Cork Airport welcomes today’s announcement by Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, of its intention to base a third aircraft at Cork in preparation for the commencement of the airline’s largest ever summer schedule. Today’s announcement brings to 25, the number of destinations that will be served by Ryanair this summer at Cork Airport.

In addition to the announcement of the basing of an additional aircraft, Ryanair also announced seven new routes from Cork Airport this summer - Pisa, Italy; Alghero, Sardinia; Valencia, Spain; Venice, Italy; Manchester, UK, Birmingham, UK and Edinburgh, UK.

Following Ryanair’s most recent new route announcement at Cork Airport in September last year, today’s announcement will see, further enhancement of the offering to passengers across the South of Ireland.

In welcoming the announcement, Niall MacCarthy, Managing Director at Cork Airport said:

“I am delighted with today’s announcement by Ryanair that a third aircraft will be based at Cork Airport for the upcoming summer season. With the addition of seven new and exciting summer routes including Pisa, Alghero (Sardinia), and Valencia, this will bring the total number of Ryanair routes available from Cork Airport to 25, giving lots of travel options for our passengers and the largest choice of routes to date. In addition, the frequency on London Stansted is being increased to three times per day, seven days per week and Manchester will also operate twice daily.”

“Research tells us that there is huge pent-up demand for travel after the pandemic. People really appreciate good friendly customer service and uncrowded, pleasant indoor spaces which they will find at Cork Airport. It has been a long wait, but we know that the travelling public across the South of Ireland will support these routes strongly. In that regard, we expect a 750% increase in passenger traffic in 2022 v 2021 and to welcome over 2 million passengers once again to our terminal in 2022. We thank Ryanair for this vote of confidence in Cork Airport.”

Speaking at the announcement at Cork Airport, Eddie Wilson, CEO of Ryanair DAC said:

“Following Ryanair’s announcement at Dublin Airport last month, where Ryanair launched its largest ever Summer schedule from Dublin, we’re delighted to now announce our largest ever Summer schedule from Cork, together with the news of an additional 3rd based aircraft for Summer 2022, representing a further $100m investment for Cork Airport. This is fantastic news for Cork Airport and the wider Southwest region, with Ryanair now operating over 120 weekly flights to 25 destinations this Summer, with great outbound sun destinations to Spain, Portugal, and Italy, but also giving inbound tourism a much-needed boost, restoring vital connectivity and securing jobs in the wider tourism industry.

If Ireland is to remain competitive vs. other EU countries and airports in Italy, Portugal, Croatia, etc. daa needs the Irish Government’s support to extend this temporary scheme (available to all carriers) at Dublin and Cork Airports until the end of Winter 22/23 in March 23, to ensure that as many Ryanair aircraft as possible remain based in Ireland this Winter to support Irish inbound tourism and connectivity. This will ameliorate the damage caused by the pandemic and the Government needs to urgently support this vital investment in infrastructure at Irish Airports, particularly this Winter, to ensure the continuity of airline seat capacity at all Irish airports.

In celebration of today’s announcement of our largest ever summer schedule of 25 routes and over 120 weekly flights to the beaches of Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, we have launched a seat sale with fares from just €19.99 for travel until October’22, which must be booked by midnight Saturday, 19th February. With air fares likely to increase this summer due to reduced industry capacity, we encourage all customers to book early and scoop up these lower fares on Ryanair.com.”