British/European airline, Flybe has announced a new route between Knock Airport and Edinburgh in Scotland. The new route will be operated three times a week starting on 19 April

FlyBe have the route on sale now with fares from UK£29.99 one way (including taxes & charges) at http://flybe.com

The new service provides the only air link between Scotland and Ireland’s West;
Apart from providing easy access to the scenic attractions of the West of Ireland, the nearby village of Knock is also world-renowned for its Marian Shrine that is visited by over 1.5-million pilgrims each year.

Of course the development has also been widely welcomed by those living in the West of Ireland giving easy access to Edinburgh and to holidays in Scotland in general.

More information about Ireland’s Airports: Flights to Ireland

In a major boost to Irish Tourism, Delta Airlines have announced that they will reinstate their winter schedule between JFK  and Shannon Airport for the 2010-2011 winter season.

Delta withdrew the route for winter 2009/10 opting only for a summer service, however the resumption of the winter link is a huge boost for Shannon Airport, Ireland’s midwest and Irish tourism in general delivering greater cometition for North American tourists looking to fly to Ireland

In an effort to remove confusion for the passenger and allow for the additioanl boarding gate capacity that will come on stream in Terminal 2, all boarding gates at Dublin Airport will be renumbered on Wednesday next February 3 2010.

The alpha-numerical system based on the pier location will be abandoned for a more logical numeric sequence following consultation with airlines.

From start of business Wednesday morning for the first wave of departures the following will apply:

• Pier D boarding gates will start from a 100 number range i.e. D60 will become 101
  
• Pier A boarding gates will start from a 200 number range i.e.  A1 will become 201
  
• Pier B boarding gates will start from a 300 number range i.e.  B22 will become 301

In time, when Pier E is fully operational all boarding gates there will start from a 400 number range.

It is not clear if the new terminal will continue starting at 500 or if it will operate it’s own independent system.

An airport spokesperson stated in a comment, “We believe that this change in gate numbering will provide a more intuitive way finding solution with logical pier/gate sequencing for passengers and is being introduced to improve the customer journey through Dublin Airport .”

With connectivity to Shannon Airport diminishing, especially in the winter season, Cork Airport is becoming more and more of an option for North American visitors to Ireland. While Cork Airport has no direct traffic with North America, it has much much more connectivity with European hubs than it’s County Clare counterpart. In fact for many US departure cities there is more one-stop connectivity to Cork Airport than there is to Shannon.
Cork Airport has direct connections to all the following hubs, that in turn have non-stop connections to the USA and/or Canada:

For our Guests who need accommodation close to Cork Airport below is a list of our most convenient hotels

Hotels near Cork Airport

Today is the last day of Ryanair’s latest special offer for flights to Ireland.
Book by midnight tonight to avail of 75% off their fares.

There are some great value rates available.
I just did a quick survey right now on the London Stanstead to Cork Airport Route: There are flights available for travel in March (even for St. Patrick’s day) for less than stg £50 return including all taxes.

If you have any plans to come to Ireland this Spring, I’d get booking my flights today!

A record 3.25m passengers passed through Cork Airport in 2008 setting a new record.
This was a 2.5% increase over 2007 and represents an additional 80,000 passengers through Cork during the year.

Traffic between Cork and London grew by 4% to 927 thousand with traffic to and from provincial UK airports growing 26% to 669,000.
Continental European passenger numbers were static versus 2007 at 869,000 while domestic traffic within Ireland suffered a 10% decline to 443,00 passengers during the year.

Ryanair have announced new routes from their Spanish hub in Alicante to Derry Airport and Knock Airport in the North and West of Ireland.

The budget airline said today that the services from City of Derry Airport and Ireland West Airport Knock would be operating twice weekly from June 4th of this year.

Alicante becomes the 7th Ryanair link to Derry Airport adding to Liverpool, London, Luton, Stansted, Glasgow and Birmingham. It will bring the number of Ryanair links to Knock to 3, in addition to Bristol and East Midlands.

The Mayor of Derry Gerard Diver said the new route was a fulfilment of a long-standing ambition stating that ”A direct scheduled international flight is a long-standing ambition for the city and region and today’s announcement will create more choice and greater convenience for passengers.”

“It is a positive way forward for City of Derry Airport.”

Michael O’Leary’s Ryanair officially presented its takeover bid to Aer Lingus investors yesterday, giving them until January 5th to accept the €1.40 ($1.87) per share offer.

Ryanair presented the opportunity to create ”one leading, financially strong, Irish-run airline group.”

The offered share price represents a €748 million offer, a premium of approximately 28% over the average closing price for the 30 days ended Nov. 28 and considerably lower than the €2.80 per share that it offered two years ago.

Ryanair guaranteed that Aer Lingus would remain a separately operated company and that both its brand and its slots and connectivity at London Heathrow would remain.

It plans to double Aer Lingus’ short-haul fleet over the next five years to 66 aircraft, creating a additional 1,000 jobs.

It also promised the Aer Lingus chairman, Colm Barrington, a seat on the Ryanair board however, Mr barrington responded that the offer was “the usual stream of invective, spin and misrepresentation that we expect from the people at Ryanair.”

Ryanair currently holds 29.8% of Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus has vowed to remain independent and CEO, Dermot Mannion, said on Sunday that Aer Lingus will respond to the offer document with a ” very positive, affirmative document that will set out an independent strategy for long-term growth on shorthaul and on longhaul in the business”

This will be intersting to watch and is likely to be ultimately  decided by the government who hold approx 25% of the airline’s shares. However, Ryanair are keen to also win support of the ESOP, who hold 14%, and have conceded that they will recognise union membership as part of the integration (something they do not do within Ryanair)

It is reported in this morning’s Irish Times that the Irish government is planning a u-turn on it’s decision 4 years ago to make both Cork Airport and Shannon Airport independent of Dublin airport.

According to the newspaper report, comments by minister for transport, Noel Dempsey, yesterday gave a clear indication of the intention to keep Cork and Shannon Airports under the authority of Dublin.

As often speculated at the time, it now appears that the State Airports Act 2004, was nothing more than a name change from Aer Rianta to the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA). If this story turns out to be true, surely a further name change is required? It would seem a ridiculous situation to have the other two airports as part of a DUBLIN airport authority in the longer term??? 

Read the full Irsh Times article at:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1117/1226700658702.html

The appointment has been announced that Gerry Walsh, former CEO of Board Gáis, will take over the position of Chairman of the Cork Airport Authority.

At myguideIreland we are huge fans of Cork Airport and often receive reviews from travellers highlighting the ease of transit and the quality of the experience at Cork Airport.

We welcome the appointment of Gerry Walsh and wish hime every success in steering the airport to even greater success in the coming years.