Ryanair to add a third aircraft at Cork Airport, announces seven new routes

Cork Airport expects two million passengers in 2022

Ryanair had closed its bases in Cork and Shannon in October 2020 due to the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions. File Picture: Dan Linehan

Ryanair will add a third aircraft to be based at Cork Airport in a move that will significantly expand its routes this summer.

The carrier has announced its largest-ever summer schedule from the airport today and will fly to 25 destinations operating more than 120 flights per week.

The new summer routes, some of which are already in operation, are to Alghero in Sardinia, Pisa, Valencia, Venice, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

It follows a similar announcement Ryanair made last month in relation to Dublin Airport as it targets a major restoration of its global traffic.

Niall MacCarthy the managing director of Cork Airport said the expansion by Ryanair means they were updating their passenger forecasts for 2022 to more than two million passengers. 

Ryanair is also taking advantage of fresh incentives offered by the DAA, which operates Cork and Dublin airports. Ryanair had closed its bases in Cork and Shannon in October 2020 due to the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions that caused global air travel to plummet.

It announced the resumption of flights from Shannon last April and in September revealed plans to restore routes from Cork basing two aircraft there for the summer 2022 season operating 20 routes.

However, industry sources say Ryanair will now add a third aircraft at Cork.

The details of the expansion will be announced at a press conference at the airport this morning, attended by Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson and the airport’s managing director Niall MacCarthy.

Prior to the pandemic, Ryanair carried more than 1.1m passengers on 24 routes out of Cork.