Airport chief says they have not raised charges

I WISH to respond to Edel Wright’s letter headlined ‘Emigrant family devastated by the loss of Cork-Glasgow flight link’ (September 17).

While we are obviously disappointed with Ryanair’s recent decision to cancel their East Midlands and Glasgow Prestwick services with effect from next month, I feel it is important to clarify the facts as they are and in particular to refute absolutely some of the misinformation given.

Cork airport management strongly refutes the misinformation that it has “raised fees by 20%”. We have not raised charges by a single cent.

All airlines are eligible to apply for route support through our generous route support scheme when introducing new destinations.

The scheme operates over a five-year period and is based on a sliding scale with a 100% discount in year one. In the second year of operation, the airline receives a discount of 80%, with a 60% discount in year three, 40% in year four, and so on over the five-year period of the scheme.

The purpose of the sliding scale is to share the risks of start-up operations with airlines during the initial phases and Cork airport’s objective is to encourage airlines to commence operations on new routes earlier than they might otherwise have done.

As I have already said, we are obviously disappointed with Ryanair’s decision. Since receipt of the notice we have been working tirelessly to replace this capacity and are delighted that Aer Arann will commence flights from Cork to Glasgow Prestwick from the end of October on six days each week, thus ensuring a seamless continuation of connectivity between Cork and Glasgow.

Aer Arann will also benefit from Cork airport’s route support scheme.

Passenger numbers this year have continued to rise and to the end of August, growth of almost 7% more than 2007 has been recorded.

However, we know we face a particularly difficult business environment and we look forward to the support of our customers in the months ahead.

Cork airport offers direct access to more than 60 European destinations on our wide range of scheduled and chartered flights.

We have also recently announced new services to Geneva and Lisbon with Aer Lingus and Poznan with Wizz Air.

Details of these and all flights can be found at www.corkairport.com

We thank all our customers for their continued support and look forward to serving them again soon.

Kevin Cullinane

Marketing Manager

Cork Airport