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

Masala

Surprising Ryanair never saw any value in a Cork to Germany connection...... I wonder what LF sees in it. Ryanair flights to Poland already scoops up a huge market in Cork that would have used it.

Also .... what is Frankfurt like as a city versus say a Berlin or a Munich to visit???

snotboogie

Masala wrote: »

Surprising Ryanair never saw any value in a Cork to Germany connection...... I wonder what LF sees in it. Ryanair flights to Poland already scoops up a huge market in Cork that would have used it.

Also .... what is Frankfurt like as a city versus say a Berlin or a Munich to visit???

It's not great compared to those two, however Frankfurt Airport is the 4th busiest in Europe and the route would be primarily aimed at transfers. The times don't look great but the route is an absolute dream for Cork Airport. Before Covid I'd honestly have put Frankfurt with Lufthansa only behind New York and Boston with Aerlingus in terms of the best routes to add. There was huge point to point gaps in the market from Cork that Ryanair (and to a lesser extent AL) were starting to fill before the world was turned upside down but really what remains to be seen is what will be left over after covid in 2022.The big question is if Ryanair will reopen their base.

TheDriver

Masala wrote: »

Also .... what is Frankfurt like as a city versus say a Berlin or a Munich to visit???

Absolutely dreadful. Nothing to see there. It's nice for drinking and shipping but it's effectively a new city. It's a big commercial and transit centre.

TheDriver

snotboogie wrote: »

The big question is if Ryanair will reopen their base.

Most definitely yes, they make a lot of cash from sun flights. And there's no base in Canary Islands so they'll prob open Cork again.
Today's announcement is a total anti NEPHT thought process.

titan18

Masala wrote: »

Surprising Ryanair never saw any value in a Cork to Germany connection...... I wonder what LF sees in it. Ryanair flights to Poland already scoops up a huge market in Cork that would have used it.

Also .... what is Frankfurt like as a city versus say a Berlin or a Munich to visit???

Frankfurt itself isn't a city break place. It's reasonably close to places like Cologne though which are meant to be decent, or for people wanting to travel for football matches/drinking sessions, it's close enough to Dortmund and that area. Black Forest and Baden-Baden are also in range.

thomil

Masala wrote: »

Also .... what is Frankfurt like as a city versus say a Berlin or a Munich to visit???

Let me just say this. The two biggest attractions in Frankfurt are the airport and the central railway station, both of which have the main advantage of getting you out of the city pretty quickly

On a more serious note, I lived and worked in that area for ten years before coming to Ireland, so I have a bit of first-hand experience with Frankfurt. It‘s not a beautiful city thanks to numerous courtesy calls by the US 8th Air Force and RAF Bomber command during the war. The historic city centre was effectively wiped out. There are still some original buildings left in the city, and parts of the historic core have recently been rebuilt, but the combination of World War 2 and 1960s city planners has left its marks on the city.

There are a number of rather impressive museums and galleries in the city, such as the Schirn, a gallery that specialises in modern art, or the Senckenberg museum, which is an excellent natural history museum. Then, there‘s Sachsenhausen, which is similar to Temple Bar with its pubs, though at less extortionate prices.

The big thing however is shopping, which is were Frankfurt really excels. The main shopping district (Zeil, Goethestrasse, Bockenheimer Strasse) really has every store you could ever want, from absolute luxury brands down to stores that are actually affordable. Then, there‘s the Kleinmarkthalle, an indoor food market that puts the English Market to shame with regards to size and selection.

The other big thing is the skyline. Frankfurt is one of the few cities in Germany to actually have a US-style clustering of high-rise office buildings and skyscrapers, including some with open viewing platforms. In the times before the pandemic, they had regular light and fireworks shows that utilised this skyline as a stage. Not sure whether that‘s still going on.

Most of these attractions can be easily walked to, as large parts of the city centre are pedestrianised. Anything that cannot be reached on foot should be within range of one of the ten tram lines, nine metro lines or nine S-Bahn lines, and tourist tickets are available.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope that shed some light on the city. I definitely plan on going back once we can fly again.

Chris_5339762

Yes Frankfurt/Cologne/Dusseldorf were all flattened and extremely poorly rebuilt. That said, Cologne is worth it for the cathedral only, its just so large and impressive that its worth the trip.

Lufthansas flight network is the big winner here. Get a connecting flight to Munich which was bombed, but not as badly, andpreserved its pre-war street grid and is much nicer. Get a train up to Regensburg, the biggest German city that had almost no bombing at all.

Arrange the flights to fly back with an overnight stop in Zurich and you've got a great 3 - 4 day trip.

VG31

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Lufthansas flight network is the big winner here. Get a connecting flight to Munich which was bombed, but not as badly, andpreserved its pre-war street grid and is much nicer. Get a train up to Regensburg, the biggest German city that had almost no bombing at all.

I've flown into Frankfurt lots of times but have never actually been to Frankfurt. It was mainly for connecting flights but I've also visited parts of Germany near Frankfurt. There's a lot of places worth visiting within an hour or two by train from Frankfurt. For example:

Upper Middle Rhine Valley
Mosel Valley
Heidelberg
Mannheim
Mainz
Wiesbaden
Black Forest
Stuttgart
Nuremberg

hans aus dtschl

I've done several weekenders in Frankfurt.
Will do so again.

Good nightclubs and festivals, good shopping, excellent public transport, the Messe, good restaurants, good hotels.
I don't need an enormous list of things to see and do, for 2 or 2 and a half days away.

But it's not an "open bus tour" capital city.

Debub

If you like driving - just rent a car (maybe a BMW 1 Series manual) from Frankfut airport and just drive around the Black Forest - its a stunning drive with great sight lines - with stops at Baden Baden, Strasbourg, Colmar, Triberg... quaffing Black Forest cake along the way (careful - they do pack in a LOT of alcohol into the cake in those parts)
:-)

Chris_5339762

VG31 wrote: »

I've flown into Frankfurt lots of times but have never actually been to Frankfurt. It was mainly for connecting flights but I've also visited parts of Germany near Frankfurt. There's a lot of places worth visiting within an hour or two by train from Frankfurt. For example:

Upper Middle Rhine Valley
Mosel Valley
Heidelberg
Mannheim
Mainz
Wiesbaden
Black Forest
Stuttgart
Nuremberg

May I also recommend


Bamberg
Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Monkey Island - google it!)
Dinkesbuhl


All absolutely lovely spots.

TheQuietBeatle

My wife is Brazilian, any links from Frankfurt to the Northeast Brazil?

thomil

I'm afraid not. Lufthansa used to serve Recife, but they've discontinued that.

Currently, you'd have to fly from Cork to Frankfurt to Sao Paulo/Rio de Janeiro and then to Recife or whatever your destination is.

On the plus side, Lufthansa is a codeshare partner of LATAM, so you should at least be able to do that entire flight on one ticket and with your luggage checked through to your destination.

Condor, a German charter airline, might still serve Recife from Frankfurt, but I'm honestly not sure.

marno21

KLM service to Amsterdam returned today. Up to 7 flights per week now in total (4x LHR & 3x AMS).

Fingers crossed we never see things this grim again.

Corholio

marno21 wrote: »

KLM service to Amsterdam returned today. Up to 7 flights per week now in total (4x LHR & 3x AMS).

Fingers crossed we never see things this grim again.

If anyone travels on the Amsterdam flights anytime soon can they let us know how they get on? Interested to know what is needed etc.

the beer revolu

Corholio wrote: »

If anyone travels on the Amsterdam flights anytime soon can they let us know how they get on? Interested to know what is needed etc.

I'd imagine that a valid reason to travel would be the first requirement.

Pen Rua

https://www.thejournal.ie/ryanair-says-it-will-not-reopen-its-cork-base-until-winter-2021-at-the-earliest-5369600-Mar2021/?utm_source=twitter_short

Ryanair will not reopen the Cork airport base until at least Winter 2021, but will continue to fly from the airport using planes based at other bases.

Worth noting that this is due to the airport's plans to renovate the runway, which would prevent planes from taking off in early morning or land at late night.

Chris_5339762

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Yes Frankfurt........... Get a connecting flight to Munich which was bombed, but not as badly, andpreserved its pre-war street grid and is much nicer. Get a train up to Regensburg, the biggest German city that had almost no bombing at all.

Arrange the flights to fly back with an overnight stop in Zurich and you've got a great 3 - 4 day trip.

If I'm going away for a few nights and I need to fly to Munich after landing in Frankfurt I'm just going to drive to Dublin and fly to Munich direct.
Connecting flights are a ball ache IMO.

The Cork runway works......... if finished by early 2022 will be a silver lining of the large covid cloud to be fair.

Treehelpplease

anyone know what a renovation involves, especially one taking so long? Extension maybe?

Reconstruction.... A new surface in addition to below surface work.. New bed/foundation presumably.

CharlieCroker

Any plans for a parallel taxiway?

Corholio

the beer revolu wrote: »

I'd imagine that a valid reason to travel would be the first requirement.

Don't be smart, we are all fully aware of that. During the summer I will have a potential reason to travel, my polite query was about what tests etc were required specifically for Amsterdam. A year on and some still pretending like forum police to get their invisible one ups.

EU looking at vaccine passports iirc.

Chris_5339762

Augeo wrote: »

If I'm going away for a few nights and I need to fly to Munich after landing in Frankfurt I'm just going to drive to Dublin and fly to Munich direct.
Connecting flights are a ball ache IMO.

Driving TO Dublin for a flight isn't too bad, but the drive BACK from Dublin after a flight is the ball ache to me. Security etc is much easier in Cork than Dublin (I've never had a problem in Dublin but it just takes much longer).



Connecting flight anyday. More fun too. Just before COVID (somewhere in this thread) Aer Lingus were thinking of reintroducing Cork - Dublin flights (maybe with an ATR) to feed people into their route network. Hopefully that'll come about again in the future as that would be a great option.

Masala

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Driving TO Dublin for a flight isn't too bad, but the drive BACK from Dublin after a flight is the ball ache to me. Security etc is much easier in Cork than Dublin (I've never had a problem in Dublin but it just takes much longer).



Connecting flight anyday. More fun too. Just before COVID (somewhere in this thread) Aer Lingus were thinking of reintroducing Cork - Dublin flights (maybe with an ATR) to feed people into their route network. Hopefully that'll come about again in the future as that would be a great option.

....... eh?? Can't see that happening.... Will Cork people pay €150-€200 return to keep this viable??

Chris_5339762

They were thinking of it. There was some evidence that people were deliberately selecting Cork over Dublin rather than have to drive/bus for 3-4 hours each way. I don't think it was immediate Cork-Dublin flights, but in the next few years.

namloc1980

I'd take a connecting flight from Cork over the 5-6 hour round trip drive to and from Dublin airport every day of the week. Absolutely no contest.

I've had too much bad experience with connecting flights tbh.
Flight to Munich was delayed a tad once and barely made the connecting flight to Austria which was only a 2 hour drive away and we were getting a car anyway. Running around an airport is less than fun.

Flew to Dresden once, via I can't even remember and the first flight landed after the next took off, same airline. Was a pain in the hoop for them to accept it wasn't our fault, sorted eventually, overnight stay and looney in the AM flight the next day.

another time they'd overbooked on the 2nd flight so I was left wondering could I board the thing for over an hour.

No chance I'd go the connecting flight option if anyway avoidable. You'll spend the driving time in the airports anyway.

Squedward

I think Aer Lingus should improve connecting with BA in Heathrow, the connections are really poorly priced currently.