Munster airports preparing for a bleak Christmas

Cork and Shannon airports will see Christmas traffic fall by 89% and 96%

Cork Airport saw 32 routes operate last Christmas. This has been reduced to five in 202 due to the Covid pandemic. Picture: Larry Cummins

Munster's airports are preparing for a bleak Christmas period with passenger numbers to remain at historic lows due to the Covid-related restrictions.

Cork Airport carried almost 120,000 passengers over the Christmas period last year but this number is expected to fall by 89% to just 13,000 over the coming weeks.

Shannon Airport, which has had no scheduled services since mid-November, said passengers numbers will be down 96% compared to Christmas 2019.

Ryanair took the decision to shuts is bases at the two airports for the winter but will operate flights in and out of Cork and Shannon over Christmas.

The airline will resume three services from Stansted and Manchester in the UK and Wroclaw in Poland to Shannon later this month. 

Cork Airport will also see three Ryanair services from Stansted in the UK and Katowice and Gdansk in Poland. These are in addition to the regular Aer Lingus service to Heathrow and the KLM service from Amsterdam to Cork.

Shannon airport has had no scheduled services since mid-November. Picture: Eamon Ward

The five services into Cork is down from the 32 that operated from the airport twelve months previously.

KLM is expected to operate a larger 737 aircraft on the Amsterdam to Cork route to meet the increased demand over the Christmas period.

Spokesperson for Cork Airport Kevin Cullinane said they will be welcoming passengers back home to Ireland but said the atmosphere would be more subdued than other years due to the Covid restrictions.

Airports form part of the Christmas festivities as expats arrive home from across the globe. While the airports will be decorated, health restrictions rule out choirs and entertainment.

“During a normal Christmas period we would expect to welcome passengers from all over the world, many of them using our transatlantic services to come home, but we expect passenger traffic for the month of December to be down 96%," Nandi O’Sullivan, Head of Communications, Shannon Group said.

“Normally this time of year is a fabulous time to be at an airport and witness the sheer joy and Christmas spirit, but 2020 will be a very different experience."

“So far this year our passenger traffic has been down 80%. As an essential service, we have remained open throughout the pandemic facilitating commercial transit and private jet traffic, emergency services, cargo and to support our aviation customers based in the airport campus who need the airport to be open for their business. We are the only airport in Ireland that is open on Christmas Day, and we will continue to do so this year.

Despite positive news on vaccine trials and hopes, it is expected to take a number of months before there is a substantial level of air traffic both in Ireland and across the globe. The industry also predicts it could take three years or more before flights numbers return to pre-Covid levels.

Cork Airport confirmed this week, it will take advantage of the reduced traffic next year and will bring forward plans to resurface and refurbish its main runway.

The Taoiseach Micheál Martin welcomed the decision. “Although air travel has been impacted greatly in the wake of Covid-19 global restrictions, the skies will re-open and post-Brexit, Ireland will hopefully grow its position as a global business and tourism hub.

“I’m pleased to see progress on this issue and hope work can begin early next year on what is an important project for Cork Airport.