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

flexcon wrote: »

Only back From South Alicante region myself. Have a family home there. Return flights were 30euro. The best travel experience I ever had - minus the mask

working from home so I got collected from Airport by my SO and that's it. 2 weeks up all good.

Weighed up the risks and decided to go.

You are braver than me
Your SO has to self isolate for 2 weeks now as well I presume?

Very disappointing that Ryanair are closing their Cork base for the winter. I hope the airport can survive this.

H8GHOTI wrote: »

Ya it’s disappointing but not sure what choice they had. They couldn’t make a profit in the current situation.

Very few routes now, job losses as well, it’s shît.
I think there should have been less restrictions in the summer. But with case numbers rising now travelling would be riskier. The passenger numbers would be low over winter and this probably would have happened anyway.

Yeah. Looking back there could definitely have been a lot more business done over the summer. And that would have really helped ease the pain a little over what will be a hellish winter. I was speaking to a Ryanair pilot a while back who also worked on holiday flights from the UK. He said even with quarantine rules there, flights were quite busy compared to Ireland.

The government here went all out with the staycation campaign, even inserting tax breaks to encourage people. And the people listened. Instead of going to a half empty resort in Spain or Portugal, they went to busy Kerry and got fleeced. Aviation is in tatters now and I hope the government is ready and willing to offer real financial support over the winter period.

.red. wrote: »

I was chatting to a Ryanair pilot based in Luton and he said pretty much every holiday destination had 140+ and many were close to full capacity.
Cork had 30 or less on most and the busy ones had 50. The Polish flights averaged about 120ish.
Ryanair are getting hammered for closing the Cork base, but(I think) have one flight per week less than Aer Lingus for the winter. Ryanair kept the airport going all summer but everybody loves to bash them.

I don’t blame Ryanair at all, I blame our incompetent government. It’s ironic that we have a cork Taoiseach and our airport is on the verge of being shut. We will be travelling to Dublin for flights for many years if something isn’t done soon.

.red. wrote: »

Not saying you....... But people have been driving to Dublin for flights for years. Save €50 on a return flight but spend €20 on the bus with a 6/7 hour commute.
The airport isn't on the verge of closing either. At the very worst it'll open at reduced hours but it won't shut. Not while theres 25/30 flights a week.

I honestly hope not. I’m a firm supporter of our little airport. I’ll always fly from Cork and transfer in London if necessary - cannot understand why people take a bus to Dublin to save a few euro.

titan18 wrote: »

Depends really. I'd personally rather take the bus to Dublin for an early flight so I can get to destination faster. Like if there's a flight out of Dublin in that 6-8am range direct to where I want to go, that's often better than cork/Heathrow/hang about and fly again.

Bus is at nighttime and can sleep on the way up then.

On the way back, the transfer in London seems better though.

Sounds rough. If I needed to be there that early, I'd try and fly the evening/night before.

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Sounds rough. If I needed to be there that early, I'd try and fly the evening/night before.

It's actually grand. I hate evening/night flights on way out as that's an extra night of accommodation when you did nothing that day. Best is fly out early and fly back late.

Aer Lingus reducing the frequency of the Heathrow route even further as well.

I think there's going to be enough demand when this is over for the Amsterdam, Paris and Heathrow routes. Between whatever business travel still happens, connections and leisure travel to those cities, the demand will be there.

As someone who travels a lot for leisure in the last few years, I'm not going to travel ATM but hoping for post april

Acosta wrote: »

Testing centre opened at the Airport this morning. Open to anyone that wants to be tested, not just for people flying out.


https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/Drive-through-Covid-testing-to-begin-at-Cork-Airport--4a9acb4c-884b-4a18-a58a-cd31bf3a11bf-ds

€190 per test I'm told!

Curb Your Enthusiasm wrote: »

€190 per test I'm told!

I heard €149, they also do the antibody test so maybe the €190 is for both?
Results are back in a few hours so might be worth the money if you can afford it, that way you won't have the anxious wait of upto 3/4/5 days thru the public system.

cantalach wrote: »

The hospitals are charging €275 for patients going for surgery to get a pre-op Covid test. So €190 seems like a very fair price.

I had a procedure in the Bons a few weeks ago and was charged €125 supplementary fee. Normally that would have been €75 so assume the additional €50 was for the COVID test. I think €190 is a rip off.

I had an appointment in the Bon with a consultant .. and had to get a Test the day before. Cost me €50 and I had the result within 8 hours.

Cork Lass wrote: »

Not €275.00, that’s for sure.

Agreed! Especially if other hospitals are doing it for a fraction.

marno21 wrote: »

Surprised they have noted that they expect reduced operations in 2021 when the airlines have close to a full schedule on sale

Oh they have their full schedules on sale all right because they’re desperate for cash. But will all those flights actually depart? Unless the vaccine programme is spectacularly successful, I very much doubt it.

marno21 wrote: »

KLM going daily from tomorrow, upgrading to 737 from Saturday. Clearly a lot of demand

Can't be long before they boot AL out of the codeshare

Treehelpplease wrote: »

What kind of impact do the two changes have on capacity? Especially the new plane.

Roughly an extra 100 seats.

Not sure if they just haven't had a chance to update their entire schedule yet, but the upgrade to the 737 seems to be a temporary measure. I just checked the website and it looks like it's back to the E175 from January 10th. I hope I'm wrong though.

Have Ryanair stopped their summer schedule? Few people have their sun flights cancelled and nothing on the booking engine.

Acosta wrote: »

Had a look there. About 8 routes you can no longer book. Places like Malaga, Faro, Milan, Alicante, Malta, Naples still available

Interesting. The Canary Islands are gone. Strange.