Aer Lingus to increase flights between Cork and Amsterdam

AER Lingus has confirmed plans to increase its Cork to Amsterdam service in 'the coming months.'

The connection to the Dutch capital was the third busiest route from Cork last year, with almost 170,000 passengers using it.

Despite this, the airline opted to cut the Thursday evening service earlier this year. This was done to redeploy the aircraft to busier summer sun destinations during the holiday season.

However, Aer Lingus has now confirmed that it is planning to increase frequency on Cork to Amsterdam.

A spokesperson told the Evening Echo, "Currently Aer Lingus currently operates 16 flights weekly on the Cork to Amsterdam route. This is likely to be increased further over the coming months when demand on leisure destinations declines.

"Demand for city destinations declines in the summer and demand for leisure destinations increases, thus aircraft that serve Amsterdam in the winter months have been deployed to leisure destinations such as Alicante, Las Palmas and Barcelona."

The decision to reduce the service had been heavily criticised by MEP Deirdre Clune, who described the Amsterdam connection as 'vital' for Cork and Munster.

In addition, the airline's spokesperson confirmed that Aer Lingus remains 'fully committed' to growing their base in Cork.

While they are remaining tight-lipped on any potential new routes, Aer Lingus is set to relaunch a connection to Lisbon from Cork in October and has increased frequency on a number of routes.

Hopes are high that further European destinations may be on Aer Lingus' radar but the airline has definitively ruled out any prospect of transatlantic flights from Cork.

While there are plans to grow the airline's fleet in 2019, new aircraft will not be used to bolster Cork's transatlantic offering, according to the airline's spokesperson.

"Aer Lingus is committed to continually growing our network to offer increased connectivity between Ireland and North America. In the last three years, we added six new routes to our network and now operate 15 direct routes between Ireland and North America.

"We plan to significantly grow our fleet from 2019 with the introduction of the A321 Neo LR aircraft. This aircraft type will open up new route opportunities to Aer Lingus and while we consider all options as part of that process, we have no current plans to operate transatlantic flights from Cork."