Ryanair to reopen Cork base from late 1Q22
Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int’l) is re-opening a two-aircraft base at Cork in the Summer of 2022, representing a full recovery of its pre-pandemic passenger capacity at the Irish airport and the return of 20 routes, amongst them Birmingham Int’l and Edinburgh, which are unserved following the collapse of Stobart Air.
The move will be a USD200 million investment in Cork Airport, the airline announced in a statement, adding it had also restored its pre-pandemic capacity for the next summer at Shannon, Knock, and Kerry airports.
The Irish Times reported that Ryanair had struck a deal on charges with the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), which is extending airline incentives at Cork to October 2022. The airport said it had worked closely with Ryanair and the DAA over the last months to extend the traffic recovery scheme to the end of October 2022 to incentivise Ryanair to return its capacity to pre-pandemic levels. “This is fantastic news for Cork Airport and the entire Southwest region, as the restoration of the two aircraft base will secure 60 Ryanair jobs and deliver thousands of tourism jobs in the Cork area,” the airport said.
The airline warned that a government failure to fund a similar extension at Dublin Int’l would leave the Irish capital with fewer than two-thirds of its pre-pandemic services next summer.
Ryanair’s Cork winter 2021/22 recovery schedule includes the following destinations:
Spain: Alicante, Lanzarote, Malaga, and Tenerife Sur;
UK: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London Gatwick, London Luton, and London Stansted;
Poland: Gdansk and Poznan.
The Cork summer 2022 summer 2022 schedule will include:
Spain: Alicante, Lanzarote, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife, Girona, Reus, and Las Palmas;
UK: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Gatwick, Luton, and Stansted;
Poland: Gdansk and Poznan;
France: Bordeaux and Carcassonne;
Portugal: Faro;
Italy: Milan Bergamo.
Ryanair closed its base in Cork, along with Shannon, in October 2020 in light of weaker bookings due to flight restrictions imposed by European Union governments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.