Early-morning Cork flights ‘good for investors’

AER LINGUS will introduce an early-morning flight from Heathrow to Cork next April — a decision that will boost business in the south.

But the move will anger business leaders in the mid-west, who are still reeling from the airline’s decision to axe its Shannon to Heathrow routes from January.

The flight times, being introduced as part of the airline’s summer schedule, emerged as political figures renewed their calls for Aer Lingus to replace the lost Shannon routes with one of Cork’s four Heathrow slots.

The region has already lost €75 million in tourism investment directly as a result of the airline’s decision to pull the plug on the route.

There are fears that the region could lose hundreds of millions more in investment unless an alternative link is found.

But Cork’s political and business leaders said reducing the level of service into the south was not the answer.

“While we understand the difficulties facing the Shannon region following the Aer Lingus decision, it was very disappointing to see the Mayor of Shannon, Councillor Sean McLoughlin, calling for routes to be taken from Cork,” said Conor Healy, the chief executive of the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

“The solution is not to be found by reducing services out of Cork.”

Fianna Fáil city councillor Tom O’Driscoll, who is also a member of the South West Regional Authority’s airport consultative committee, welcomed Aer Lingus’s commitment to Cork.

“This new service is good news for investors,” he said.

But he warned against reducing routes into the southern capital to solve Shannon’s problems.

Aer Lingus has expanded its routes from Cork to cities across mainland Europe in recent years.

It also bases a number of its Airbus A320s and A321s at the new €200 million airport — worth millions to the local economy in terms of landing charges, refuelling and crew overnights in local hotels.

Its new early-morning flight will operate Mondays to Saturdays and was available to book on the airline’s website yesterday from April 1, 2008.

The flight will leave London at 6.40am and touch down in Cork at 8am. Until now, the earliest Aer Lingus flight from Heathrow in to Cork was 11am.

Business leaders said the old times did not suit British company representatives who wanted a full day of business in Cork.

However, the late night 10.10pm flight from Heathrow, landing in Cork at 11.25pm will be discontinued.

From April, the last flight from Heathrow will land at 8.45pm.