Cork Airport flies high on 6% passenger boost
Cork Airport was flying high today after it announced a record 3.2 million passengers passed through its new terminal last year — a 6% jump in traffic on the previous year.
Eleven airlines carried 2.8 million passengers on 42 scheduled routes over the course of the year, with a further 400,000 travelling on charter flights.
The annual report is the first from the Cork Airport Authority (CAA) since the new terminal opened last summer.
“During what proved to be a solidly performing year, both airline and travelling customers alike signalled their strong approval for the new facilities and services at Cork Airport,” said a statement from the CAA.
The boost in passenger numbers was helped by the arrival of new flights to Newquay and Bratislava.
Ryanair also launched new services to Glasgow Prestwick and Nottingham’s East Midlands airports.
The biggest increase in traffic was to five Polish cities now served directly from Cork. Some 205,000, a huge 173% rise, flew on these routes.
Roy Keane’s move to Sunderland boosted Jet2.com’s service to Newcastle by 22% in 2007 to a new high of 39,000 passengers.
Last year was the 15th consecutive year of passenger growth to and from Cork Airport.
It was the second year in a row that the three million barrier was broken.
European scheduled routes, mainly those operated by Aer Lingus, were the strongest performers in terms of growth in 2007, with traffic up 30%.
Intense competition between Ryanair and Aer Arann on flights to and from Dublin have seen passenger numbers rise by 20%.
Some 500,000 bought tickets for internal flights, mainly on the Cork-Dublin route, but also to Galway with Aer Arann.
Some 2.8 million passengers flew with 11 airlines that operated scheduled services from the airport, while 390,000 flew on chartered flights to an increasing range of winter sun, winter ski, summer sun and pilgrimage destinations.
Ryanair carried 863,000 passengers to six Irish and UK destinations, an increase of 5%, while 332,000 took off with Aer Arann to 11 Irish, UK and French airports, a rise of 8%.
Bmibaby carried 147,000 passengers, while Wizz Air grew four fold to 83,000 and Centralwings had an 11-fold hike to 79,000 passengers after a full year of operations at Cork Airport.
But Malev Hungarian Airlines, which flew 28,000 passengers to Budapest, recently announced they are to axe the service from the end of this month.
Published courtesy of
