Aer Lingus Regional to add new routes from Cork Airport

Aer Lingus Regional plans to increase its passenger numbers at Cork by 60,000 next year as part of an expansion that will see it add two new routes at the airport and relaunch a third at Shannon.

The airline, operated under contract by Stobart Air for Aer Lingus, will today announce that it is boosting passenger numbers and capacity at the two State-owned airports.

It will launch services to Leeds Bradford and Southampton from Cork Airport in March 2016. It will fly five times a week to Southampton and three times weekly to Leeds. The airline will step up frequencies on its Cork-to-Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow services, adding nine extra flights a week across the three destinations.

It also plans to base a third aircraft there as it will be operating 10 routes once the new services are launched in March.

Aer Lingus Regional hopes the new routes and increased frequencies will see it carry an extra 60,000 passengers through Cork Airport in 2016. This would have the effect of increasing its passenger throughput at Cork to 335,000 in 2016.

Relaunched route

The airline is also planning to relaunch its Shannon-Edinburgh route, which it will fly six times a week, every day except Saturday, from next March. It said the relaunched route will add 35,000 new seats to its Shannon services next year, rising to 45,000 in 2017.

Stobart's chief commercial officer, Martin Saxton, said increasing choice for its customers is key to its growth.

“Together with both Cork and Shannon airports, we look forward to working together to develop and grow these new routes,” he said.