Just over 10,000 passengers travelled through Cork Airport in the first three months of this year, a 97% decline compared to the same period last year, as COVID-19 continues to have a hugely significant impact on passenger numbers. 

By comparison, almost 400,000 passengers were facilitated through Cork Airport in the January to March period in 2020. At the start of last year, Cork Airport was Ireland’s fastest growing airport with traffic increases of 6% in January and February before COVID-19 began impacting traffic in mid-March 2020.

Aer Lingus has maintained its service on the Cork-London Heathrow route throughout Q1 2021, with frequency typically at three flights per week. KLM operated in January and after pausing briefly on foot of increased Dutch Government travel restrictions, returned to Cork in March, operating three times per week to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Both Aer Lingus and KLM continue to operate these services through April and onwards. Ryanair operated some limited flights in early January to London-Stansted, Gdansk and Katowice to cater for post-Christmas demand.

A total of 8,893 passengers flew on scheduled commercial flights in the period, while 1,180 passengers flew in and out of Cork Airport on various general aviation flights including search and rescue operations, transplant flights, Aer Corps and Garda aircraft, business jets, medical evacuations and helicopters serving the offshore gas rigs off the South of Ireland. 

Just 41% of the seats available on scheduled flights in January to March were filled on the 146 scheduled flights that operated in the period – 86 flights to/from London; 52 flights to/from Amsterdam; and eight flights to/from Poland in the first week of January.