Why is Cork Airport so Expensive?
October 11th, 2007
I was trying to book a flight from Cork to Rome yesterday as I plan on taking my Mother to the Vatican for her birthday. I was booking a flight in April for 3 people from Cork and it would cost €1,700. The same flight from Dublin only cost €180!
What a huge difference! Why is this? I mean Cork and Dublin are not that far apart, the fuel costs must be the same. The only reason I can think of is because Cork has higher charges than Dublin. Probably because of the debt (€100,000,000) they have been left in by the Government who promised to leave them debt free after they broke away from Aer Rianta.
If I am correct then I feel that is a pretty insane state of affairs. I would love to support Cork airport (as I live in Cork) but it is cheaper for me to travel by train to Dublin, stay the night and then fly out from Dublin airport the next day. Are the government trying to totally kill tourism in Cork? It probably has an effect on business deciding to hold conferences, and maybe even start businesses, in Cork as well.
Areas of Cork (North and West especially) have been marked as severely disadvantaged areas by the EU. People are leaving in their droves and multinationals (such as Molex in Millstreet) are closing down. Surely everything possible that can be done to keep Cork a viable place to do business should be looked at?
Dublin should be able to absorb the debt without much fuss as it is the capital (although not the real one ;) ) and people will always be travelling there for tourism and business. So raising the prices there slightly would have no huge effect on them.
I seem to remember that the Greens signed some contract stating that if they got into power they would wipe the debt. So where is the movement on it?
5 Comments Add your own
1. Keith Clancy | October 16th, 2007 at 8:56
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Its obvious
Dublin has 3 airlines flying to Rome !
Cork only has 1 :)
Aerlingus are the culprits, not cork airport, they do they exact same thing on the Amsterdam route, they really are assholes.
Also, Dublin has more slots, hence more flights and cheaper seats.
http://www.skyscanner.net
This scraper rocks … checks out all the flights for you and if you want an indirect route theres an option for that too !
2. thesraid | October 16th, 2007 at 22:02
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But I wonder if other airlines are being put off by the high prices? I mean surely the Government should be ensuring Cork Airport is cheap to encourage competition and therefore lower prices for you and me?
3. mynameis | October 20th, 2007 at 0:17
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^^ It’s a shame, but I think that the gubberment has absolutely no interest in matters outside Dublin..
4. Keith Clancy | October 22nd, 2007 at 13:58
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Looks like schiphol (amsterdam) is more expensive than Cork.
http://www.schiphol.nl/_inchecken_bagage/portlet/Luchthaventarieven.jsp
http://www.corkairport.com/business/airport_charges.html
I don’t get the whole charges thing, its doesnt seem to add up when you buy a ticket.
5. thesraid | October 23rd, 2007 at 7:38
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I agree with you mynameis. I thought I was the only one that had that opinion but I was afraid to say it because since I am from Cork I assumed everyone would just say it was the usual Cork bashing of Dublin but it is very true. In fairness to the Cork City and County Councils they are doing a great job around here. Although funding for everything (even public services) seem to be funded out of Cork. They get little or no support from the Government.
And i also don’t get the charges thing. All I know is that the pride difference is unreal and you would think the Government would try and promote the smaller airport by allowing the prices to be lowered somehow not slapping them with a huge bill when for years the Cork profit was transferred to Aer Rianta and Dublin Airport.
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