Decision to drop Dublin Cork flights will hit tourism
Vivian O’Callaghan jnr, chairman of West Cork Tourism, said visitors from the Frankfurt region will lose their connection to Cork when the flight terminates in Dublin.
“It can only have an effect because you would be dealing with two different carriers then which makes it more complicated. At least three of the daily flights from Dublin formed the last leg of what could effectively be seen as direct flights from Frankfurt to Cork and Paris to Cork with a touchdown in Dublin,” Mr O’Callaghan said.
“Many travellers from Germany will face the prospect of lengthy stopovers in Dublin. While I applaud Aer Arann for their prompt announcement to commit further to Cork, I challenge our national airline to explain fully its reasons for abandoning the route,” he said.
Mr O’Callaghan said a bizarre fact he’d come across in Cuba last year turned out to be a joke that now backfired on the people of Cork.
“On a trip to Cuba last year I was highly amused to learn that in that country you can fly the national carrier from the capital, Havana, to the second city, Santiago de Cuba. But you can’t fly back. The route formed part of a circuit whereby if you wanted to travel back to Havana you would have to do is via Trinidad de Cuba, the island’s third city on a clockwise tour of the country,” Mr O’Callaghan said.
He said the joke was now on the people of Cork following Aer Lingus’ shock announcement last week.
“The suggestion by some commentators this week that at worst, the decision by Aer Lingus to cancel the route is a blow to the ego of the region, is short-sighted and simplistic,” the West Cork Tourism chairman said.
Aer Lingus lost €1 million last year on the Cork-Dublin route and said the reason it was withdrawing was because its larger planes were not suitable to short commuter flights.
