Call for more buses to serve Cork Airport 

Bus connectivity to Cork is a priority for daa CEO Kenny Jacobs, who said that express routes from several Cork towns would be better for both the airport and the environment.

Figures released earlier this week show that Cork Airport remains the fastest-growing airport in Ireland, with 7% more passengers in January compared to the same month last year.

Mr Jacobs said that they are hoping to see passengers in Cork Airport grow by a further 5% to 10% this year, and are planning to begin construction on expanding the terminal, but said that this expansion has to include bus connectivity.

He told The Echo: “We’re Ireland’s most sustainable airport, we want to expand our solar farm and keep Cork as the most sustainable airport. It’s helped by the fact that it’s a new build and the two main airlines, Ryanair and Aer Lingus, tend to have younger fleets.

“As part of this sustainability, we also want to work on buses.

“There’s the 225 and 226 that connect to Cork Airport, but that’s not enough — especially in contrast to Dublin Airport.”

In Cork, the 225 runs 18 times a day in each direction to Haulbowline, while the 226 runs 19 times a day in each direction to Kinsale.

Meanwhile in Dublin, there are 1,070 bus departures a day from 15 operators to more than 80 different destinations, including to towns in Dublin and counties all over Ireland — this is nearly 15 times more buses than Cork.

Mr Jacobs said: “Thirty-four million passengers go through Dublin Airport a year, and a third of them are coming to and from the airport on the bus — I’d love the same here in Cork, but we can’t do that with just two routes.

“You should be able to connect from St Luke’s, from Carrigtwohill, from Ballincollig, from Glanmire, Togher, Ballyphehane, Blackrock — all these parts of Cork should have express bus routes to the airport so people can choose to leave the car at home when flying for business or a holiday. 

“We are working with the NTA [National Transport Authority], who are responsible for the provision of bus connectivity, to really increase that part of our sustainability plan.”

As well as an increase in bus provision, Mr Jacobs added that he would also love to see the events centre up and running.

“The events centre would be brilliant — an indoor arena is a proven winner for local tourism, it’s great for people coming into the airport, and great for local hotels, restaurants, and bars,” he said.

“It’s great that it’s still in the programme for government, and the sooner it happens the better, because it’s a wonderful location, right bang in the city centre, while the equivalent in Dublin is on the north quays.

“It would be great for the airport, and we fully support it, but it also begs the question ‘how are those people coming in for concerts going to get from the airport to their hotels?’.

“We really need to increase public transport connectivity from Cork Airport so that people can get to the city and back.”