BUSINESS and tourist interests have welcomed a decision by the Exeter-based Air South West to establish a morning and evening air service between Cork and Belfast City airports.
The service will begin operating on February 26th with return fares ranging from £89 to £149. The service will reduce what is normally a seven-hour road or rail journey to 60 minutes.
The airline already operates services from Exeter in Devon to Dublin and Cork, and from Blackpool to Dublin. Mr Tony Mooney, head of Air South West's operations in Dublin, said the airline expected to carry mostly business traffic during the week and "sports and leisure" passengers at weekends.
"We have had a fairly good response from travel agents and from business people to the service, said Mr Mooney. The ceasefires were a major factor in the decision to establish the service, he added.
Support for the new route was confirmed by a spokeswoman for Cork Airport who said the Chamber of Commerce in Cork and other business and tourist interests had been urging such a service for some time.
Mr William Poole, Belfast director of the CBI-IBEC North South business development programme, said that the service was an excellent development.
The apex fares should also make it feasible for many people to make social visits to Belfast or Cork, he said. "The acid test of course will be the public demand when the service is up and running," said Mr Poole.
The one-hour daily flights from Monday to Friday are provisionally scheduled to leave Cork at 8 a.m. and Belfast at 9.30 a.m. Return flights from Cork will be at 5.30 p.m., and from Belfast at 7 p.m.
On Saturday only the 8 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. flights from Cork and Belfast respectively will operate, with return flights on Sunday evening from Cork at 5.30 p.m., and from Belfast at 7 p.m.
With a Saturday overnight stay, the return fare, booked at least one month in advance, will be £89. The return fare under the same Saturday night stay condition, booked one week in advance, will be £119. Full return fare will be £149.
Children aged two to 12 years will be charged 70 per cent of the normal fare.
