Airlines blame World Cup for cancelled flights

THE World Cup was blamed last night for a decision to axe dozens of flights between Cork and airports in London.

Easyjet and Ryanair both confirmed significant reductions in their flights out of Cork over the coming weeks.

Easyjet, which operates one route between Cork and Gatwick, said a surge in demand from football fans across Europe for extra seats on flights to Germany contributed to their decision to pull a number of flights out of Cork this month.

The airline will also cancel its 8.30am flight out of Cork from July 25.

Air traffic control issues and airport slots during the peak summer season were also to blame, a spokesperson said.

Its flights in August will not be affected.

Ryanair also confirmed last night that it is cutting the number of its flights between Cork and Stansted by a third until September, at least.

The airline used to operate 20 flights a week on the route.

That has now been cut to 14 flights a week — two flights daily — since last Tuesday.

A spokesman said that the freed up capacity would be transferred to Dublin airport to give the airline extra and more profitable flights to destinations in the south of France.

“The Cork Airport Authority is pricing itself out of the market,” he said.

“We are not interested in expanding our operations there until they address their price structure.”

Ryanair’s Cork to Liverpool route, which was pulled earlier this year in a row over Cork’s airport charges, will begin flying out of Kerry International Airport on Tuesday.

Aer Lingus, which announced three new routes and increased capacity on two other routes out of Cork on Wednesday, confirmed last night that it is reviewing its Cork to Heathrow service.

There was speculation yesterday that it will pull one of its flight on that route on July 1.

But an Aer Lingus spokesperson said no decision had been made yet.

Meanwhile, a decision on when the airport’s new terminal will open is still awaited.