“Bring back Cork flights” to ease pressure in Dublin Airport, councillor urges

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan should “immediately transfer flights to Cork” to ease pressure on Dublin Airport, a Fermoy MD councillor has told Cork County Council.

Cllr Frank O’Flynn proposed a motion at this month’s full council meeting that the council write to the Transport Minister and the Minister of State to urge them “to reinstate all the flights to Cork that were reduced during Covid and to facilitate the people travelling to and from the South of Ireland, as Cork Airport has the capacity to facilitate this.”

Over 1,000 passengers missed flights from Dublin Airport on one Sunday at the end of May due to queues, since which time the DAA have installed outdoor holding areas to deal with excessive queuing.

‘BALANCED GROWTH’

Meanwhile, Cork Airport remains “eerily quiet,” as one councillor commented recently.

The government contributed €10 million towards the costs of repaving Cork Airport’s runway as part of a €40M overhaul, that saw the airport closed from September to November last year.

Cllr Frank O’Flynn told the meeting he had constituents that had booked holidays flying out of Dublin Airport who were travelling from Cork to Dublin to fly and were incurring extra costs and dealing with long queuing times.

“We all know it takes a whole day to go to Dublin, so why are agents selling holidays that are all leaving from Dublin?” Cllr O’Flynn asked. “What’s happening is not supporting balanced growth. The local economy are losing out. We’re told it cost millions and millions to lay out the new runway. We have the airport, we have the facilities and we have the staff to support balanced growth for the region.”