Niall MacCarthy, Managing Director at Cork Airport said: “The team here at Cork Airport is really devastated to hear of Ryanair’s decision to close its base at Cork with the loss of so many direct and indirect jobs and the cessation of thirteen routes.
We have done everything in our power at Cork Airport to retain the base here and the connectivity that it delivers for the South of Ireland region.
However, since the pandemic many Ryanair flights to and from Cork have been operating with fewer than ten passengers.
The Irish aviation sector has been decimated by COVID-19 and the country needs to get to a position where we have the appropriate travel policies in place to enable Ireland to co-exist with the virus whilst safely re-opening our vital air connectivity.
Cork Airport was Ireland’s fastest-growing airport before COVID-19 and we are now looking at a 95% plus reduction in traffic levels for this coming winter compared to last year.
Despite the base closure, Ryanair will still retain three routes serving Cork over the winter - Stansted, Katowice and Gdansk. However, these routes will be operated by aircraft and staff based outside of Ireland. Ryanair has had a base at Cork Airport since 2005, and this winter will be the first time in fifteen years that the airline has not had any aircraft based in Cork.
With the appropriate financial supports and travel policies from Government, we will work tirelessly to secure the return of the Ryanair base at Cork ahead of next summer, when hopefully, the airline will be in a position to replace lost services.
In addition to those three Ryanair routes, Cork Airport will also have a service to Amsterdam with KLM this winter and Aer Lingus will operate services to Heathrow and Amsterdam. The continuity of all or any of these services cannot be taken for granted and we will continue to work with the Government and our airline customers to retain this hard-won connectivity as best we can this winter”.
About Cork Airport
Cork Airport is the Republic of Ireland’s second busiest and best-connected international airport with connectivity to multiple destinations across the UK and Continental Europe. Passenger numbers at Cork Airport grew from 2.4m in 2018 to 2.6m in 2019, an increase of 8% year-on-year. This resulted in Cork Airport being the fastest growing airport in Ireland in 2019. In 2017, and again in 2019 Cork Airport was named Airport Council International (ACI) Best Airport in Europe in its class (serving under 5 million passengers) and is short-listed for this award again in 2020. It is one of the world’s friendliest airports. Global aviation analysts OAG revealed that Cork Airport topped the punctuality league for international airports in Ireland in 2019 at 84.7%.