[ad_1]
There was more discouraging news for Cork Airport today as both Ryanair and Aer Lingus confirmed that they are drastically cutting the few remaining flights outside of Leeside.
Ryanair will suspend all flights for four weeks from mid-November, saying they cannot operate with such a “surprisingly low” number of bookings.
Aer Lingus will also cut flights on its Cork / Heathrow routes, as the airline says most flights fly well below capacity, some with only a handful of passengers on board.
Due to the decisions of the two airlines, Cork Airport could soon handle as little as two flights per day, in a run-up to Christmas that would normally see it operating at full capacity.
Today only four flights were scheduled from Cork, three to London and one to Amsterdam. Seven are scheduled for tomorrow, with a flight to Poland and services to London and Amsterdam.
The bosses of Ireland’s two major airlines appeared before the Oireachtas Transport and Communications Committee in Dublin at lunchtime to paint a very bleak picture for the aviation industry as a whole.
Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson told the committee that the airline cannot continue to operate without passengers, telling TDs that the number of passengers from Cork and Shannon has been “shocking” in recent months, adding that “no they can run an airport without demand. “
As a result, the airline chief said, Ryanair will not fly from Cork from mid-November for four weeks.
Aer Lingus executives also informed the committee that flights on its Cork / Heathrow route will be kept to a minimum over the next few weeks as the industry awaits news of travel restrictions in Europe and Ireland in the run-up to Christmas.
An Aer Lingus executive told the committee that “the outlook for demand was so weak” that the airline could not sustain even the reduced level of flights it has been operating between Cork and London Heathrow.
In response to news from the two airlines, Niall MacCarthy, Managing Director of Cork Airport, said: “The news that Ryanair will cancel all flights from Cork Airport for a period of four weeks from mid-November to mid-November. December is a further bodily blow to the Irish aviation industry and to Cork and southern Ireland in particular. “
“The Irish aviation ecosystem is already extremely weakened and fragile and each hit causes additional damage.
“It is recognized that as an island nation with an open economy, we have to learn to coexist with this virus for quite some time yet.
“In that regard, we welcome the adoption by the Irish government of the EU traffic light system as of November 8. However, a low-cost and scalable pre-delivery testing regime should constitute the backbone of the return of confidence in safe air travel. The mechanisms and protocols for this have yet to be agreed in Ireland and this is more than urgent now. “
The airport chief said they still expect to have between 14 and 18 flights per week with KLM and Aer Lingus in Amsterdam and Heathrow during the period from November 15 to December 5.
“In addition, we plan, with government support, to continue to provide services for search and rescue flights, coast guard helicopters, Garda helicopters, Irish Aer Corps, medical evacuation (medevac) and transplant flights.
“However, our passenger numbers for November this year are likely to be 9,000 compared to 172,000 in the same month last year, a decrease of 95%.”
The recent budget allocated aid for Cork airport that should ensure its continued operation and place it for recovery once the aviation industry begins to reopen.
[ad_2]