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

To me, it wouldn't even be about the food aspect, lounge is just relaxing compared to sitting outside of it before your flight. My only issue with it is I wish it opened at 4.30 as the 5am open is a bit tight for the 6am flights.

Also new routes for 2026

Bergerac coming up as destination from Cork on Ryanair app

€200 million capital development plan is due for release this week.

Is it this year they’re being implemented?

Going by the above image we can estimate the south pier extension to be 220 meters, which could facilitate up to 10 new boarding gates, if both sides of the pier and the ends are used. Back in 2006 €160 million got us a whole new terminal, new roads, and a new multi story car park. Inflation has taken its toll since then, so €200 million won't stretch as far as we'd like. It would probably also include the second mini pier (North Cargo Gates) to the north of the terminal.

I agree though, I would love if it were to include a runway extension. No idea what this would cost. The runway rebuild in 2021 was €40 million. An extension would probably include significant earthworks, and possible land acquisition and road rerouting; so could be the best part of €100 million. An extension of the taxiway, to cover the full length of the runway, must also be on the cards; as this would improve operational efficiency and allow for more routes to be added. This would mean moving the general aviation area, something which has been mentioned in previous development plans.

Hoping they’ll surprise us with a runway extension announcement this week too. Literally the only thing stopping Cork from reaching its full potential is that we have the 2nd shortest runway of all of Irelands main airports.

A pier of that length could facilitate up to ten gates, though it seems from the image to be four initially on the south pier. With two new gates on the north gate pier and six in the main terminal, we’ll probably have a total of 12 boarding gates in the next few years. This should accommodate growth up to 5 million passengers per annum by 2030. The number of gates in the main terminal building is being reduced from 8 to 6, in order to allow for the expansion.

I believe the airport are aiming for 7.5 million passengers by 2035; so building a long pier initially, and adding gates as demand requires, seems prudent.

7.5 million by 2035 seems a bit mad no? That’s well over doubling the pax in 10 years.

Appreciate all of the posts though, seems like based on the plans there will be no extension to the runway.

Well spotted. There is land zoned for a runway extension, and the DAA tried to have additional land zoned for this purpose in the most recent city development plan. They are definitely planning for an extension, though I think they will be prioritising other developments in the short term.

Yes, that does sound very ambitious. The DAA/Aer Rianta have had explosive growth in passenger numbers in the past, at both Cork and Dublin, so perhaps they are feeling confident. This was the case in the 90s and the first half of the 2000s, and to a certain extent at Dublin from 2012 to 2019.

The international situation is much more volatile now, which could restrict demand. Possible drivers for growth would be increased population growth in Munster; and more developmental barriers in Dublin due to noise, environmental, and planning restrictions. This could force the DAA to make Cork more attractive to travellers from south Leinster, Galway, and other areas; a situation which many have speculated is already occurring. We recently saw better ticket integration with Irish Rail, and some people calling for better direct bus connections to the airport. There also is considerable support to connect the airport to a possible future Cork LUAS.

Another factor is the fact that the DAA now see Dublin as a major international hub, and are competing with the larger UK airports for a slice of worldwide traffic. Cork may benefit from this situation by taking over some of the short haul routes that are primarily designed to serve the Irish market. This is more likely if the DAA are unable to resolve developmental restrictions.

The last airport development plan was released in 2013. I can't find a link to it. The only public info I can find dates from 2010, and is the airport's special local area plan. It mentions a range of 7.8 to 15.8 million passengers per annum by 2040, so the 7.5 million for 2035 is not being pulled out of thin air.. These figures are of course now dated, but do give an idea of unfulfilled potential. A large part of the stagnation of the airport's growth since 2010 has to do with the political mess over the attempted break up of Aer Rianta; and the uncertainty of what was going to happen with the debt incurred when developing the new terminal, and what administrative body was going to run the airport. Covid, of course, also didn't help.

There are also mentions in the 2010 SLAP of plans for remote aircraft stands and bus transfer facilities for passengers, along with plans to extend the taxiway to the south east quadrant, a new cargo terminal, a relocation of the general aviation area; and extensions to the terminal and long term and short term car parks.

Most notably, it references a preliminary study recommending a northern runway extension of 247 meters. IIRC the 2013 airport development plan had similar recommendations to the 2010 SLAP.

I've linked the document below. It will be interesting to compare it to the master plan that gets released on Friday.

https://www.corkcoco.ie/sites/default/files/2024-07/airport-slap-sept-2010.pdf

Ryanair have started loading flights for Winter 25/26

Looks to be no flights to any of the greater Venice area airports next winter. No new routes either aside from resuming the Milan one. Decent enough frequency increases on UK routes most notable is Birmingham going to 5x weekly, Edinburgh going to 10x weekly and Liverpool going to 3x weekly.

I can imagine they will market BGY as this winters “New route” and that will be it.

Just a stop over or is something else going on?