Ryanair announces it is to reopen Cork Airport base: Two new services also confirmed
Ryanair has today announced a $200 million investment in Cork Airport and a full recovery of its pre-pandemic passenger capacity with the reopening of its two aircraft base.
Ryanair has today announced a $200 million investment in Cork Airport and a full recovery of its pre-pandemic passenger capacity with the reopening of its two aircraft base.
The investment will bring 20 routes to Cork, including the introduction of new services to Birmingham and Edinburgh.
Cork Airport and the daa have worked closely with Ryanair over the last number of months, to extend the traffic recovery scheme to the end of October ‘22 to incentivise Ryanair traffic to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Ryanair has responded by reopening its base and restoring its traffic at Cork in full for Summer ‘22.
The announcement was made at a press briefing earlier this morning in Cork Airport.
The restoration of the two aircraft base will secure 60 Ryanair jobs.
Ryanair has now restored traffic to pre-pandemic levels for Summer ’22 in Cork, Shannon, Knock, and Kerry airports.
Last October, Ryanair announced it would be closing its base in Cork for the winter due to cuts in capacity arising from the Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Speaking at the press briefing this morning Ryanair DAC CEO Eddie Wilson, said: “Ryanair is delighted to confirm the reopening of its two aircraft base at Cork Airport.
“Cork along with Shannon, Kerry, and Knock have had their Ryanair traffic fully restored to pre-pandemic levels of capacity ensuring the recovery of tourism, jobs, and connectivity.
“Unfortunately, traffic at Dublin is set to fall by up to 35% next summer as the daa traffic recovery scheme does not have the required funding from Government to incentivise traffic recovery for the entire summer season ending in June instead of October.
“We call on Eamonn Ryan the Minister for Transport to urgently confirm the extension to the current daa scheme until October ’22, similar to the scheme at Cork Airport.
“This extension of the traffic recovery scheme will ensure that Ryanair will fully restore all of its pre-pandemic capacity at Irish airports in preparation for Summer ‘22, securing Ireland’s tourism industry, and the thousands of jobs that depend on air connectivity.”
Niall MacCarthy, Managing Director at Cork Airport said: “I am delighted with today’s announcement by Ryanair reopening their base at Cork Airport in December.
“Outbound sun and city breaks and inbound visitors from the UK and Continental Europe is good news for jobs in aviation, tourism and hospitality and the rebound of our economy in 2022.”
Ryanair’s Cork Winter 2021/22 schedule will serve Alicante, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Gdańsk, Lanzarote, Liverpool, London Gatwick, London Luton, London Stansted, Malaga, Poznan and Tenerife.
Its Summer ‘22 schedule will serve these routes along with Bordeaux, Carcassonne, Faro, Girona, Gran Canaria, Mallorca, Milan Bergamo, and Reus.
Cork Airport closed its doors earlier this month, as it embarked on a 10-week project which will see the reconstruction of the runway along with the upgrading of the airport's approach, airfield and ground lighting, runway edge and centreline lighting.
The project to reconstruct the main runway (16/34) is being supported by Government funding of €10 million from the Department of Transport, announced in November 2020.
The reconstruction of Cork Airport’s main runway will be the fastest large-scale construction project undertaken in the State in recent years - 12 months from funding approval to the completion of the main works – encompassing EU tendering, design, regulatory approvals and construction.
Cork Airport is investing over €40 million between 2020-2022 to upgrade and enhance critical infrastructure.
The airport is poised to reopen on the morning of November 22 following the enhancement works.
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