Seat capacity on Cork-Zurich route to double

Swiss International Air Lines is expanding its Cork-Zurich service for 2018, on the back of demand from the region’s pharma firms.

Swiss, which operated the service for the first time this year, with two weekly flights, will more than double capacity on the route, from 9,000 seats to 20,140, next year. The airline will now operate three flights a week — Monday, a new Wednesday service, and Friday — commencing in early May and running until the end of October, 2018. That is an almost 25-week summer season. The flight will be operated by Bombardier CS100 and CS300 aircraft.

Niall MacCarthy, managing director at Cork Airport, said they are delighted with the news.

“The expansion of the route, by Swiss, is in direct response to requests by some of the multinational pharma companies based here in Cork,” said Mr MacCarthy.

Andreas Koester, Lufthansa Group’s senior director of sales UK, Ireland, and Iceland, said the route expansion, less than six months after its commencement, shows how pleased they are with this new service.

“I believe that the addition of a midweek service, and longer seasonality, will cater for the growing pharmaceutical sector in the Cork region,” he said. “The expansion further adds to Lufthansa Group’s portfolio in Ireland and will continue to offer connections not only to Switzerland, but to a variety of Swiss destinations around the world.”