Aer Lingus Regional will this week begin operating two new routes from Cork Airport with flights to Southampton and Leeds Bradford in the UK.
Beginning today, and operated by Stobart Air, flights will depart for Southampton and will operate up to five times weekly. The new service to Leeds Bradford will begin tomorrow (15 March) and will operate up to three times weekly. With the addition of these two new routes, the airline aims to carry an additional 60,000 passengers through Cork Airport in 2016 and will base a third aircraft at the airport, servicing the 10 Aer Lingus Regional routes from Cork.
In addition to the new routes to Southampton and Leeds Bradford, the airline has also increased frequency on its services to Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow from Cork; with up to nine additional flights per week across these three routes.
Commenting today, Martin Saxton, Chief Commercial Officer at Stobart Air said that the airline is delighted to expand its Cork services and has set ambitious targets for its Cork routes:
“Since announcing the expansion of our services from Cork Airport, bookings have been strong on both new and existing routes. Providing choice and regional connectivity is key and serving major UK cities from Cork is important for us and our customers”.
“Cork has grown to become a significant business hub in the South and continues to attract domestic and international businesses. We’re keen to support that and we look forward to working with the team at Cork Airport in growing and developing our Cork services,” he said.
Niall MacCarthy, Managing Director at Cork Airport welcomed the commencement of the two new services:
“We are delighted to continue our great relationship with Aer Lingus Regional and Stobart Air, who operate 10 routes from Cork Airport. There are already a number of key UK provincial routes for passengers from the region and the addition of the new services offers even greater choice and connectivity across the UK. There are now 14 UK destinations available from Cork Airport”.
“As well as boosting outbound business and leisure travel, the new Southampton and Leeds Bradford services with Aer Lingus Regional will generate a significant boost to the local economy by creating opportunities for the inbound tourism market.”
This week also sees the recommencement of the Aer Lingus Regional Shannon to Edinburgh route on Wednesday (16 March) and the Dublin to Newquay Cornwall service today (Monday).
The airline also recently announced it will operate flights between Dublin and Liverpool, with increased frequency and enhanced connectivity to Aer Lingus’ North American route network. From 2 May, flights will increase from two flights per day to four and will be operated by Stobart Air.