Cork Airport - *Read Mod Note in First Post Before Posting*

Masala

If Martin & Coveney don't intervene

..... in what regard?? Tell IAG to back off??? Pump €10m into cork as a 'grant'.

YellowBucket

Masala wrote: »

..... in what regard?? Tell IAG to back off??? Pump €10m into cork as a 'grant'.

Well they're going to have to do something as we can either intervene, or watch KLM-Air France, Brussels Airlines (a division of Lufthansa) and all sorts of others being bailed out while Aer Lingus is just written off.

Air connectivity is vital infrastructure. If say power plants were going to go off line due to some economic turmoil, I'm sure we would intervene before the lights go out.

If we don't do something we are going to end up with no connectivity and serious difficulties for years. It's as simple as that.

The potential costs involved in terms of losses to the economy by not protecting Aer Lingus or at least protecting connectivity and key routes out of our airports is enormous relative to the cost of bailing them out temporarily.

Some of those routes, particularly to the major hubs like London Heathrow and Amsterdam are utterly key to Cork's ability to function as a business centre for both Irish and multinational companies. It's not just about holiday flights to La Rochelle or whatever.

cantalach

YellowBucket wrote: »

If Cork loses connectivity to LHR and European hubs we can basically forget it as a location for business. The whole focus will shift to Dublin, even more so.

If Martin & Coveney don't intervene, I think there's really going to be a big economic problem ahead post Covid here. It could take years to rebuild any kind of serious connectivity and FDI will fade without those links also domestic services businesses will be completely screwed.

I know a few people working in Cork based services sector stuff who are really worried about this as it will completely undermine the viability of being based here.

Losing the connection to LHR would be a major blow to Cork. But I don’t think there is any danger of that. Closing Cork as a base doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have any flights. It just means there aren’t aircraft based in Cork.

YellowBucket

I was talking to a few people in one of the major employers in Cork this afternoon and they're basically saying if there's a significant loss of connectivity from Cork, it's more or less a case of moving staff to Dublin / Dublin commuter belt towns, as it won't be a viable to be based out of here anymore if that's where we're headed. So it's pretty serious stuff and it's very likely to impact investment decisions / cause hold off on investment.

The reality of the situation is Aer Lingus made a serious loss in the first half of this year - €316m. It was profitable last year - the most profitable airline in IAG, but whether or not it's seen as strategically relevant to them or whether they're waiting for a government bailout is another question.

The trajectory it's on at the moment is not viable from an accounting point of view.

satanta99

This seems like an element of posturing to the unions. SIPTU members voted to reject the deal they were offered.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2020/0714/1153298-aer-lingus-proposals/

This seems like Aer Lingus putting pressure on the unions, the ground staff and cabin crew, and the government

Business travel won’t be back till next year at the earliest. Even if the government stepped in and subsidised them to run two daily flights to London from Cork and Shannon, they wouldn’t fill the seats. The majority of people won’t put themselves or their family or friends at risk by travelling during a Global pandemic.

snotboogie

satanta99 wrote: »

This seems like an element of posturing to the unions. SIPTU members voted to reject the deal they were offered.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2020/0714/1153298-aer-lingus-proposals/

This seems like Aer Lingus putting pressure on the unions, the ground staff and cabin crew, and the government

Business travel won’t be back till next year at the earliest. Even if the government stepped in and subsidised them to run two daily flights to London from Cork and Shannon, they wouldn’t fill the seats. The majority of people won’t put themselves or their family or friends at risk by travelling during a Global pandemic.

The Heathrow flight never stopped, the frequency was cut. There are 3 flights from Cork to London taking off today.

cantalach

snotboogie wrote: »

The Heathrow flight never stopped, the frequency was cut. There are 3 flights from Cork to London taking off today.

And as a business traveller, my view is that Heathrow is all you need. I travel to the US and India 6+ times a year and always through Heathrow. Much less frequently work has taken me to East Asia or Latin America, and Heathrow works perfectly for that too. I can recall just one trip in the last decade when I connected in Amsterdam. Of course, leisure travel and inbound tourism is a completely different story...

marno21

The LHR flight ran the whole way through lockdown at 5pw as snotboogie said. It may not have had many of it but it was one of the few EI flights to run, and many others were reliant on cargo such as the US flights and some of the LHR ones from DUB which operated on 330s.

No EI flight has run from SNN since the lockdown cancellations.

There is now, and always will be large demand for hub connectivity from Cork. If EI could sustain 4 daily to LHR amid competition from 10 weekly to Amsterdam, daily to Paris and several weekly to Zurich, along with the connections via the Aer Lingus Regional flights in MAN/BHX etc then it'll work out for us some way.

Either way, I think it's just the penny dropping at EI and realising they are going to have to play dirty to get Europe's most reliant on aviation country to actually wake up and look at helping the industry like all the other EU countries (and further afield) have done. The fact that the Taoiseach and 2 Senior Ministers are in the same constituency as Cork Airport is another angle here.

Chris_5339762

If Aer Lingus reduce LHR from Cork consistently reducing connectivity, there will fast be a demand for a Cork - Dublin ATR based flight to tie-in with Dublins better set of destinations.

TheQuietBeatle

Hearing quite a few Aer Lingus flights cancelled for most of September from Cork...

roundymac

Not surprised, people are being told to staycation plus schools reopening.

.red.

TheQuietBeatle wrote: »

Hearing quite a few Aer Lingus flights cancelled for most of September from Cork...

Expect all these flights to be gone until March of next year at the very least.
More than likely it'll just be Heathrow and Amsterdam until then.

grogi

cantalach wrote: »

Losing the connection to LHR would be a major blow to Cork. But I don’t think there is any danger of that. Closing Cork as a base doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have any flights. It just means there aren’t aircraft based in Cork.

If there is base, there WILL be flights. If the base isn't here, there MIGHT be flights.

Debub

Is there a new KLM Cork-Ams flight starting in August?

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Debub wrote: »

Is there a new KLM Cork-Ams flight starting in August?

Yes, it's operating now.

TheQuietBeatle

Flights seem to be arriving and departing super early

marno21

TheQuietBeatle wrote: »

Flights seem to be arriving and departing super early

Very little on board and empty queue free airport. Plus no knock on delays from earlier in the day for the same reason.

Flights inbound from Budapest and Malta passed over earlier I noticed. Who could possibly be flying on these flights with all the 14 day quarantine rules?

TheQuietBeatle

Most people going i know are just exhausted from work and prefer to risk it and self isolate working from home afterwards.

kooga

drove into the airport this morning as i was up that way - not much sign of life - nobody in the set down and the airport hotel (formerly the radisson) looks to be closed. Very sad.

flexcon

marno21 wrote: »

Very little on board and empty queue free airport. Plus no knock on delays from earlier in the day for the same reason.

Flights inbound from Buda

pest and Malta passed over earlier I noticed. Who could possibly be flying on these flights with all the 14 day quarantine rules?

Only back From South Alicante region myself. Have a family home there. Return flights were 30euro. The best travel experience I ever had - minus the mask

working from home so I got collected from Airport by my SO and that's it. 2 weeks up all good.

Weighed up the risks and decided to go.

Dbu

flexcon wrote: »

Only back From South Alicante region myself. Have a family home there. Return flights were 30euro. The best travel experience I ever had - minus the mask

working from home so I got collected from Airport by my SO and that's it. 2 weeks up all good.

Weighed up the risks and decided to go.

You are braver than me
Your SO has to self isolate for 2 weeks now as well I presume?

cantalach

TheQuietBeatle wrote: »

Most people going i know are just exhausted from work and prefer to risk it and self isolate working from home afterwards.

You know a lot of complete dicks.

Slipperydodger

Dbu wrote: »

You are braver than me
Your SO has to self isolate for 2 weeks now as well I presume?

Yep she would need to.

Acosta

Slipperydodger wrote: »

Yep she would need to.

I think the only thing you need to do by law is fill out the covid locator form.

Cork Lass

Very disappointing that Ryanair are closing their Cork base for the winter. I hope the airport can survive this.

H8GHOTI

Ya it’s disappointing but not sure what choice they had. They couldn’t make a profit in the current situation.

Very few routes now, job losses as well, it’s shît.
I think there should have been less restrictions in the summer. But with case numbers rising now travelling would be riskier. The passenger numbers would be low over winter and this probably would have happened anyway.

Acosta

H8GHOTI wrote: »

Ya it’s disappointing but not sure what choice they had. They couldn’t make a profit in the current situation.

Very few routes now, job losses as well, it’s shît.
I think there should have been less restrictions in the summer. But with case numbers rising now travelling would be riskier. The passenger numbers would be low over winter and this probably would have happened anyway.

Yeah. Looking back there could definitely have been a lot more business done over the summer. And that would have really helped ease the pain a little over what will be a hellish winter. I was speaking to a Ryanair pilot a while back who also worked on holiday flights from the UK. He said even with quarantine rules there, flights were quite busy compared to Ireland.

The government here went all out with the staycation campaign, even inserting tax breaks to encourage people. And the people listened. Instead of going to a half empty resort in Spain or Portugal, they went to busy Kerry and got fleeced. Aviation is in tatters now and I hope the government is ready and willing to offer real financial support over the winter period.

.red.

I was chatting to a Ryanair pilot based in Luton and he said pretty much every holiday destination had 140+ and many were close to full capacity.
Cork had 30 or less on most and the busy ones had 50. The Polish flights averaged about 120ish.
Ryanair are getting hammered for closing the Cork base, but(I think) have one flight per week less than Aer Lingus for the winter. Ryanair kept the airport going all summer but everybody loves to bash them.

Cork Lass

.red. wrote: »

I was chatting to a Ryanair pilot based in Luton and he said pretty much every holiday destination had 140+ and many were close to full capacity.
Cork had 30 or less on most and the busy ones had 50. The Polish flights averaged about 120ish.
Ryanair are getting hammered for closing the Cork base, but(I think) have one flight per week less than Aer Lingus for the winter. Ryanair kept the airport going all summer but everybody loves to bash them.

I don’t blame Ryanair at all, I blame our incompetent government. It’s ironic that we have a cork Taoiseach and our airport is on the verge of being shut. We will be travelling to Dublin for flights for many years if something isn’t done soon.

.red.

Cork Lass wrote: »

I don’t blame Ryanair at all, I blame our incompetent government. It’s ironic that we have a cork Taoiseach and our airport is on the verge of being shut. We will be travelling to Dublin for flights for many years if something isn’t done soon.

Not saying you....... But people have been driving to Dublin for flights for years. Save €50 on a return flight but spend €20 on the bus with a 6/7 hour commute.
The airport isn't on the verge of closing either. At the very worst it'll open at reduced hours but it won't shut. Not while theres 25/30 flights a week.