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

TheDriver

JCX BXC wrote: »

Well following the taoiseachs hopeful comments on international travel, Leo seems to want to keep the boarders to the EU and US shut for another extended period of time.

It does seem like the 6 weeks implementation of the travel cert will be utilised to stop people holidaying.

JCX BXC

JCX BXC wrote: »

Well following the taoiseachs hopeful comments on international travel, Leo seems to want to keep the boarders to the EU and US shut for another extended period of time.

Whatever about the US they can only delay the EU travel for six weeks...... no chance they can "force people to stay in Ireland for the rest of 2021" which is what I was replying to.

daithi7

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/up-to-130-aer-lingus-jobs-to-go-as-airline-closes-shannon-base-1.4568363

"...The airline also intends laying off 198 crew and ground staff in Cork Airport without pay from September to November this year...."

kub

daithi7 wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/up-to-130-aer-lingus-jobs-to-go-as-airline-closes-shannon-base-1.4568363

"...The airline also intends laying off 198 crew and ground staff in Cork Airport without pay from September to November this year...."

That is a huge hit on Shannon and it is very tough on their staff there as regards Cork, well with the planned resurfacing of the main runway, then planes will not be able to operate either which way.

daithi7

kub wrote: »

That is a huge hit on Shannon and it is very tough on their staff there as regards Cork, well with the planned resurfacing of the main runway, then planes will not be able to operate either which way.

Exactly, so because of the incompetence and lack of foresight of Cork Airport's management in not bringing forward runway maintenance to sometime in the last 8 months, the whole aer lingus flight & ground staff ( and many others) are effectively being laid off for 3+ months this autumn!!

Pretty spectacular, public sector mismanagement if you ask me!!

daithi7

PreCocious wrote: »

Go on, give us a few examples of what you mean by "mediocrity" .

Is that mediocre enough for you!?

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40292219.html

daithi7

daithi7 wrote: »

Exactly, so because of the incompetence and lack of foresight of Cork Airport's management in not bringing forward runway maintenance to sometime in the last 8 months, the whole aer lingus flight & ground staff ( and many others) are effectively being laid off for 3+ months this autumn!!

Pretty spectacular, public sector mismanagement if you ask me!!

the works have been brought forward. Only so much can be done, it's not a few crews of tarmac specialists in Transits sort of a gig.

IngazZagni

daithi7 wrote: »

Exactly, so because of the incompetence and lack of foresight of Cork Airport's management in not bringing forward runway maintenance to sometime in the last 8 months, the whole aer lingus flight & ground staff ( and many others) are effectively being laid off for 3+ months this autumn!!

Pretty spectacular, public sector mismanagement if you ask me!!

Couple things on this. Right now it does look like the airport will be closed at a time when restrictions will start to relax. However a few months ago we were quite hopeful of having a decent amount of flights from July to September. Can you imagine the uproar if they closed the airport in peak summer just after the covid devastation?

Secondly, you can’t just decide you want to start construction earlier than planned just like that. The construction companies are flat out right now and they simply wouldn’t be able to start right now as they are still catching up on the backlog from the covid stoppages this year.

Thirdly it was the airlines themselves that agreed that this was the preferred strategy. The alternative was to have the airport operate severely restricted operating hours for many more months dragging into next summer and Ryanair made it very clear that they would not be able to operate a base in Cork with such restrictive hours.

It’s not ideal but come December the airport will be fully operational and all necessary technical upgrades complete and hopefully Covid will mostly be a thing of the past too.

PreCocious

daithi7 wrote: »

Is that mediocre enough for you!?

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40292219.html

So you had to wait until after your post to find an article ?

As has been mentioned so many times before - at every stage in this pandemic the golden sunlit uplands were just a few months away. Last year we thought we'd have a summer, we then had the meaningful Christmas, this year we all thought there would be a summer and well here we are. Even Mr "Make Him President" O'Leary hasn't been able to get a handle on what's happening.

roundymac

Cork is owned and run by the DAA. I'll let people figure out themselves why it's being run the way it is.

IngazZagni

roundymac wrote: »

Cork is owned and run by the DAA. I'll let people figure out themselves why it's being run the way it is.

The DAA is a semistate company. People spent years trying to get Shannon airport run independently from the DAA. They succeeded and the airport only went backwards. Now people have been trying to get the DAA back running Shannon. Be careful what you wish for.

JCX BXC

IngazZagni wrote: »

The DAA is a semistate company. People spent years trying to get Shannon airport run independently from the DAA. They succeeded and the airport only went backwards. Now people have been trying to get the DAA back running Shannon. Be careful what you wish for.

The airport went backwards? Not what the figures show.

Who wants Shannon back in the DAA?

This isn't to say the DAA held back the airport in any significant form, self leadership is better though.

The DAA was for many years a very convenient scapegoat for Shannon to blame it's problems on, and it remains so for Cork. When routes arrive and the airport grows everyone is delighted, anything minor happens and everyone runs out and conveniently blames the DAA.

Acosta

daithi7 wrote: »

Exactly, so because of the incompetence and lack of foresight of Cork Airport's management in not bringing forward runway maintenance to sometime in the last 8 months, the whole aer lingus flight & ground staff ( and many others) are effectively being laid off for 3+ months this autumn!!

Pretty spectacular, public sector mismanagement if you ask me!!

The tendering/procurement process and laws that need to be followed to get the 30 million funding to complete this work has been explained to you on this thread several times now. Yet you still ignore these facts for some reason.

kub

Acosta wrote: »

The tendering/procurement process and laws that need to be followed to get the 30 million funding to complete this work has been explained to you on this thread several times now. Yet you still ignore these facts for some reason.

Also to mention that construction crews were also shut down in the lock downs before Christmas.

daithi7

Acosta wrote: »

The tendering/procurement process and laws that need to be followed to get the 30 million funding to complete this work has been explained to you on this thread several times now. Yet you still ignore these facts for some reason.

Dude,
I know the tendering laws & procedures backwards, fyi I've worked for over 30 in public procurement as a consultant, so I hardly need some numbskulls on boards trying to excuse poor performance by trying to hide behind public procurement procedural delays.

All they had to do was do their contractor pre clearance separately, have that out of the way during the first lockdown day and then do the runway procurement for the spring of 2021.

Why because this when flu season is always still in full flow, and we were in the middle of a fuppin flu pandemic, so the probability was the airport would be down to a trickle or closed during this period.

Did the DAA managed airport do this? No. Instead they're closing the airport for scheduled maintenance just when international air travel will be just getting into full recovery mode.

Ryanair are already effectively gone from Cork, Aer lingus Cork will be closed down for this recovery period, and numpties on here want us all to be happy clappy, just cos they'll have procured 30M worth of resurfacing 6 months too late, after a year of closure.

Well boo fuppin hoo. Good on Cork Airport, how are you going to squander the remaining goodwill and airline business of the region!?!

Acosta

daithi7 wrote: »

Dude,
I know the tendering laws & procedures backwards, fyi I've worked for over 30 in public procurement as a consultant, so I hardly need some numbskulls on boards trying to excuse poor performance by trying to hide behind public procurement procedural delays.

All they had to do was do their contractor pre clearance separately, have that out of the way during the first lockdown day and then do the runway procurement for the spring of 2021.

Why because this when flu season is always still in full flow, and we were in the middle of a fuppin flu pandemic, so the probability was the airport would be down to a trickle or closed during this period.

Did the DAA managed airport do this? No. Instead they're closing the airport for scheduled maintenance just when international air travel will be just getting into full recovery mode.

In March last year nobody envisaged we would be in the state we were in come Spring 2021. Worst case scenario was it would be fine by the end of last year.

You're rattling out dates and time frames like everyone knew exactly how long the lockdowns and restrictions were going to last.

When the first lockdown was announced it was officially only for a couple of weeks. It was well reported at the time that the country would hopefully reopen in around 6 weeks after the middle of March. And you're saying that the airport should have been fast tracking the work to be done early this year?
When the government gave up on saying things would be OK by the summer, it was then hopefully things will be fine by Christmas and into the new year. And then look what happened with the variants.
It was all guess work and if governments here and all over the world were basically just winging it, how on earth was the airport management to know back in March last year when would be the best time to do the work?

It sounds like last autumn the airport management gave up on waiting any longer on guessing what state the virus would be in come the middle of this year, picked a date to do the work and stuck with it.

And I can't see how they could have secured a contractor early last year for a job they had at that point no funding for?

Ryanair are already effectively gone from Cork, Aer lingus Cork will be closed down for this recovery period, and numpties on here want us all to be happy clappy, just cos they'll have procured 30M worth of resurfacing 6 months too late, after a year of closure.

Well boo fuppin hoo. Good on Cork Airport, how are you going to squander the remaining goodwill and airline business of the region!?!

Ryanair are scheduled to start flights to Luton, Stansted, Alicante and Wroclaw in a week and a half.

daithi7

Acosta wrote: »

In March last year nobody envisaged we would be in the state we were in come Spring 2021. Worst case scenario was it would be fine by the end of last year.
....
When the first lockdown was announced it was officially only for a couple of weeks. It was well reported at the time that the country would hopefully reopen in around 6 weeks after the middle of March.....

Ah jeez, I accept nobody can 100% predict the future, but can you at least recall the recent past with some degree of accuracy?!

What you're writing above is purely subjective fiction imho, you're trying to totally rewrite the past, to support your highly tenuous narrative....

Now back to the (predicting the probable) future. It was pretty evident and likely last autumn that there would be no major change in lockdown, etc until mass vaccination was possible. The earliest this was ever going to be possible, was this spring/ summer in Ireland ,which even at that is only thanks to a miracle of modern pharma & medicine.

So last autumn was the time for Cork Airport management to get their finger out for once, and do their contractor pre clearance & other pre procurement work, for any possible scheduled airport maintenance services, that they might be considering bringing forward.

They didn't do this then, because they're an incompetent shower, who couldn't organise a pi$$ up in a brewery!!

Now we have an airport closing when air travel will just be expanding, and Aer Lingus are closing down in Cork. Top marks to Cork Airport's management, (the DAA) for what they won't ever teach you (or ever want to) at Hardvard Business School!!

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/up-to-130-aer-lingus-jobs-to-go-as-airline-closes-shannon-base-1.4568363

flexcon

daithi7 wrote: »

Now back to the (predicting the probable) future. It was pretty evident and likely last autumn that there would be no major change in lockdown, etc until mass vaccination was possible.

Well considering two of cork MAJOR mnc were convinced otherwise and returned employees to work only to be sent home again 4 weeks later .. they too got caught out. In fact I’ve seen how much one of them spent on resources and time to achieve that into for it to go down the drain.

You seem to be convinced that what cork Airport done was incompetence. It’s most likely them hedging one way and it turned out the other.

Acosta

daithi7 wrote: »

Ah jeez, I accept nobody can 100% predict the future, but can you at least recall the recent past with some degree of accuracy?!

What you're writing above is purely subjective fiction imho, you're trying to totally rewrite the past, to support your highly tenuous narrative....

Which part was fiction? Are you saying it was a widely held belief throughout last year by government and medics that in the first 4 or 5 months of this year we would have around 500 cases a day? This year was meant to be getting back to normal, albeit slowly, as the vaccines were rolled out. The new variants ruined any chances of having a somewhat normal first few months of this year.

Also, from the middle of March last year we had lockdowns that were first meant to be a couple of weeks and basically kept being extended. These are facts, not fiction. You couldn't plan for much in a climate were we all basically being told that hopefully things will be OK in a few weeks.

Now back to the (predicting the probable) future. It was pretty evident and likely last autumn that there would be no major change in lockdown, etc until mass vaccination was possible. The earliest this was ever going to be possible, was this spring/ summer in Ireland ,which even at that is only thanks to a miracle of modern pharma & medicine.

So last autumn was the time for Cork Airport management to get their finger out for once, and do their contractor pre clearance & other pre procurement work, for any possible scheduled airport maintenance services, that they might be considering bringing forward.

It was last autumn that they put the tender out and made the request for the funding. Which is why the closing and re-opening dates were confirmed last month. According to them and everyone else I've heard talk about it, it took by law 6 months for the tender to be chosen and the funding secured. If you know better, perhaps you should give them a call. Maybe they could do with you expertise on the payroll..

Now we have an airport closing when air travel will just be expanding, and Aer Lingus are closing down in Cork. Top marks to Cork Airport's management, (the DAA) for what they won't ever teach you (or ever want to) at Hardvard Business School!!

Aer Lingus are closing their base in September like all the other airlines are shutting their operations. They will be back at the end of November.

daithi7

Acosta wrote: »

......
Aer Lingus are closing their base in September like all the other airlines are shutting their operations. They will be back at the end of November.

There are things called "opportunity costs" and "disruption costs", that neither you or the DAA management of Cork Airport seem to understand.

Once you shut down operations, and lay off staff, even for Only 10 weeks, you lose customers, staff, goodwill, suppliers, etc, etc, etc

The opportunity costs and disruption costs of shutting down Cork Airport just when the travelling public will be back flying again are huge. This is a scandal imho and heads should roll for it.

It's pure incompetence, and it is costing Cork Airport in the short, medium & long term, and with prudent management it could have been avoided imho. Awful!!

IngazZagni

You need to check your timelines Daithi. When did Cork Airport receive approval for this funding? Your claim that this could have been started last Autumn is pure fantasy.

daithi7

IngazZagni wrote: »

You need to check your timelines Daithi. When did Cork Airport receive approval for this funding? Your claim that this could have been started last Autumn is pure fantasy.

You need to check what I posted IngazZ. I've simply stated they could be doing the work now when there is ~ zero air travel , instead of in the autumn, when air travel will be in high demand imho.

And they could have done this with public procurement and budgetary constraints e.g. pre qual tendering for contractors last year would have been a good start!!

The DAA managed Cork Airport got it royally wrong, Again!!!

PreCocious

Lots of sour grapes in this thread.

daithi7

daithi7 wrote: »

................... and with prudent management it could have been avoided imho. Awful!!

Very subjective and the you'd not have visibility on much if any of the factors tbh.

unplayable

has anyone flown to london from cork recently? i want to head over end of june provided i am vaccinated. what is the police presence like at airport if any?

Masala

unplayable wrote: »

has anyone flown to london from cork recently? i want to head over end of june provided i am vaccinated. what is the police presence like at airport if any?

Eh....????

unplayable

Masala wrote: »

Eh....????

my dad flew to portugal on business and was questioned by police as to where he was going and why. just wondering is it the same in cork.

Chris_5339762

Hopefully Cork will get used between July and September when this work starts, then hopefully only 2 - 3 months downtime and it'll be back strong again.

I had an AL flight cancelled during the pandemic last year and I've been shifting it forward... it was scheduled for the 8th October to LHR. That has now been automatically rebooked flying from Shannon. I'd figure thats what both AL and Ryanair will do. 2hr drive instead of 30 mins. Yay. But easier than Dublin.

ClosedAccountFuzzy

I’m just wondering, given the surge in demand that might happen, could Cork Airport opt to do a slower rebuild of the runway and just do some kind of work around without shutting?

It seems somewhat commercially risky to shut the airport into the ramping back up of aviation in Sept.

Could it end up just taking a year or more to pick up ?

naufragos123

Are all eateries closed in the airport? Does anybody know where I might grab a bite to eat before flying and while waiting for the Covid test result? Thanks a lot.