Cork Airport eyes 7% growth
Cork Airport will facilitate 2.6m passengers during 2019, representing a 7% increase on this year’s numbers, its chief executive has said.
The airport’s boss Niall MacCarthy said the 2019 numbers will largely be boosted by recent service expansions — Ryanair recently announcing five new routes from Cork for its summer 2019 schedule and Aer Lingus adding two. Air France has also added capacity at its existing routes from the airport. Norwegian Air is also set to resume summer flights from Cork to the US east coast next summer.
“At Cork Airport, we are focused on growing and expanding our route network and the destinations served, and we are working with all our airline partners to drive this forward,” said Mr MacCarthy.
He said there remains the potential for more growth capacity to be agreed in time for next year, but further routes are not yet confirmed.
Mr MacCarthy said routes from Cork to southern Europe should see an additional 60,000 passengers next year, with 55,000 more due to fly between Cork and London — despite Brexit uncertainties — 44,000 more to eastern and central Europe and 22,000 more to western European.
Stobart Air, which operates Aer Lingus Regional, also remains in talks with Cork Airport on expanding its operations.
“Operating eight routes from Cork, the airport is an integral part of our overall route network with 2.5m passengers flying with us from Cork since we began operating regional services in 2010. We continue to work with the airport to develop opportunities,” said a spokesperson for the airline.
