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!

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.

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.”

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)

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

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.

This is a blow to toursim in the southwest of Ireland, a region that has also seen UK visitor numbers affected by the closure of the Swansea-Cork ferry 2 years ago.

The routes to close are from East-Midlands and Glasgow-Prestwick, which will close on October 26th and 28th respectively.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said they had made the decision due to an increase in the charges being imposed by the airport on those routes from 1 November however Cork Airport management have rejected this claim stating that they have not raised charges.

Mr O’Leary claimed that he felt a deal was possible in recent negotiations but that the Airport’s parent company the Dublin Airport Authority(DAA) were blocking the move. He said that the situation could be rescued if the DAA “changed its mind” but as of now the two routes will finish in October.

This statement is sure to bring further pressure on government to complete the process of making Cork an independent airport from Dublin. This was promised with the breakup of Aer-Rianta in 2004, however as yet the process has been no more than a name change from Aer Rinata to the DAA.

As someone who works for an Irish company that has offices in both Cork and Glasgow, I really hope they sort this mess out!

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• 7-day rental of an economy car including all fees and taxes, CDW, theft protection and location service charge
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• Heritage guide to Ireland including admission special offers
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In a deal between Aer Arann and Aer Lingus, passengers will now be able to book flights from USA airports to Cork with a stopover in Dublin. Checked luggage will be transferred automatically to the connecting flight and boarding passes will be issued for the Dublin-Cork leg in the USA.

This deal will benefit both inbound and outbound travel through Cork Airport as Irish passengers will be also be able to book flights from Cork to eg JFK via Dublin in one transaction.

Managing director of Aer Arann, Garry Cullen, issued a statement stating “The ability to through check luggage all the way to your final destination from Cork, and transfer seamlessly to Aer Lingus’ USA services in Dublin will be of great benefit to Aer Arann and Aer Lingus customers. The partnership with Aer Lingus will benefit Munster by making the region more accessible to the USA inbound tourist and USA corporate travel markets.”

The streamlined booking process allows customers to book flights both to and from Cork direct to seven destinations in the USA in one single booking transaction and opens up Cork as a final destination for US Guests wishing to travel to Ireland.