Cork Airport, Ireland’s fastest growing and most punctual airport, welcomes today’s announcement that Ryanair is to commence a new direct service from Cork to the Croatian coastal city of Zadar for its summer 2020 schedule. Commencing in April 2020, the twice-weekly service is the second new route revealed by Ryanair for its extended summer schedule next year, with Katowice, Poland already announced.

Welcoming the new route, Head of Aviation and Commercial Development at Cork Airport, Brian Gallagher said: “Ryanair is the fastest growing airline at Cork Airport and we are delighted to see them expand their base further in 2020. The addition of a new summer route to Zadar in Croatia offers another exciting destination to our scheduled European network next year, with Zadar being the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia and located on the Adriatic Sea.

“We expect holidaymakers across Munster and the South East will reap the benefits of this new twice weekly service operated by Ryanair next summer”, he added.

Cork Airport is set to enter its fifth consecutive year of growth in 2020, with passenger numbers forecasted to rise by a further 5%. This year, 2.6 million passengers travelled through the airport, up 8% on 2018. There are over 50 routes on offer from Cork Airport to the UK and Continental Europe, along with multiple daily long-haul connections worldwide through major European hub airports served from Cork.

Managing Director at Cork Airport, Niall MacCarthy commented: “Cork Airport is the fastest growing airport on the island of Ireland this year. We have a very talented commercial team who are committed to further growing travel options from Cork. The public throughout the South of Ireland will join with us in commending Ryanair for this latest expansion at Cork. We plan to retain the ‘fastest growing airport’ title for 2020 despite whatever challenges Brexit poses.”

Ryanair’s Eimear Ryan added: “Ryanair is pleased to launch a new Cork route to Zadar in Croatia, commencing in April, which will operate twice weekly as part of our Cork summer 2020 schedule. Customers in Cork can now book flights to Zadar as far out as October 2020”.

Ryanair’s passenger numbers at Cork Airport are forecast to rise by 23% this year, the largest increase among all Irish airports. This winter, Ryanair are operating five new services from Cork to Alicante, Budapest, Malta, Katowice and Poznań. The twice-weekly brand-new winter service to Katowice has been extended into summer 2020. The airline also launched a twice-weekly service to Naples, Italy in the summer.