Cork Airport saw an 8% increase in passenger numbers in 2016 year, compared with 2015.
CORK Airport saw an 8% increase in passenger numbers in 2016 year, compared with 2015.
This represents an increase in passenger numbers from 2.07m in 2015 to over 2.23m in 2016. The increase comes on the back of a year which saw a positive reverse in the fortunes of the airport, including the addition of nine new routes and three new airlines at the airport.
While this growth was experienced across all markets, the biggest increases in passenger growth were on routes to and from Spain and Portugal, which experienced significant increases of 13.5% and 35.5% respectively, while UK routes saw an increase of 7%. Germany saw an increase of 75% in passenger growth, attributed to the addition of a new Dusseldorf service, as well as the strong performance of the German inbound market.
‘We are very pleased with our overall performance last year,’ said Kevin Cullinane, head of communications at Cork Airport. ‘We have been working hard over recent years implementing our return to growth strategy and we saw the first fruits of this work in 2016.
‘Central to our strategy is attracting new routes and new airlines while building frequencies and capacity on existing services, which we did with great success in 2016. We launched several new routes to destinations such as Cardiff, La Rochelle, Southampton, Nantes and Madrid among others, and welcomed CityJet, Flybe and Iberia Express as our newest airline partners.’
He added that 2017 is shaping up to be another positive year, with predicted passenger growth of 5%. ‘This is thanks to the news that WOW air with be operating a transatlantic offering via Reykjavik, SWISS will launch a new direct service to Zurich, while Volotea will launch its planned Verona service. And of, course the very eagerly-awaited direct transatlantic services to Boston and New York with Norwegian Air International are expected to take off this summer also, with tickets due to go on sale in February,’ he said.
