

A quick correction to my posting above on Malev. There is no Monday night arrival in the winter schedule so it is Wed, Thurs and Sunday night arrivals and it is Thurs, Fri and Monday departures. Far more sensible for the weekenders etc.

There will be a brief period in mid Jan to end Feb 2006 when there will be no Manchester service at all when bmi baby go down to just five weekly services, cant remember just now but think the days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Is certainly worrying, sure enough.

Did you all see last weekend's newspapers? Big ads from the Cork Airport Authority looking for a new Marketing Manager and a Commercial Director.

Guess that answers the question whether there is anyone working at Cork who is up to taking on John Smyth's old job?

[EI-MICK]

Tom you should apply for the job,or maybe all off neidins high profile friends are applying. Its being advertised at the moment.

[Jet2LBA]

I did a day return yesterday on MAN-ORK-MAN with Bmibaby and am a little surprised that they are dropping the frequency down to at best, just one flight each day. Even though we had around 70-80 pax on each of the flights, which is maybe a little low for a LCC type of operation operating 733/735 type on the route, I would suspect that the day return option is now something really neccessary for the two cities and that load factors could increase if BA are to pull off the route.

[CCR]

I think both airlines are feeling the heat from Ryanair coming on the Cork Liverpool route.

[840]

If there are 70-80 pax on each plane perhaps MarkD's suggestion of BMI taking over the route is a good one. I would expect that after Dublin and London (and maybe Belfast or Birmingham) that this route has one of the highest percentages of business travellers on all routes out of Cork. There is probably a large enough group of passengers who are willing to pay good money for a day-return.

[MarkD]

Does anyone know what BD's loads ORK-LBA are? I would think LBA would be a better baby route since LBA has no connections worth talking about. However, LBA seems to be a Regional outpost from what I can see.

MAN on the other hand gives connections to German and Scandinavian routes via LH/SK and Toronto with AC, as well as BD's own Caribbean routes + LAS and ORD. If BD hadn't sabotaged IAD to open Riyadh that would be there too.

(incidentally, bmi's timetable offers "Manchester to Manchester" via IAD, but they mean Manchester NH at one end but don't say so :D)

[EI-MICK]

new route announced this morning,cork to newcastle with jet2 starting 20th oct.

[840]

I finally managed to locate where the guys on the other airports' threads get their statistics from.

Unfortunately, as it's CAA information, I could only find the numbers on UK routes. For whatever reason, the numbers don't include Plymouth.

Anyway, these are the figures for passengers to/from Cork in July

Belfast 3,048
Birmingham 10,311
Bristol 1,162
Cardiff 3,058
Edinburgh 3,397
Gatwick 16,653
Glasgow 1,481
Heathrow 42,844
Jersey 481
Leeds/Bradford 882
Liverpool 8,251
Manchester 11,183
Nottingham EMA 5,195
Southampton 1,536
Stansted 41,893

They support my point about the frequency of Manchester flights compared to Belfast and Birmingham.

[eastjimmy]

with reference to my enquirey about sn brussels on the cork brussels route i traveled on it to cork a few or so ago and it waqs full to capacity perhaps max 5 seats empty!! on an rj 85
surley worth another pop for the winter???

[Tom the Tenor]

Regretably, tomorrow is the last of the SN flights from Brussels. It is indeed a shame that some kind of deal has not been done to keep the route going. A missed opportunity there as is the ending of the summer Swiss service from Zurich which, similarly, could have sustained about 2 flights a week through the year?

Whomever is appointed as new marketing manager will have their work cut out for them when chances like the above are allowed to slip through the hands of Cork Airport?

However, the announced new Jet2 service from Newcastle to Cork is, of course, to be welcomed. Three weekly flights on Fridays, Sundays and Mondays. Ideal for short weekend breaks and for VFR traffic.

Also, Cork must have lost the run of themselves this weekend in that they allowed not one but two bizjets to overnight, a Challenger and a Learjet! My, my it must have had something to do with all the conviviality created by the party atmostphere at the Great Southern Hotel last Thursday night? ;)

[840]

Were the seats on the Brussels flights largely sold to tour operators in advance? Just an idea.

If that level of occupancy was normal, it shows that there is demand for the route. One of the problems Jetmagic used to have was very limited bookings from Belgians. I wonder how many Corkonians flew with SN Brussels.

If an airline could run a reasonably frequent service and get the marketing right at both ends, the route could definitely sustain itself.

[Tom the Tenor]

As far as I know the SN loads from BRU were always pretty good. That is what makes it all the more galling that the route has been let slip away.

What is even more maddening is that since last week there are big billboard ads from Ryanair around Cork including one on the Kinsale Road on the way up to Cork Airport advertising the new Shannon to Nantes flight!

Is anyone at Cork embarassed by this? Can't be up to those boyos at snn for cuteness, can you?

[NCLRULES]

Newcastle has a large Irish community, so the Jet2 Cork route should be a success.

[eastjimmy]

on the day i was on the flight there certainly seemed to be a lage enough irish contingent.. and in the area i was seated it was a mix of business and travelers.. it is a shame really and i guess it gives aerlingus plently of scope to hike up the ams fares.. it is ture that a recognised brand on either side would work out.. why not aerlingus they dont max the utilisation of their aircraft in cork.. i know there will always be the business contingent to request an early and late flight but to be honest a daily flight would be more suitable as it would capture the holiday people also as the early late flights tend to be expensive..
here is a thought ... how about aer arann on the route.... am i crazy!!!! ans on a post card to the rubber ward ...
ps..... i agree with ttt ryanair with a big bill board on the krr is nuts.. not to say really embarrasing....

[EI-MICK]

il hav to look out for this billboard later,anyone have paint and a ladder!!!!

[840]

Article in the Examiner about the new concessions at the airport

Reg. Reqd.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/pport/web/business/Full_Story/did-sgALIidzX-JR2.asp

[Tom the Tenor]

It is all action today at Cork and the big news from this morning is that Cork Airport's first ever airbridge is being fixed up! Now, that is worth a photo or two if any of you digital camera fans are on the ball today!

Looking forward to a pint of plain in the Rebels Bar! ;)

[eoinok]

Glad to hear that Kylemore was got rid of...... 10 quid for an ould rasher, sausage and black pudidng an a cup of Tea (not even barrys tea!!) is a bit much in fairness.

Saying that, it would ave been handy if we had two food outlets in the new terminal as it has been proven like we have with the airfares, that competition means that the consumer wins.

[Tom the Tenor]

I understand that the new terminal at Cork will indeed have 2 food outlets - Subway and Lennox's so there will not be any shortage of chicken suppers and chips!

The Mrs and I must get to north London tomorrow at short notice to visit a relation in hospital and it is interesting to note that there is no availability at all outbound on Ryanair to Stansted between today, Wednesday and next Sunday inclusive. A pretty impressive statistic for Mr O'Leary. Fortunately, we are getting out on tomorrow's EI710 and while the price is high it is not excessive. Happy to try easyJet on another day when matters are not as pressing.

This morning's bmi baby flight from Manchester is reported to be flown by an A320 aircraft, presumably BMI?

[eoinok]

Good point TTT, I had forgotten about Lennoxs and Subway.

But at 6.30am while waiting to catch the 1st one to LHR, while nursing a hangover, a chicken supper or a sandwich just wont cut it, it is sausages, rashers, pudding and a runny egg or nothing!!!!!

[840]

The luxury of being able to stay in bed for an extra 3/4 hour for the LHR flight. AMS leaves at 6:50!!!

It's a good point that the food outlets as described in the Echo/Examiner don't seem to cover a breakfast menu. There will be a bar too and perhaps if (as at DUB) the bar serves meals, they'll spot a gap in the market for breakfasts. Mind you, being in a bar at 6am... Only if I haven't gone to bed yet...

I wonder if in the new terminal, they'll correct the curious anomaly where you can't buy a newspaper after you've gone through security. They must have lost hundreds of my Euro over the years.

[EI-MICK]

eoinok,the cure for that is to have rebels bar open for the first LHR flight,wouldn't ya love it!!!

[840]

I see the F70 was still operating BUD on Friday night. I took a look at the Malev website and it shows an F70 operting the flight for the Winter in the timetable section, but a B737-600 when making an online booking.

[840]

Media Release



12 September 2005



Slattery’s Travel Cancel Cork to New York Flights due to oil price rise

Full refund for all passengers



Slattery’s Travel, announced today, Monday 12th September that their schedule of flights on the Cork/New York route has been cancelled due to the steep rise in oil prices. All passengers will receive a full refund.



Following the rise in oil prices and subsequently aviation fuel, the airline contracted by Slattery’s Travel on the Cork/New York route significantly increased its charges by €95.00 per seat. As a result of this increase, the flight price is no longer competitive

on the Cork-New York route and it has been cancelled.



Passengers who paid for their flights with cash or by cheque are being issued with a refund by post, while credit card customers are to be reimbursed through their credit card. A €50 voucher for Slattery’s Sun Holidays has also been issued to all customers of Slattery’s Travel affected by the cancellation of this route.



David Slattery, CEO, Slattery’s Travel said: “We made every effort to maintain this route and we sincerely regret the inconvenience that we are causing to our passengers by its cancellation. Unfortunately, as it is due to the world climate, it was outside our control.”



ENDS

[Tom the Tenor]

Today is a bitterly disappointing day in the history of Cork Airport. Cork was within 6 weeks of the first flight to New York. Slatterys had 4000 bookings for the twice weekly flights. This figure speaks for itself and proves once and for all that there is a market for direct flights to New York from Cork.

That the flights are now cancelled at what is close to the last minute is strange. At worst you might expect the flights between October and Christmas to operate but no, Slatterys and Cork Airport, show what they are made of and just say Get Lost to 4000 Cork Airport passengers.

What have you got to say today, Mr Gantley? Guess you are too busy today having a bottle of Ballygowan with M O'L and posing for photos for De Paper tomorrow morning.

Ryan International must be found wanting in this matter too. A part of me is wondering if they were putting the boot into Slatterys for more money when the bookings were so good?

It would not surprise me if the dirty tricks department of an enemy had a part in this too. Who gains most from the loss of ORK-JFK?

This makes me sick.

[tashkurgan]

Tom - I agree it is pretty disappointing. As someone who travels to the US twice a month I was looking forward to direct flights to the US east coast - even though the absence of interline arrangements would have made things tough for me.

I do think you need to ease off the Cork Airport Authority a bit. As I mentioned in a previous post, the arrival of FR on the Cork Dublin route will save me € and time in getting to Dublin. FR have rarely pulled out of a hub once they have established themselves there and I commend their expansion in Cork.

[Tom the Tenor]

Ryanair are dropping STN-ORK FR903/4 from next January so it is back to just three daily flights to Stansted and the two Gatwick flights.

This is a cynical move by Ryanair to drop FR903/4. Stansted will now forever more be just three daily flights even in summertime. I would love to know what the load factor has been on this flight since it was reinstated last January?

O'Leary never did anything at Cork until easyJet started this year. Not for a second am I taken in by Ryanair's sham, cynical stunts at Cork Airport which is more that can be said for the Cork Airport Authority who will, no doubt, be selling this to the public of Cork as some kind of new dawn.

Gatwick and Dublin is as much Cork will get from Ryanair because they sure are not going to compromise their snn base by starting anywhere else out of Cork.

Even worse though is the loss of New York. At all costs the flights should have at least begun and the Cork Airport Authority is a part of this failure. What would be the total cost of this supposed subvention? 95 euro per pax? Cork should have got involved with Slatterys etc to share the cost, to do anything to get the project going and to get the first aeroplane into the air to New York.

This is a huge setback for Cork Airport. Nothing will happen on direct USA flights now until the snn stopover goes and that is not going to happen anytime soon. Public confidence in any new projects to start flights to America will now be nil for some time.

This is a crushingingly black bad day in the history of Cork Airport.

The craic will be mighty in the midwest region tonight at this news.

[neidin]

It is sad that Slatterys could not make a go of Cork - New York. But these are tough times. David Slattery says the US authorities made it tough for him to get it going. It also must be tough to compete against all those low Aer Lingus fares. Cork Airport were ill prepared for it - and I am sure you know Tom that they were well behind in their USA Immigration and Security training for these impending flights. Gantley and Co were of little or no help to David Slattery. New York flights are really a distraction to the main story at Cork today.

Looking at the bigger picture - the real casualty today at Cork is Aer Arann. What do you do if you fly turbo props between CORK and DUBLIN and suddenly Ryanair show up in town with new 737=800's with great times, ludricously low fares and likely superb on time performance. The complete RE operation at ORK hangs on their Dublin service. Other than BHD the other flights are margnial or worse.

A company with sense would roll over and leave it to Ryanair. There is no way you can compete with Ryanair on Cork-Dublin. Don't try. Ryanair do not appear to have any deal on these flights with Cork Airport Authority. RE should pull out forthwith, shut the ORK base and focus on niche PSO type routes and the remote regional airports where they may not have such ruthless competition from the Low Cost Carriers.

The Double Whammy for Aer Arann is the new Ryanair Knock-Luton service which is swamping even more low fares on their GWY services.

After years of ignoring Ireland - suddenly Ryanair in a matter of five months has come to dominate Shannon, Knock and Cork. Kerry surprisingly seems to have missed out on the Ryanair expansion - but I guess they do not have Easyjet - so FR do not see the need.

All the airlines looking at Irish Regional Airports do all their planning now based on what Ryanair may or may not do to retaliate. A dangerous set of circumstances when Ryanair seems not to want to pay much on most new routes.

What happens on the day in the next 18 months when Ryanair turns the screw on these airports and in turn the Irish Government. Gosh that has given FR some power over the next Irish election in 2007.

[CCR]

Cork is indeed the 15th European Base for Ryanair! I think it's fantastic and indeed booked a few flights to Dublin for 1 cent each way!
What RE needs to do (in Ireland) is focus on thinner routes that FR won't be coming on and develop at airports that FR can't fly into or are less likely to due to runway lenght restrictions for the 737-800 such as Waterford, Galway, Derry, Sligo, Belfast City etc.
For them to compete on Cork to Dublin, they really need to develop interline agreements with Aer Lingus and the US carriers who fly into Dublin. Indeed, RE should do that on all their routes into Dublin.
If Aer Lingus is not interested, how about American, Continental, Delta, US Airways. The EU & US Open skies talks are renewing later this month. Its only a matter of time before Aer Lingus, Continental or even Aer Arann will announce scheduled transatlantic flights from Cork. I wouldn't be surprised if Aer Lingus announced a scheduled "charter" in the interim for next year if the Open Skies deal falls through.

[transmagnificat]

It's interesting to see that Ryanair that the PSC on the ORK/DUB route will be €17.48 whereas ORK/LPL will be €3.50.
I wonder who is fooling who?

[atr42500]

About time saving tell me what exactly you are going to do with 5 mn as FR is going to DUB in 50 mn and RE in 55 mn block .
what a big difference. and remenber to check in 40 mn at least before the flight otherwise the flight is closed and therefore you pay the full price on the next one
that is what i call customer service.

and seriously there are surely plenty oportunities out there from Cork to Continent, that can be operated with 738
and the only routes FR is able to come up with is DUB and Gatwick
at least they could have come up with an early stansted

what a great service for Cork.:ok:

[Tom the Tenor]

The dumbing down of the Cork Airport product began in earnest yesterday. My guess is that by the beginning of the winter schedule 2006 there are likely to be just two main players left at Cork Airport - Ryanair and Aer Lingus. Most of the other carriers will have been squeezed and will be gone and very little other product will remain for the Cork Airport consumer except her shiny new terminal.

And what for? All for a few lousy shots in the papers with M O'L! Certainly, what a day's work by the CAA! You can take a month or two off now, boys, after all the hard work!

Up the Rebels, my arse!

The snn stopover is still calling the shots for flights to America making it almost impossible for Cork to move forward. The snn lobby still has Cork and Dublin too by the balls - it is as plain as that and yet snn have the best of everything, they have all their scheduled flights across the Atlantic along with all the US military transits and they have all the seventeen Ryanair routes as well not to mention the terminal infrastructure like airbridges, long runway etc, etc. Someone said to me this evening also that the Cork to Galway bus now stops at the terminal at snn everytime? Is this correct? If so, it shows you what you are dealing with in snn. They are streets ahead of the boyos at the CAA. Witness also the FR Nantes ads near Cork Airport!

Immigration and security issues, Neidin? You are making it sound like the Jet2 BFS-ORK farce all over again but then again when it comes to acting the clown the crowd at the CAA are near number one.

I can tell you one thing though; if it was a SNN - JFK charter organised by Slatterys the whole business would have been arranged to absolute perfection with not an iota of detail left out. You would get the impression that the shower at Cork hardly look on the place as being a real airport at all! A kind of afterthought, really, a sort of rest home, perhaps!

Mediocrity has won the day at Cork Airport.

[Hey there]

Ryanair services on Dublin - Cork confirmed this morning.

Gloves off !

RYANAIR ANNOUNCES 15th EUROPEAN BASE AT CORK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
LOW FARE DOMESTIC FLIGHTS ARRIVE IN IRELAND

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 low fares airline, today (Tuesday, 13th September 2005) announced Cork as its 15th European base. From 24th November 2005, Ryanair will base a brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft worth $60M in Cork and add two new routes to Dublin and London Gatwick that will deliver more than 1 million passengers per annum on Ryanair’s four routes to and from Cork.

FROM TO STARTING FREQUENCY
CORK DUBLIN 24th Nov 05 3 Daily
CORK LONDON GATWICK 24th Nov 05 2 Daily
CORK LIVERPOOL Existing 1 Daily
CORK LONDON STANSTED Existing 4 Daily

Announcing Ryanair’s 15th European base at Cork International Airport today, Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, said:

“We are delighted to announce Cork International Airport as our 15th European base. Ryanair’s new Cork base will deliver 1 million passengers per annum, sustain 1,000 jobs in the region and allow the people of Cork and Munster to travel internationally and domestically for a fraction of existing prices.

“For the first time Irish passengers will be able to enjoy the benefits of Europe’s lowest fares and most punctual airline on a domestic route. More than 1,000 low fare seats will be available daily between Cork and Dublin acting as a major stimulus to the tourism and business life of Cork.

“Seats on these new routes are available for immediate booking on www.ryanair.com from €0.99 and we urge all passengers to book straight away as demand for fares this low fares will be huge”.

Speaking today, Joe Gantley, Chairman of Cork Airport Authority, said:

“The Board of CAA welcome Ryanair’s commitment to establishing a base in Cork and look forward to the contribution this will make to the continued growth of Cork Airport”.

[840]

Have Ryanair ever announced a 1 plane base before?

It doesn't sound like much of a commitment.

[tashkurgan]

Tom - what is your alternative? Continue flying ATRs to Dublin - why? REs noisy, cramped, slow and uncomfortable ATRs have their place, but as I said in previous posts, they are a hell of a step back from the EI 732s and 1-11s that I used on that route over 15 years ago. Time and market have caught up with RE and to be honest, their product has been found wanting. It may be fine for short thin routes (just), but not on busy routes. I do suspect that the RE business plan is on its last page and I am unclear if they have any other new business ideas. Their plan is firmly based on the ATR fleet and that product has a defined market niche. Cork-Dublin may no longer be the right sector for that product.

Finally - when people complain about FR customer service, do they really think that it is any better than some of the larger carriers such as EI, CO, KLM, NW and AA? As a punter, my own view is that the economy-class customer service experience is pretty universal. Get used to being treated as self-loading-freight and you won't be disappointed.

[840]

Aer Arann can compete, but they need to make some decisions they've been trying not to make. They'll need a frequent flyer programme and lounge access for frequent flyers [Let's face it business travellers care more about the perks than the price]. They'll need to reduce their check-in time. They'll need to get their CAT II problems well and truly sorted. They'll need to get code share agreements with airlines that operate into Dublin.

I disagree that Ryanair's customer service standards match Aer Lingus'. I was stranded in Schiphol by snow in March. Aer Lingus sent an extra plane to make up the backlog. My sister was caught in Heathrow by a flight that had to be cancelled in August. Aer Lingus put her up in a hotel and sent an extra plane the next day. I can't imagine Ryanair doing that.

[anna_list]

I can think of several FR bases that started off life with just one aircraft (there may be more):

- Rome CIA started in Jan 2004 with one aircraft and now has 5.

- Luton LTN had only one aircraft for a number of years and now has 4.

- Shannon SNN had only one aircraft until May 2005, when the number based there increased to 3.

- Initially, there will only be one aircraft at Pisa PSA, with a second joining in Jan 06.

[840]

anna

I stand corrected

Thank You.

[riverrock]

TTT, FR will be operating FOUR flights a day to STN and not THREE as you mentioned above. I seem to remember talking to you on several occasions when you had the guns out against RE in the past but now they are your favorite carrier it seems?? Get real Tom, admit it, your main aim in life is to slag of the CAA and any changes they may make. Is that sour grapes on behalf of your friend smythy by any chance? I'm surprised you didn't apply for the marketing job yourself if you feel the CAA are that useless!!

Also, can you expand maybe on how you feel CAA could have saved slatterys?? maybe Gantely could have given Bush a call and asked him to lower the cost of oil!!??

[tashkurgan]

840 ..[Let's face it business travellers care more about the perks than the price]... This is NOT correct. I have travelled on business for over 15 years and let me assure you that for most if not all business travellers, the #1 concern is cost not the fact you get a free bag of nuts in a tatty lounge ,000s of miles from home.

Regarding customer service in general. my own sense is that they are all pretty much the same. Stuck in a far away airport and trying to get home while dealing with a customer service agent on basic minimum wage isn't much fun regardless of the airline.

[Tom the Tenor]

Riverrock, if you should care to check out the Ryanair website for Cork - Stansted for 11th January, 2006 you can see from that date on there will be only three daily flights to Stansted. The FR903/4 from January, 11th 2006 is gone so you need not try to rise me with your fumbling petulance.

When was the last time Aer Arann made a CATII approach to landing at Cork? They have now been found out on ORK-DUB and FR are going to stuff 'em. A pal of mine bought three return tickets to DUB last night for 38 euros! Yes, you can't beat that.

However, RE are a Cork employer, they have provided jobs to Cork men and Cork women. Have you any idea how it feels for Cork born people to have a pilot job based at Cork and how good that feels for those involved?

How many jobs have Ryanair created for Cork people since they landed their first 1-11 at Cork? We will see what, if any, kinds of jobs O'Leary will create now for Cork people.

It seems that the CAA were not too bothered at all about filling John Smyth's position, were they? There was no hurry, anyway, in that the ads for the job only appeared in the last few weeks.

What have the CAA got for Cork Airport in terms of new routes since Mr Smyth's departure? Dublin, Gatwick, is it? What creativity! As for me applying, I would have done if I had the required qualifications but I am happy to say that I am more than content in my various jobs in the health services which I find very rewarding.

However, if I was invited to manage Cork Airport for a month I would gladly take up the challenge so if you can arrange it with anyone you can contact me here!

All it needed was one or two Slatterys flights to New York to work to set the precedence. Cork could have helped Slatterys out by sharing some of the cost of the 95 euro surcharge by waiving some other payable fee? Relatively speaking, New York was lost because of small amounts of money and 24 hours later this still sickens me.

It would have damn well not happened at Shannon Airport?

[840]

One of the big problems with the Slattery's news is that after two failed attempts to launch Cork-New York, people are going to be very reticent about booking that flight. If it does resurface, it'll have to be run by Aer Lingus or one of the better known American Airlines for people to trust them.

[123 O'Leary]

Change the record Tom, its becoming painful:ugh:

[Tom the Tenor]

Read today's papers. The waffle coming out of M O'L yesterday at Cork is away more painful. The sad thing is that the game of smoke and mirrors has begun. Ryanair will not do anything new at Cork. It would cause too many problems for them with the crowd at snn from where he is receiving generous marketing supports for the new routes that have begun this year. FR now have another new base today from EMA. EMA-ORK is a sitter so why not try it? Ask the snn crowd for the answer.

[CCR]

Let's wait and see Tom

[MarkD]

Tom

if ORK subsidised Slatterys to even 45-50 euro a head that would be an enormous sum and probably even FR would be raising an eyebrow after their reverse at Charleroi etc.

I understand your bitterness but at the end of the day, FR are not a threat to Arann but to IE and that's from FR themselves! Basing aircraft will mean jobs for Cork whichever way you slice it.

Now if FR decided to start operations into France from ORK that would be bad news for RE who seem to be looking in that direction more and more.

[asianfly]

I could never understand the fixation with transatlantic flights from ORK. As someone rightly pointed out in an earlier post, it would be a nice service but it will never be a bread and butter route for the airport. Rather, I would much prefer to see more emphasis put on developing additional european routes and building on what exists at the moment.
In any case, I would rather not fly a charter when going transatlantic. A technical problem during a big holiday means ones plans are in a mess, with dealys, etc. Long haul is generally best left to the majors, at least in my view as a traveller.
Re ORK - DUB, price is a major concern. I think FR will grow the market to DUB rather than steal from RE and Irish Rail. RE initally benefitted from Irish Rail's appalling service and steep prices. But many people just avoid the trip if at all possible and this would change if there were more options and improved pricing.
As for the CAA, I don't know how good / bad the last marketing manager (Mr. Symth) was, but he has now gone and it is surely time to move on.
As for the airport itself, I hope that they can keep it clean and in good nick. The existing terminal resembles something in Bagdad at the moment. Let's hope the new terminal is maintained and managed to a proper standard.

[Tom the Tenor]

Well, asianfly, you have Singapore down as your base, correct? Do you make return trips home from time to time to Europe/Ireland? I would guess that you would like to do that with as minimum fuss as possible? Now, imagine that if everytime you want to come west to Europe or across the Pacific to North America you were obliged to travel from Singapore first before joining a flight at Kuala Lumpar to, say, London or New York Newark. I bet you and all the folks down there at Singapore would not be best pleased by such a tactic as a forced trip down to Malaysia?

[riverrock]

Northwest file for chapter 11 this morning. Is this the real reason for Slatterys pulling their service??

[Tom the Tenor]

Ryanair produced another rabbit from the magician's hat today.

Mr Cawley has today announced a new daily flight from London Stansted to Nantes beginning 11th January, 2006.

The irony is that the new flight to Nantes leaves STN every day at 11.30 am. This happens to be very same time for the soon to be lost FR903 from Stansted to Cork.

Ladies and gentleman, the games have begun!

[DW11]

Tom,

You're loosing a Stansted departure, which I'm told should be back for the summer and you're gaining two Gatwicks. Hardly a disaster.

[orkpilot]

Tom your running away with the idea of losing the 903. The idea of opening the STN-NTS route has been rumoured for awhile. And the 903 leaves STN at 1040 local not 1130 as you stated.
There are so many aircraft planned for FR this year alone that they have to start opening new routes otherwise the machines will be sitting down all the time.

[Tom the Tenor]

Well, I stand corrected on the times. The emotion of the last week and the bending over to Ryanair at Cork without any new routes being put forward has at times overwhelmed me! However, the dropping of the '903 in January next remains a cynical move by Ryanair in my opinion.

Padraigh O'Ceidigh, boss of Aer Arann, was on the Brian Tubridy show on RTE Radio 1 this morning. Anyone get to hear it? Missed out myself.

[mark_heg]

There is so much confusion over transatlantic flights from cork. I have read in a thread very early on in the year that cork was not subject to the Irl/ US bilateral agreement. That it in fact was left out along with knock and ironically dublin/ shannon were subject to this agreement. This being the case scheduled carriers could operate in and out of the US from cork.

It is a shame that Slatterys could not get this charter off the ground this time round either. Its not realistic in this environment to operate a charter service from cork to ny or boston for that matter. I would love to see it take off sooner rather than later. However it would have to be a schedule like Aer lingus or AA. An American 757 would be perfect from either boston or nyc.

Lately I have heard that JetBlue is interested in flying international. I hope it starts to do transatlantic, ideally it would be a great route for them to do cork - bos. There is 0 % competition. And contrary to belief I think there is a huge marked for transatlantic from cork.

Is there any talk of upgrading cork to Cat III? Also what happened to Aer Lingus testing of their A330 on runway 35/17?

Also any pics of the new airbridges available?
Cheers

[EI-MICK]

cork CAT3,forget it,is what i say!! look at the terrain on approach to 17 its too much off a hill,the rad alt will go crazy!! can you imagine the equipment being planted on the N22 or in st.finbarrs H and F for that matter???? airlines wont pay for it either! only last year a new cat2 was fitted

[840]

The link I had to the documents doesn't work any more.

As I remember it, charter flights from Cork and Knock are not obliged to stop in Shannon.

From a very vague memory of it... It also says that scheduled services by US airlines will be to Dublin and Shannon only. They will only be allowed to other aiports if an Irish airline starts one first.

The last part could be complete :mad: It's been a while since I saw the document.

[MarkD]

840

sounds right to me, that there is a difference between scheduled (must have SNN service) and charter (okay to have direct to ORK/NOC)

Can't find any text on Irish or US website though.

[lagerlout]

Tom The tenor, i have followed with interest your posts about cork airport and finally i feel that i must comment.

You have a great deal of knowledge of your local airport and understandably you wish for it to suceed as i do aswell. however some of your recent comments about the Ryanair announcement of a base in ORK are proving to be quite contentious.

i think its too early to make judgements on Ryaniar out of ORK and history dictates that you would do well to wait and see.

It was over two and half years ago when ryanair commented that Liverpool was to be their base of the North West and for some time there was nothing. Now it seems highly likely that our 6th based a/c will be in LPL before xmas serving upwards of 20 destinations.

Remember MOL has an awful lot of orders placed for a/c and with ORK now being offially recognised as a base it stands a great chance of benefiting from this.

Wait and see, do you know if ryanair are on an equally good deal ex ORK as they are from SNN. ???? Either way good news for me an expat visiting "home"

patience Tom is a virtue, give Ryanair time and watch ORK explode into life like LPL has!

[mark_heg]

Any info on EI checking out ork to JFK using their 330's ? Last i heard they were testing out the runway. Is there any chance that 35 or 17 can be extended at least 2000ft ?

What about a 757 service with American? Any update on the bilateral agreement?

[840]

Aer Arann are cutting back from nine flights a day to three flights a day on Cork-Dublin.

There's no flight from Dublin to Cork between 13:30 and 22:30, which seems to remove the one advantage they had over Ryanair.

[MarkD]

huge mistake. Aer Arann have thrown away their competitive advantage over flights that haven't started yet.

(edited to note - these sectors will probably be going to the IOM (govt subsidised) if the Euromanx thread rumours are true)

[EI-MICK]

mark heg,

i dont think a runway extenstion is an option,mainly because 17 has a hill before it and runway 35 would mean buying people out of houses and land and mainly the main cork to kinsale road,the terrain behind 35 is also a hill so thats why i dont think its an option,25 or 07?? again this would be probably a better option to extend if they ever were going to do it because of the whole prevailing westerly winds etc (usually westerly winds at EICK) and again the 25 side is out of bounds with the main road and the 07 end with the same problems as we ahve on the 35 end.

anyway i dont think EI would need to fly an A330 into cork to test it,what a waste of money,i think the easier solution would be to do the basic maths.windspeeds,aircraft weight/speed,runway length etc etc

regards,

[Banon]

I cant see whats stopping the 330 going to the states with 7000ft of R/W.

[MarkD]

RE are in fact transferring sectors to IOM - 4 daily to LPL.

http://www.aerarann.com/iom_lpl.htm

[eastjimmy]

Its been talked about here already but id like to add my tupence worth. I was very dis heartened to hear of aer aranns huge reduction in the frequency of flights on the ork/dub route. I do think that the route needs more than the x6 per day it will have from now on. particularly during the middle of the day when there seems to be little or no service at all. Now I know were all sceptical of mols intentions for cork but surley re could have held back a little with such a drastic reduction. no doubt they needed to reduce it my some amount but down to three is crazy in my opinion it in fact may leave the door open to mol to up there frequency. his low fares are going to hit cie most of all in my opinion and with a whole load of punters coming accross from cie that will in my opinion keep the numbers strong for re an fr to have a bite of the cake each. re could angle at the frequencey end of market giving a flexible fare flexible seat policy to allow business foke to come and go with out being nailed down to a particular flight and fr on the other hand could give the day tripper type people a non flexible service they do so so well else where. I guess re have big issues with utilisation of their fleet so that may be driving them. i wonder are they still getting the two new aircraft that ive read about or have they got them already??
rgs
ej:confused:

[eoinok]

mark-heg, I posted pics of the new airbridges in cork here

http://www.flyinginireland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1142

[840]

The August data for UK airports. Again missing Plymouth...


Belfast 3,605
Birmingham 12,130
Bristol 1,364
Cardiff 3,169
Durham TV 3,059
Edinburgh 4,052
Gatwick 16,737
Glasgow 1,386
Heathrow 45,648
Jersey 366
Leeds Bradford 812
Liverpool 9,875
Manchester 11,927
Nottingham EMA 5,653
Southampton 1,629
Stansted 42,250

Incidentally, I noticed that Aer Arann have a Cork-Belfast flight on a Sunday evening bookable from November 27th.

I hope that\'s right, because it is so badly missing in terms of people being able to travel between the two cities for weekend breaks.

[mark_heg]

Cheers for the pics of the airbridges, its just the 2 fully functional airbridges for now right, with the other 2 as options?

I was just wondering there is there a possibility that EI could start servicing cork to Boston or NY via shannon. Having the 330 orgininating in ork stop down refuel and all that lark in shannon then continue onto boston or ny. Then do the return leg in a similar fashion. Would this be possible at all? I know its not a perfect solution but it does allow a work around for now?

[840]

I was just wondering there is there a possibility that EI could start servicing cork to Boston or NY via shannon. Having the 330 orgininating in ork stop down refuel and all that lark in shannon then continue onto boston or ny. Then do the return leg in a similar fashion. Would this be possible at all? I know its not a perfect solution but it does allow a work around for now?

They would make a loss on it, but I suppose they may consider it if they wanted to establish market dominance in advance of open skies.

It also appears to violate the bilateral agreement as it's currently written - only Shannon and Dublin and specified as gateway airports.

They could operate a charter directly.

[MarkD]

840

a Cork-Shannon-New York service would probably be fine since EI used to operate US-Shannon-BFS some time back.

However, a Cork-Dublin-NY service would be interesting and make (very slightly) more sense than flying 100km ORK-SNN, with RE reducing service to 3x and FR coming in - a 330 Cork-Dublin early bird would allow some bullying of FR for a change :D It will never happen though as you would have to overnight the 330 and for what? I'm a Cork man through and through and I just don't see the demand for flogging a 330 that way, and EI don't have something smaller like a 757 or 310 to do it.

That said, I wonder if DM will consider re-introducing 320s on ORK-DUB with RE retreating to safer pastures on IOM to provide greater interconnection with current and future DUB services...

[mark_heg]

Hmmmm, if they EI tried to do a charter to either BOS or NY I doubt that would happen, look at what happened with orlando its being pulled as of jan 06. Then you have the whole issue about cork and a fully laden heavy taking off from a short runway.

Would it be feasible to overnight the A330 its not like it does much in any event after its TA flights?

[Tom the Tenor]

The North Atlantic from Cork is dead for a long time to come. Yes, it is a shame and I was very bitter about it following the news a few weeks ago. Got to face facts though. The only transatlantic crossings in the short to mid term future will be the very odd bizjet going west because we all know how much Cork likes to entertain corporate aeroplanes looking for an overnight's parking.

The JFK cancellation is a black mark for the crowd at Cork but it wont stop the huffing and puffing about Ryanairs to Dublin and Gatwick and how great it is for Sean Citizen etc.

Yes, Lagerlout, we will see what Ryanair are made of come next summer but with a near immediate dropping of a STN rotation next January I remain quite suspicious of Ryanair in this matter. Bet Michael O'Leary in his Cork hurling jersey did not tell the boyos at Cork about that watering down of the STN-ORK schedule the day he was in town?

Cork is not Liverpool and she does not have the critical mass of population so there will be no base of substance at Cork and just to make sure of it being even less likely the 17 routes base at snn will not be put in danger because the much cuter boyos in charge at snn would not allow it to happen as long as they are giving FR freebies in the guise of marketing incentives etc.

Ryanair had very little interest in Cork until easyJet began in January. What does Ryanair's new, peculiar committment do for Cork? Among other things it serves to scare away other potential traffic? Remember, snn needs FR, Cork much less so.

However, as Lagerlout says, maybe I am getting it all wrong and we could be all in for the surprise of our lives at Cork next summer. If that is the case I will eat my hat and with salt too! It has been known to happen before!

;)

[neidin]

I can never understand the mania in Cork, Kerry and Knock about USA flights. They are never going to be of volume or big revenue generation.

I think the biggest blow to ORK is the loss of the BA service to Manchester this autumn. A service that ran for 12 years with great frequency and superb connections and it is replaced with a patchy BMIBaby service which is of poor frequency and quality.

So now Cork has poor service to both MAN and BHX. These are the two most important destinations for ORK after the London airports.

Look at SNN - things are worse for them - they now have NO service to MAN of any kind. They also now have NO service to BHX. FlyBe quietly pulled out of SNN at the start of Sep.

So. I guess you can have all the Ryanair flights you want to other airports - but hey if within a few months you do not have decent service from the West of Ireland to MAN or BHX - well that is grim for business people.

Ryanair are going to exert enormous political influence on the Irish Govt. through ORK and SNN airport as they systematically chase the other UK carriers away. Watch what will happen in 2007 before the May Irish Elections when Ryanair will threaten to pull all services from ORK and SNN when the deals are starting to run out and they want to pressure DUB airport.

[840]

I think the obsession with direct US flights is primarily related to the impact it can have on the local economy rather than because it is of any benefit to the airport. Why did the company I work for open its first office on the European mainland in The Netherlands? Because there was a direct, frequent air connection from Cork. For business users, ease of connectivity is an important consideration when deciding on location.

I agree about Manchester. Indeed, with BMIBaby withdrawing from the East Midlands route, it's questionable what their value to Cork Airport is. They replaced an adequate Air Wales service to Cardiff with an adequate Air Wales service to Cardiff. They've forced BA off the Manchester route. They threaten the viability of Aer Arann's route to Birmingham. The only obvious benefit is the route to Durham Tees Valley and with Jet2 starting flights to Newcastle, it'll be interesting to see if they stick on that route.

[MarkD]

It would be interesting to see some detente between EI and Willie, with the result of some EI aircraft (320s or even some 319s from the option bank) replacing BA on the MAN routes to SNN and ORK, and maybe DUB-LGW too. BA can then concentrate their LGW aircraft on European routes where there is no alliance partner.

As for FR's new found love for ORK, EI's is not very old either... about as old as Jetmagic's launch :(

[CCR]

The obsession with transatlantic flights from Cork is due to the fact that Cork city & county with about 500,000 and growing rapidly due to immigration is the second largest population centre in the Republic of Ireland. It is denied scheduled flights to the US (Ireland's largest trading partner) due to politics.
The EU will thankfully resolve this anachronism when they agree the Open skies deal with the US next year. It is about the economy and particularly US investment in the region. To get to/from Cork to the US, travellers must fly via hubs such as Dublin, Heathrow or Amsterdam.
When Open skies is agreed, airlines will announce scheduled transatlantic services into Cork within a matter of weeks.

[neidin]

Dublin Airport Authority got a smaller increase in charges from the regulator than they hoped for yesterday. Ryanair is predictably going crazy.

Seems that all it will really pay for is some of the cost of the new terminal in Cork. I wonder what pressure that has put on the Cork Airport Chairman today.

Can you handle that pressure Mr. Gantley?

How will you pay for the new fire service kit at Cork?

[mark_heg]

When exactly do negotiations open again for the open skies policy? From what i have gathered the US are holding off as long as possible, and what about heathrow dont they also play a part in this fiasco?

[Tom the Tenor]

BA MAN-ORK was in decline as soon as they cut down from 3 a day to one a day two winters ago. At the time bmi baby went up to two daily for the winter from one during the summer so BA took the hit as they could never match the much cheaper fares of bmi baby. The BA fares were and have been mad high.

The following summer schedule saw bmi baby go back to just one daily for the summer. The brains around that decision still baffles me to this day. This coming winter schedule will see one a day bmi baby in the morning time to Cork rather than in the evening time with BA quitting altogether at the end of October.

My own thoughts are that Aer Arann should try twice daily ORK-MAN like they do with BHX. Costs of flying ATRs are away lower than flying classic 737s and offering a same day return would take business from bmi baby.

[riverrock]

new CX starts at ORK today? something new or more of the same i wonder??

[Tom the Tenor]

One comment on yesterday's start was that Mr Keohane was trying to outdo Willie Walsh on his first day in the job at BA!

Ar aghaidh leis an obair! ;)