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

Stansted is a kip, but I think Manchester Terminal 3 is worse. It's a horrible place to be stuck waiting for a delayed flight. Which unfortunately I have been a few times. I'd nearly pay more to fly with Aer Lingus regional into another Terminal there, if they ever brought the route back.

It's been a good few years tbf, so maybe it's improved. But the last few times I was there, it was rammed, with barely anywhere to sit. It was a bit run-down, dirty and hot

If the times suit i guess I'd use it, but luckily whenever going to London with Ryanair, Gatwick always seems to work out better with times.

It's a shopping mall masquerading as an airport. I've had some horrendous experiences coming through Stansted.

You can pay extra to "un-ryanair" the whole experience and it's a gamechanger. I forget exactly what it's called but some kind of priority ticket. You don't need to go through the seven circles of hell to get to the plane.

The obsession with transatlantic in the news again. For a good chuck of the airports catchment area you would be in Shannon in the same lenght of time with pre clearance etc. When talking about connections to the americas how about flights to Lisbon. They should try to attract TAP airlines to cork. They have already gone on record this year that dublin lisbon is one of their most profitable routes given the amount of south americans living here and they use it as a connecting hub. Surely cork has the potential to tap (excuse the pun) into that market.

Also maybe a route to Istanbul as a hub for connections to long haul east given the amount of people from India etc livin here and the amount of Irish in UAE, australia new zealand etc. Both these hubs could be year round too

The majority of Cork's catchment is in the greater city area and West Cork. I almost never hear of people in and around the city using Shannon, when you factor in the dangerous and unpleasant drive, the lack of public transport options and the price and options out of Dublin, it's just easier to go to the capital. I can also see why JFK, Boston and Newark are more attractive than Lisbon or Istanbul, the routes have greater potential. Lisbon as a transfer destination doesn't offer a huge amount more than Amsterdam or London and will never be able to compete with those two on the frequency of routes out of Cork. Istanbul, until it gets a direct route to Australia, doesn't offer a huge amount more than Amsterdam or Heathrow either, whereas the three big East Coast airports open up a whole new world of connections as well as being more appealing P2P than either Lisbon or Istanbul. Thats not to say that Lisbon or Istanbul aren't targeted but you could see why they are lower priority than the East Coast routes. A Qatar Airways route with an A321 Neo, which deliver in 2026, may be a better option than Istanbul, given the Australia and New Zealand connections.

Here is the article for anyone interested: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/cork-airport-chiefs-in-talks-about-direct-flights-to-new-york/a2118288316.html

I would also go via Hospital if I am going to Limerick but the road from the M8 to Limerick is still horrific.

North Cork (say North of Mallow and Fermoy) and Tipp are in the catchment but neither are particularly significant I'd imagine. The population of that part of Cork is tiny and most people in Tipp will choose Dublin Airport over Cork, even towns in South Tipp on the M8 are only saving a 30 or 40 minute drive by going to Cork over Dublin. I don't think enough of a percentage of people using Cork Airport are from those regions to even consider how Shannon would impact transatlantic, the more pressing concern would be the thousands of people boarding the Aircoach every week on the Lower Glanmire Road and how to get them to use the airport in their backyard instead. A route to New York would be a huge pull.

Would the population of cork city and west cork be large enough to sustain a twice weekly for example service. Im back living in tipp (i still use cork when i can) but id take shannon as pre clearance would save the hassle at the other end. Plus given the time of year there more flexibility for trip duration as there is a daily service between shannon and new york in summer season.. plenty of people here in tipp now with the opinion give me cork or shannon over dublin.

Yes there are loads that get the aircoach to dublin as a result of not looking at options. I got to the stage i just laught when i hear the likes of obit was 20 euro cheaper. I hear in working in limerick now too why people might not use a route served by shannon. Its like some think if its not served by either ryanair or air lingus then it serverd from Cork. Before covid when still living in cork i went to madrid for a long weekend. The amount of people at work that said your flying from cork didnt think you could and had never heard of Iberria flying from cork.

And even to this day on social media you have people called for a flight to Rome. Like hello check the website and select destinations

Hate that bus to/from Dublin Airport.

If planning holidays we generally choose from what's going from Cork.

Whinging about the demand for transatlantic, because there should be more European connections baffles me. The airport can and should have both!

If Cork gets USA flights, it won't be long before there's calls for pre-clearance at the airport. It's logical when Irish airports have that unique opportunity of being the only European country to have it.

Shannon would win for me even now - because as it stands Shannon has pre-clearance and Cork does not. Simple as that.

I'd rather drive the extra 1h30m (for me) and step out in the US at a domestic terminal. A 2hr drive arriving home is do-able, versus the 3hrs from Dublin.

So the population of Cork will be used to supplement long haul routes out of a smaller competitor airport? Reinforces how crazy it was not to extend the runway during the covid renovations.

I think you're being a little parochial here. Of course everyone would like an airport less than 20 minutes away with direct services to all the destinations they desire but Shannon is already an established long haul airport that has far more of the infrastructure needed to progress these ambitions. It is also better located for a wider catchment of all of Munster, Connacht and quite a few midland counties than an airport on the southern edge of the most southern county of Ireland that lacks the necessary infrastructure. Let's have a more feasible alternative to DUB for the western and southern half of the island using what already exists.

I say this with no bias to either Shannon or Cork as neither are my nearest international airport.

About 400K people live within a 30 min drive of Cork airport alone plus major business's and industry etc., Rep. of Ireland's second city, how is that parochial? If Cork airport think there is a market for flights to New York and the runway is currently sufficient for certain aircraft then work away. As has been mentioned, the runway should have been extended during covid, it just needs to be extended a few hundred meters to enable long haul for all aircraft. A survey was done about 10 years ago identifying where the runway can be extended for this, the report is on the Cork County Council site. The new terminal and infrastructure in Cork was a costly investment, so it's pretty obvious that a relatively small extension to the runway should also be done to fully release it's potential. Cork easily out performs Shannon on all competing European routes, so it seems pretty obvious Cork should have long haul routes.

Well, we already know east coast flights are possible with the 737 max aircraft. So at least there is that. A previous poster pointed out the runway may not be long enough for the new A321 Neo aircraft.

The main runway couldn't be positioned worse for any extension, with there being a hill at both ends of it. With the amount of planning needed for such a big job, public consultation and securing funds, getting it done during the recent works on the runway would have been a big ask. The resurfacing had to be done anyway, as the existing surface was in a bad state. And they had to secure funds for that at the time too.

If smaller long haul aircrafts continue to be developed, I doubt they will be looking into any runway expansion.