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

I think we can stay on the optimistic side there with regard to JFK and other East Coast US airports, the runway length is becoming less of an issue in that regard with the operation of The 737 Max and the A321 LR

I believe it is only a matter of time now and I very much that it will be an Aer Lingus service as they are now Dublin centric.

Surely and logically if that was indeed the case then why aren't the DAA making a case for a runway extension, obviously the usual Dublin Airport favoritism aside of course.

Norwegian managed the Providence route with the 737 Max and before that the 737 800, I am not sure of course if there were load limitations with the 800.

From what I heard it’s seasonal, the new aircraft could operate without restrictions in the summer but would be restricted in the winter months

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119539201/#Comment_119539201

I don't care much about transatlantic from cork tbh. Perfectly happy to go to Shannon for that, especially with pre-clearance. It's only an hour or so up the road, and most importantly, isn't Dublin. :)

Just some bog standard European routes would be fantastic. It's hard to make out the Cork schedule from the outside, but I get the impression when I go through the airport that maybe 70% of the regularly scheduled flights are UK?

The swiss flights are really patchy, here and there. Sometimes it's there, then it's gone again. Same for Rome. Can't get to any Scandinavian city , or even Berlin, anywhere in Belgium. I go to antwerp a few times a year, I've tried it by train from Schipol, hired a car and drove a few hours across the border. It's awkward for planning work either way because you have to get past The Hague and the traffic there is painful. Just normal working European business hubs would be nice, nothing exotic.

is there any talk of a Winter schedule from Aer Lingus to Gran Canaria in November? I would like to book flights - Ryanair is expensive and I'm wondering should I hold out for another while. When I look at booking Cork to GC, it says that its due to be scheduled shortly but I don't know if that's correct or not.

Munich was definitely served. Quite frequently at one point, before Aer Dublin reduced the frequency to twice a week and eventually killed it completely. I think, rather than simply focusing on destinations, the focus should be to attract more airlines. Aer Dublin simply cannot be trusted by any airport outside the pale and Ryanair isn't the most reliable business partner either, so getting more carriers is the only way for Cork to grow reliably. I'd personally love to see the likes of SAS, Austrian Airlines, LOT, Eurowings or ITA Airways start serving the airport, though the latter in particular seems unlikely.

As for transatlantic, I remember someone publishing some financial information from Norwegian in this thread in 2018 or 2019 that showed that the Cork-Providence route was actually the only Irish route that was profitable for Norwegian, so the business potential is definitely there. If an airline can tap into that potential and route it via a US east coast hub, such as Delta with their Boston hub, or United with their Newark operation, both of which should be reachable from Cork with reserves, then I can see it working out.

Heathrow, Stansted and Amsterdam are not far off 50% of the pax for Cork combined. Adding another major hub/destination/inbound tourism driver is what’s really going to drive growth in Cork. CDG, Frankfurt, Geneva or other potentials like Madrid or Istanbul are not going to deliver the sort of year round daily service that we see in the big three. JFK, Newark and Logan all could, at least in theory. The other European city destinations are all going to be two or three flights per week max and probably seasonal, that’s not to say that they don’t all add up but you can see why there is a big spotlight on the East Coast hubs.

Agree those 3 routes are the main business.Madrid or Lisbon could have the potential to be year around albeit on a reduced service during winter months. Large numbers of south americans here either working or studying so link these hubs would be good for them. Let alone the numbers of spanish here. Think it could be possible. A go study of the next batch of census results next april should provide more information in this area.

Airport also needs better links to Germany. Would also help if airlines confirmed their schedules a few weeks earlier. Many people start planning summer holidays in jan but often summer schedules are announced a bit later

Shannon go to Budapest so that one is partially covered I guess. Vienna would be nice.

Extra frequency on Amsterdam with KLM, Frankfurt with Lufthansa and Zurich with Swiss would be the only way to go I think myself. At least then you can get to most places.

Yes, extra frequency would be great.

But, transferring absolutely consumes work or life when you need a whole day of travel to get anywhere in europe, so it's can't be the ONLY way to go.

Get to airport 1 hr before flight, fly ~2 hours, changeover minimum 2 hours, next flight 2 hours, get out of airport - 1 hr. = 8 hrs, day gone. And there's very little time in there to get onto a remote meeting , because you're either in security or on a plane.

When I'm working in amsterdam or nearby, it's easy peasy. Might as well be a commute, hop on and hop off. If it's a transfer situation, I lose a whole day either end of the travel compared to my counterparts coming from UK or Dublin.

Isn’t there up to 4 flights a day going to Schiphol at the moment? I know half of it is covered by Aerlingus but how much more demand could Cork possibly fill on that route?

They skip some days in the week which would be handy to get added. Aer Lingus have no flights Tuesday or Saturdays, and KLM only are one a day some days too.

Aer Lingus are not doing Gran Canaria or Tenerife this winter (or much else for that matter).

We might get a few new UK routes with Emerald but I wouldn’t be holding out hope for Aer Lingus to operate new or reinstate old European routes (at least in the near future).

Air France (Hop) seem committed to Cork. They are flying 6 times a week up until end of October. They then take a break until end of March 2023 and then start up again. Year round would be better but 8 months of year is not too bad. And we do have Vueling to Orly for those winter months.