First plane back at dawn on Monday morning: New runway at Cork Airport passes tests with 'flying colours' 

A CORK Senator has lauded the Cork Airport runway reconstruction as a “tremendous project that has been successfully delivered” ahead of the reopening of the airport on Monday.

The intensive 10-week reconstruction project has marked the fastest large-scale construction project undertaken in the State in recent years.

“It’s an exemplar project in what we can do as a State in terms of the development of a facility in the timescale that it was done.

“It’s something we should learn from as a Government in terms of the National Development Plan (NDP),” Fine Gael Senator and member of the Oireachtas Transport Committee, Jerry Buttimer said.

“This is a tremendous project that has been successfully delivered. It will add value to the city and the region,” he continued.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin will formally reopen the airport’s reconstructed main runway (16/34) in a small invite-only ceremony today ahead of the reopening to the public on Monday.

The first commercial flight will arrive at the airport at dawn on Monday as Aer Lingus will be relocating an Airbus A320 Cork-based aircraft back from Shannon at 06.10am followed by another Aer Lingus A320 coming home from Shannon at 06.45am.

Earlier this week, the airport stated that the first flight out off the new-and-improved runway will be to London Heathrow at 07.45am.

The airport also gave a snapshot of what the first week following the reopening will look like.

“The week will then get busier as Ryanair – Europe’s favourite airline, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Vueling Airlines resume their operations along with Aer Lingus and increasing flights right up to Christmas,” Cork Airport said.

Over €40 million is being invested in Cork Airport between 2020-2022 to upgrade the critical infrastructure at the airport of which the main runway reconstruction, a new Electrical Sub-Station and a new Hold Baggage Security screening system, constitute the major parts.

The project to reconstruct the runway is being supported by Government funding of €10 million from the Department of Transport, announced in November 2020.

A series of flight calibration tests were conducted earlier this week using a specialist aircraft to ensure the instrumentation landing system (ILS) and the airfield lighting was correctly calibrated and working perfectly.

Cork Airport said that these tests were passed “with flying colours”.