Cork Airport has welcomed the addition of new routes to Nice and Dubrovnik as part of Aer Lingus’ summer 2019 schedule.
The announcement was made today by the airline, with flights to Nice, France commencing on May 1 on Wednesdays and Sundays while the new service to Dubrovnik, Croatia will take off from May 4 on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
50 routes will now be on offer from Cork Airport across the UK, continental Europe and the USA next year.
The airport forecasts that 2.6 million passengers will travel through its terminals next year, up 7% on 2018.
Cork Airport Managing Director Niall MacCarthy said: “We are delighted to see [Aer Lingus] continuing to grow and invest in Cork with Nice and Dubrovnik flights now bookable for 2019, along with the commencement this week of a new year-round Lisbon route. This now brings to 23 the number of routes served by Aer Lingus from Cork Airport.
"Scheduled Nice and Dubrovnik connections from Cork have been among the top-requested from passengers across the south of Ireland."
“We are working extremely hard with our airline partners to further grow and expand choice from Cork Airport. This announcement brings to seven the number of new destinations announced in as many weeks for Cork Airport. We are forecasting overall passenger growth of 7% in 2019 which, despite Brexit, will demonstrate a strong performance once again next year.”
Speaking at today’s announcement, Greg Kaldahl, Chief Strategy and Planning Officer at Aer Lingus said: “Aer Lingus is excited to announce two brand new routes to Dubrovnik and Nice for Cork in 2019, as well as additional seat capacity and the extension of the recently added Cork Lisbon route to all year round.
"Each new Aer Lingus route opens up new travel opportunities for the people of Cork for both leisure and business, and we remain committed to enhancing our offering from Cork Airport in the coming years,” he said.
Meanwhile, International Airlines Group, the owner of Aer Lingus and British Airways, says that, despite higher fuel costs, profits are up.
According to the company's results for the third quarter of 2018, profits are up 12% compared with last year.
The firm is under pressure following a hugely damaging cyber attack with the total number of customers potentially affected has increased to around 430,000.
Willie Walsh, IAG Chief Executive Officer, said: "We're reporting a good quarter 3 performance with an operating profit of €1,460 million before exceptional items, up from €1,450 million last year.
"These were strong results despite significant fuel cost and foreign exchange headwinds. At constant currency, our passenger unit revenue increased by 2.4% while non-fuel unit costs went down 0.7%.
"We're pleased to announce an interim dividend of 14.5 euro cents per share and this week we completed our second €500 million share buy-back programme".
