Why was there no outcry when airport cut busy routes to Poland?

The twice-weekly Cork to Brussels air service is shortly to be ended and Cork politicians, from Government and opposition parties alike, as well as Chamber of Commerce officials, are all screeching about what the loss will do to Cork Airport.

Who cried out earlier in the year, when flights for Cork’s large Polish community, to and from Krakow and Warsaw, in Poland, were dropped by Ryanair?

Both Krakow and Warsaw have been among the strongest-ever commercially scheduled destinations from Cork Airport. The routes maintained strong social, family and economic links for Cork’s hard-working Polish community, which was left voiceless.

The East European airline, Wizz Air, was well- established on routes from Warsaw and Katowice (near Krakow) for many years, until Ryanair began flying those routes in late 2012.

Did Ryanair see a commercial opportunity to begin flights to Poland from Cork, or is there more to the story?

Maybe a representative from Ryanair would like to comment?

Why, then, drop strong-performing Cork Airport flights to Poland this spring?

Ryanair should explain to Cork’s honest and hardworking Polish community the inconvenience caused.

Cork Airport likes to remind us that there are 50 destinations served from Cork. Madrid and Rome are both listed as destinations on the airport website. I would like to know how many Cork people have boarded Madrid and Rome-bound flights from Cork Airport in the last 365 days? I would venture the answer is close to zero.

The flights in question are ad hoc: three or four in-bound planes with young Italian and Spanish students coming to Cork for two weeks to practise their English language skills and to live with host families.

Zaragoza is also listed as a destination from Cork, and the last flight to the Aragon capital was in September, 2013.

The Cork Airport website list of destinations also includes Arrecife and Lanzarote, and intelligent passengers will know already that Arrecife is the capital town of the island of Lanzarote, and they are by no means separate routes served from Cork Airport.

I will give Cork Airport credit for including Rome on the list of destinations, though — but it raises the question as to why Aer Lingus dropped their Rome service from Cork three years ago. Rome was a strong-performing scheduled route from Cork Airport.

In the last summer the service operated, the load factor was 80-90%.

Again, there is a question for Aer Lingus to answer.

Tom Whelan

Father Matthew Road

Turner’s Cross

Cork