New budget flights from Cork to the US may drive down prices for everyone

THE HEAD OF Cork Airport says recently cleared low-cost flights between the southern city and Ireland could cost as little as €150 each way.

On Friday, the US Department of Transportation finally granted a transatlantic permit to Norwegian Air International (NAI), ending the logjam over the budget carrier’s transatlantic flights from Cork.

The airline will initially launch a Cork to Boston service in July, before introducing a route to New York. Icelandic low-cost airline Wow Air will begin its transatlantic routes from Cork to nine US cities, via Reykjavik, in May.

Both airlines are have previously signalled their ambitions to be the ‘Ryanair of transatlantic travel’, which could help drive down prices for US flights across the industry.

Niall MacCarthy, managing director of Cork Airport, said promotional fares could see return Cork-US flights for about €69 with NAI. The airline’s licence includes a 61-day cooling off period, which means tickets are not expected to go on sale before February.

“There’s a 61-day cooling-off period, but we’re extremely confident that at the end of the cooling-off period the licence will be forthcoming,” MacCarthy told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today.

“We’re delighted that another low-cost airline, Wow Air, who already have a licence, are committed to flying from Cork to nine north American destinations, starting next May.

“They’re in the low-cost sector, they’re starting at €150 one way, they stop off for half an hour in Reykjavik in Iceland, en route.

“So we’ll have two transatlantic airlines next year in Cork Airport, making us Ireland’s newest transatlantic airport.”

The interior of a Norwegian Air Boeing 737.

Battle

MacCarthy said everyone involved in getting the Norwegian Air flights off the ground was taken by surprise when the licence was granted on Friday evening.

“We were all expecting an 18-month legal battle … it was a pleasant surprise,” he said.

“Tickets on sale early in the new year – that’s the good news. The reason there was such a battle is that the legacy airlines and the unions wanted to keep low-cost out of the transatlantic sector, and that’s why we fought so hard to get the licence.

“So we’re predicting the fares will be in the €150 one-way mark, including your bag, and we think there will be some lead-in special offers around the €69 mark to get the route primed.”

MacCarthy added that he was hopeful NAI would recruit in Cork, due to the presence of the Atlantic Flight School at Cork Airport. As part of the licence conditions, the airline confirmed it will only recruit in the EU or the US.

Transport Minister Shane Ross and business groups on Leeside have welcomed the new routes, which will further buoy passenger figures at Cork Airport, which is operated by Dublin Airport owner DAA.

The airport is expected to see 8% growth this year compared to 2015. MacCarthy previously told Fora that the Cork hub is also targeting flights to Canada, as well as to European cities like Berlin, Rome and Copenhagen, in the coming years.

Written by Darragh Peter Murphy and posted on TheJournal.ie. Additional reporting Peter Bodkin