Airline under fire over €150 fare difference

AER LINGUS was branded a “scrooge” last night for charging Christmas passengers up to €150 more for seats on their London-Cork flights than their London-Dublin route.

The news prompted calls for airport bosses to find a competitor on the Heathrow route to ensure a better deal for consumers.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Tom O’Driscoll said the huge price difference was caused by a lack of Aer Lingus seats on the Cork-Heathrow route.

The cheapest available one-way fare on any of Aer Lingus’ three daily flights from Heathrow to Cork on December 22, 23 and 24 was £119, excluding taxes, on the company’s website yesterday.

However, the cheapest one-way fare on one of the airline’s 13 daily flights from Heathrow into Dublin on the same days was £9, excluding taxes.

This means it would be cheaper for people to fly into Dublin and get a train to Cork than fly direct into Cork with Aer Lingus on Christmas week.

An airline spokesperson defended the price difference yesterday.

“We have special low fares from London into Dublin and Cork from now until June 28 starting from €9 each way,” she said.

“But the lowest fare available is subject to availability. Christmas is peak time so book loads are very high. There is very high demand.”

She said there were no immediate plans to lay on more flights into Cork, which could cut prices.

Meanwhile, the redevelopment of Cork Airport could run over budget by as much as €20 million.

Originally priced at €140m, the project managers have now been asked to re-examine the costs following reports they could spiral to €150m-€170m.