Airlines add new routes from Cork and Shannon

FLYING:RYANAIR AND Aer Lingus have unveiled new routes out of Shannon and Cork as part of changes to their new year schedules.

Aer Lingus will begin a daily service between Shannon and London Gatwick on March 27th. Flights will depart Gatwick for Shannon at 6.50am, arriving at 8.15pm with the return leg leaving at 9am with a scheduled arrival time in London of 10.25am.

The service will provide Aer Lingus passengers with the first early morning flight from London to the Shannon region although there are already three London Heathrow flights from the airport daily.

Ryanair also flies to Shannon from both Gatwick (a six-times weekly lunchtime service) and Stansted (a morning weekday flight and a daily evening service).

The new Aer Lingus route bring to nine the number of destinations served by the airline out of Shannon.

Last month it started a Shannon-Paris Charles de Gaulle service and extended its services to Manchester.

The new Aer Lingus service have been welcomed by Shannon Airport’s director, Mary Considine, who described it as a “vote of confidence”.

“For Aer Lingus to add Gatwick, not least with its early arrival time at Shannon, to its growing network of services is a real boost for us and, indeed, the greater west of Ireland region,” Ms Considine said.

“We have no doubt that 2011 will bring challenges but we have started where we left off last year. Despite 2010 being probably the toughest year for aviation globally for a long time, we finished very much on the upward curve,” she added.

Meanwhile, Ryanair has said that from the beginning of June, it will run twice-weekly flights from Cork to Milan-Bergamo. Tickets for the new route went on sale yesterday with prices starting at €37.99.