Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (28^th Sept) announced a $200m investment in Cork Airport and a full recovery of its pre-pandemic passenger capacity with the reopening of its 2 aircraft base. This investment will bring 20 routes to Cork, including the introduction of new services to Birmingham and Edinburgh which are unserved following the collapse of Stobart Air.

Cork Airport and the DAA have worked closely with Ryanair over the last number of months, to extend the traffic recovery scheme to the end of Oct 22 to incentivise Ryanair traffic to return to pre-pandemic levels. Ryanair has responded by reopening it’s base and restoring its traffic at Cork in full for Summer ‘22. This is fantastic news for Cork Airport and the entire Southwest region, as the restoration of the 2 aircraft base will secure 60 Ryanair jobs and deliver thousands of tourism jobs in the Cork area.

Ryanair has now restored traffic to pre-pandemic levels for Summer ’22 in Cork, Shannon, Knock, and Kerry airports. The outlier continues to be Dublin Airport, which is set to have a reduction of 35% in Ryanair traffic for Summer ’22, unless the Government and the Minister for Transport support the DAA in extending the current Covid traffic recovery scheme until the end of Summer ’22 as Cork Airport has done. This will ensure Ryanair and other carriers can restore Dublin traffic to 100% of pre-pandemic levels and prevent the migration of jobs and aircraft elsewhere in Europe.

To celebrate the return to Cork Airport with two based aircraft and  20 routes, Ryanair has fares available from just €19.99 for travel until end of October ‘22, which must be booked by midnight Thursday 30 September ‘21, only on the Ryanair.com website.

Ryanair’s Cork Winter 2021 and Summer 2022 recovery schedule will deliver:

Ryanair DAC  CEO Eddie Wilson, said:

“Ryanair is delighted to confirm the reopening of its two aircraft base at Cork Airport. This $200M investment secures 60 Ryanair jobs at Cork, but more importantly restores passenger traffic at Cork to pre-pandemic levels for Summer ‘22.  Cork along with Shannon, Kerry, and Knock have had their Ryanair traffic fully restored to pre-pandemic levels of capacity ensuring the recovery of tourism, jobs, and connectivity.

Unfortunately, traffic at Dublin is set to fall by up to 35% next summer as the DAA traffic recovery scheme does not have the required funding from Government to incentivise traffic recovery for the entire summer season ending in June instead of October. We call on Eamonn Ryan the Minister for Transport to urgently confirm the extension to the current DAA scheme until October ’22, similar to the scheme at Cork Airport. This extension of the traffic recovery scheme will ensure that Ryanair will fully restore all of its pre-pandemic capacity at Irish airports in preparation for Summer ‘22, securing Ireland’s tourism industry, and the thousands of jobs that depend on air  connectivity.”

Niall McCarthy, Managing Director, Cork Airport said:

“I am delighted with today’s announcement by Ryanair reopening their base at Cork Airport in December. Twenty routes on sale from Cork Airport on the Ryanair website will ensure that Christmas 2021, Spring and Summer 2022 contains lots of travel options for our passengers. Outbound sun and city breaks and inbound visitors from the UK and Continental Europe is good news for jobs in aviation, tourism and hospitality and the rebound of our economy in 2022.”