Ryanair boss rules out Cork-Dublin flights

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has ruled out any relaunch of a flight service between Cork and Dublin.

His comments come as daa chief executive, Kenny Jacobs, shared news that a return of the service was a strong possibility earlier this week.

“I’d be amazed if it doesn’t return at some point. It won’t come back at the numbers it was. It was a route that had too much frequency, and that can kill a route,” Mr Jacobs, the former chief marketing officer for Ryanair, told the Irish Examiner on Tuesday.

Semi-state company daa operates Dublin Airport and Cork Airport.

However, the Ryanair chief executive has said the motorway network between the two counties means demand for flights is low.

At a press conference in Brussels, the airline boss said: “I don’t think Cork-Dublin flights will return.

“The motorway journey is now less than two hours, train services are less than two hours.”

“We operate one domestic from Kerry to Dublin, where the road journey is five hours, and that’s now taking place on a green, clean aircraft. So, I think that’s acceptable,” he said, addressing the environmental issues involved with running a second Irish route.

The Cork-Dublin service, operated by both Ryanair and Aer Lingus Regional, ceased in 2011 following the opening of the M8 motorway which cut the driving times between both cities.

“In reality, if you have a small country like Ireland with a very important, good motorway network, the market determines that there’s no market for short-haul flights,” Mr O’Leary said.

He explained that Ryanair had been the main airline operating flights between Cork and Dublin, saying: “We had three flights a day with 97% load factors, and once the motorway was finished, load factor went from 97% to 23%.”

Mr O’Leary was in Brussels calling on the European Commission to act over the impact of air traffic control (ATC) strikes in France, which continues to affect Irish passengers.

He delivered almost 1.2m petition signatures from Ryanair passengers across Europe to the commission.

The Ryanair petition calls on the EU Commission to “take immediate action and protect European citizens’ freedom of movement and overflights during French ATC strikes”.