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

Ahead of the busy summer season, the Cork Airport Operations and Asset Care teams are busy upgrading our facilities around the airport campus.

We're pleased to say that we have commenced upgrades and refurbishments on our multi-storey, short term carpark. The works, which will be taking place across all floors on a phased basis, will involve the replacement of electrical wiring and cabling, relining the carpark spaces and other minor refurbishment works.

As these works are carried out, Levels 4 and 5 of the multi-storey carpark are currently closed for parking until further notice. We will provide relevant updates on the progress of the project and when other floors become closed for refurbishment works.

Parking is currently available on Level 1, 2, and 3.

We thank all our passengers for their patience and understanding while we complete these works - which are to ensure that our facilities are up to a modern, first class standard.

I’ll give an example of what good looks like to balance out that moan.

Zurich is a small city, not a capital city, similar population to Cork, 350,000 ish. The economy is also fairly similar, farming, milk, pharmaceutical factories. Cork has Dell and Apple manufacturing & software, zurich has banks.

Airport is just outside the city, 15 minutes out the road. 1 terminal.

You arrive in zurich airport , pick up your bags. Down one floor is trams and buses, taxis . Down one more floor , a little train station, 4 platforms. From here you can get directly to some bigger stations by train… Basel, St Gallen etc and all 3 (bus, tram, train) also connect you to zurich Bahnhof. There are more train platforms in the main town (30 ish?), plus bus and tram hubs, connected to the boat services on the lake. The service doesn’t go all night, most services stop around 10pm, it’s not some giant metropolis like nyc or London. But there are enough ways to get around without a car.

If Dublin was even a tiny bit better, just better signage and connected to the train station with a frequent bus… and if cork just had even a bus to the city center going every 10- 20 minutes, it would make such a big difference to usability .

It is possible to prebook on Irish rail, you need to select "free travel pass" as the ticket type in the passenger drop down. They don't allow prebookings of any ticket type within 90mins of departure time though.

Fully agree on the poor signage and connections, there is little to tell people that Dublin express are the connection to Heuston.

There is currently a bus every 30 minutes from Kent station. The 225 or 226.

A bus every 10-20 would be better of course. BusConnects appears to be keeping the 30-minute frequency, but across every day, so a slight improvement.

According to Wiki, the population of Zurich is 450,000 while its metro population is 1.45 million.

It's basically another Dublin.

I agree that public transport connections from Dublin Airport are poor but just showing up assuming that your travel pass will get you a bus and train to Cork without any research or pre booking is extremely naive in my opinion.

I'm travelling to Brussels via Amsterdam in May and I already have my ticket. I wouldn't dream of just rocking up expecting the first train to take me where I want to go!

That story says more about the people travelling than the terrible service. You can only expect so much.

However, everyone would agree that we need much better public transport everywhere!

Yes, you are right. I did this for my dad last year. It cost him something silly like 4 euro as a booking fee, but for that, he got a return ticket on the train from Cork to Dublin. And he is a man who could well afford the full price, so it was a bargain.

I've also calculated that, incredibly, the slowest Cork Dublin train is faster per km than the fastest train from Amsterdam to Brussels!

Cork Dublin 266 km

Amsterdam Brussels 176 km.

Slowest train Cork Dublin is 2.45 fastest is 2.15

Fastest train Amsterdam Brussels is 1.57 (eurostar premium price) . Slowest is 2.49.

Slow Cork train 266km/165 minutes = 1.61 km per minute.

Fast Brussels train 176km/117 minutes = 1.50 km per minute.

Thats a surprise!

Edit: the fastest train to Brussels is 1.47, not 1.57 which makes the fastest eurostar slightly faster than the slowest IE train at 1.64 km per minute.

It depends.

Flying from Dub -> ME and then to Asia, well you have waaaaay more options, that would not be available to you from London or Amsterdam, unless you are going to a big hub like Singapore.

Also, I've usually found it much cheaper via Dublin.

But of course, it depends on a few factors.

Because they didn't know it existed I guess, and 3-4 hours on a bus is too much for them. They need loos and to be able to get up and walk around every now and then like on a train. Of a certain age etc....

There is zero signage or information. I think that's what I mentioned. They couldn't find the way to use the public bus to heuston either (assuming it exists also?) The information is a bit thin on the ground there. They phoned me, asking if I knew where the bus went, or what it was, and sure how would I know?

Tbh, I told them I'd pay for the connecting flight directly to Cork, but they wanted to try their "new" OAP passes and experience how that process works. Lesson learned for them, it sucks and just doesn't work.

But I'm sure there are plenty of OAPs and tourists who don't speak english or irish who can't work it out. It's just one example.

There are loos on all these buses and you can get up and walk up and down the aisle. The GoBus is very modern and spacious.

But I get that people from a 'certain age' have a thing against buses. Maybe it's snobbery? The train is perhaps a tad nicer, but tbh, if one has a preference to travel a certain way, then perhaps they need to be more organised.

I'd wager if they got the GoBus just once, they would find it a revelation and it would be their preference from here on in.

Hmmm, there are signs in the airport where the buses are and what door to go out to find them.

I'd put it down more so to people of a certain age being overwhelmed.

It does work, but they went about it arse-ways tbh.

Just because you get an OAP pass, doesn't mean you get a white glove first-class service that requires no pre-booking and no due diligence. It's a lesson learned for them to be more organised, or for you to tell them to get their ball in order.

Perhaps that is an issue in itself with the Travel Pass. People, with means, money and wealth expect services of a certain nature but are not willing to pay for them. That is a bigger debate on the Travel Pass, which tbh is ridiculous. (How on earth is it fair that a well-to-do 66-year-old gets free travel all across Ireland, yet the struggling single parent, on a low wage, has to pay?) Id believes that everyone pays something towards PT.

I do use the bus pretty much every time I use the (Cork) airport. It's not a bad service, really, and very cheap.

Could it be a better service, yes, of course.

@notAMember The facts of the story as told by you speak for themselves. Your parents were naive and unprepared and had unreasonable expectations. Sorry this hurts your feelings.

Also curious to know if you think all elderly people and all parents are beyond criticism? That would be a bit odd, wouldn't it - not being able to criticise anyone over 65 or anyone who has children? Donald Trump? Stop saying bad things about him, he's an elderly parent! Or perhaps you feel that it's just your parents that are beyond criticism?

Also, I don't believe I insulted anyone. I leave that kind of behaviour to you. You have a long history of name calling on here.

I have had bad experience with the buses myself recently to be honest, even though I'm reasonably young and able: toilets "out of service", heating turned up full blast, reasonably cramped space. Some of the drivers are a bit mad with driving near the cities, so you can end up bounced around a bit. It's difficult to work on those buses. I can understand why people would prefer the train: I do.

I can get whatever mode I want, because it's all expenses anyway, and I could drive my own car or get a hire car, but I'd prefer the train if possible.

I think it's all one topic anyway: how people get to the airport and why people appreciate and prefer Cork airport even if it requires a trip to AMS/LHR/CDG/etc.

Much more fun to fly KLM from Amsterdam to Brussels! A 21 minute flight on a 737 isn't to be sniffed at. With a full crisps and drinks service (it was pandemonium)

Nothing worse than being on a bus with the heating on. I had to get off a bus a stop early a couple of weeks ago because I thought I was going to throw up due to the heat. I wouldn't last in that situation on a bus to Dublin. I'd have to say it to the driver.

I've never got the GoBus. Is it better than Aircoach? The latters fleet is a bit tired and could do with an upgrade. Also, I have bad luck in that anytime I use it, there's always a bunch of gowls that are either going to or coming from some awful gig, making a load of noise.

I got the Aircoach from Cork to Dublin last year. It was a 1am departure. Worst experience ever.

Leather seats that I kept sliding forward on, and a driver who loved the accelerate and brake suddenly movements. I ended up holding onto the seatbelt to keep me on the seat. Other half had a similar experience. Thankfully I came home via Cork.

This year, my odd weekend flight away is limited only to either going from Cork or Kerry. Unless absolutely necessary I'll go from Dublin.

I get the Aircoach twice a week going to Dublin and I think it’s great. Super comfortable, chargers, bathroom, usually quiet, not too hot or cold. So much cheaper than the train, and because it doesn’t stop, you forget about time and it’s fast. Also, I feel there’s never any traffic until you hit the M50, and even then the times I get it at it’s never that busy on the roads (usually after dinner)

I'm afraid I've only used the aircoach myself because of their longer operating hours. But I have struggled and felt sick on it, with the heat and the driver accelerate/brake thing.

Obviously that's not happening on every journey, but my god what a start to your day of travel. The contrast with the very easy experience of getting to and through Cork airport just makes it worth paying more.

Except that didn't happen. They were called naive and unprepared which they demonstrably were.

The poster tried to lay the blame for a 9 hour trip on poor services when the causes of the long travel time were, in fact, poor planning and unreasonable expectations.

Again I ask are people above all criticism just because they have children and are +66 (not very old, at all, imo)?

And I would say to any poster, don't tell stories about your parents if you are going to be over sensitive to comments about that story that may not laud your parents. Just don't bother.

I will admit to being upset with some arsehole poster making comment about my parents and my upbringing but the big difference was that I didn't bring my parents into the conversation - they did.

Can we get back to the main topic please that be it all things Cork airport, routes facilities, wishes etc

Yes, people suffer from nausea and vomitting on the coach. I’ve been on it when there were people who unfortunately suffered badly with it. It effectively put the loo out of order and smelled awful. Anyone who relies on an available bathroom can’t take that coach.

I look at it a different way again... rather than looking down my nose and calling older people snobs, I listen to what they have to say and take it on.

It's difficult to climb onto those high coaches and get off again when you have any reduced mobility, like a sore hip, a bad back, or a little dizziness or less than perfect vision. And you also often need bathrooms.

I don't know if you've ever travelled with someone in a wheelchair, or a with a bad hip or back, but it's far easier on a train. You don't need the bus driver to get off and help you, you can be completely independent, rather than having a bus load of people rolling their eyeballs at you and huffing and puffing because they are late and you're slow, or worse , being completely humiliated because you have some kind of intermittent incontinence and the bus toilet is inaccessible. I think it's reasonable that people want a little dignity.

Clueless as to how it actually works is a really odd statement here, because in my experience, it actually means very well clued in to how it actually works, and actively avoiding the options which they know don't work for them, from experience.

My parents use buses all the time in the city, and used the train this time, they are huge public transport advocates, but a 3+ hour coach is simply not appropriate. As it isn't for many people, both visiting and living here, for many reasons. And yet when I give that example they are called stupid, naieve and snobs. They are none of those things, but this is the attitude. God forbid they were a tourist!

Or maybe, the way I should look at it, is that we create barriers for visitors and people who aren't local or who aren't in the 25-60 age bracket , or who are not at 100% health and mobility, so we can feel very smug about ourselves altogether when they can't figure it out instantly.

Absolutely delighted to drop Dublin being considered a viable alternative to Cork Airport. :D

Thanks for the map. I wish this route map was a little bit less disingenuous. Maybe colour-coded to show where the flights are a year-round scheduled service, rather than a few months, or weeks.

How do you see the schedules typically? I use skyscanner, but maybe there is a better way. That Cork Munich flight for example, I think it's air lingus, but I can see only 4 flights visible for the whole year? Am I looking on the wrong airline? And I can't find any airline that does Cork Salsburg direct.