Some 90 direct jobs are set to be created at Cork Airport with the launch by Ryanair of five additional summer routes for next year. The new routes will connect Cork with Seville in Spain, La Rochelle in France, the East Midlands in England, and Venice Treviso and Rome in Italy.
Ryanair Dac chief executive Eddie Wilson said three new aircraft would operate out of Cork to facilitate the extra routes, with each aircraft to employ 30 staff between cabin crew and pilots. He said the overall investment, which will result in Cork having a total of 29 routes or 270 weekly frequencies, would amount to €300 million.
Mr Wilson said the move was hopefully the start of sustained investment in Cork.
“A special thanks to the team here for staying with us to actually come to a good solid agreement so that Cork can continue to prosper and that we won’t have this ‘stop start’ relationship that was sometimes a feature,” he said.
“I think it’s fantastic that we now have a strong foundation for growth here, but I would like say to the Government that people are talking about issues like extra taxation. This is the island of Ireland. I certainly can remember taking 16 hours to get to London. We don’t want to cut off our nose to spite our face here. We need connectivity, and the fastest way to do that is with airlines.”
He said Ryanair now represented 70 per cent of the market share out of Cork Airport.
