- Pax up 8pc to 2,23m in 2016
- Growth in 2017 to be lower at 5pc
- Up from 2.07m in 2015 to 2.23m in 2016.
- Biggest increase to Germany: 75pc
- Portugal is up 35.5pc, while Spain also gains at 13.5pc
Cork Airport is warning that it can’t be complacent despite seeing passenger numbers increase by 8pc to 2,230,564 from 2,071,210 in 2015.
The growth follows seven successive years in which passenger numbers declined.
Portugal was up 35.5pc, Spain up 13.5pc, England up 7pc and Germany up 75pc thanks to the addition of a new Dusseldorf service as well as the strong performance of the German inbound market.
New routes for 2017 include Keflavik with Wow on May 19, Newquay with Aer Lingus Regional May 6, Verona with Volotea May 27 and Zurich with Swiss June 2
Aer Lingus is go operate an additional daily service to London Heathrow and increase capacity across summer routes.
Kevin Cullinane, Head of Communications at Cork Airport said “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. Now 2017 is shaping up to be another positive year with predicted passenger growth of 5pc. 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.”
