Cork Airport welcomes new Aer Lingus Düsseldorf service.
Cork Airport recently welcomed the announcement that Aer Lingus is to operate a new Düsseldorf service for summer 2016. The new service, which will commence in May 2016, will operate twice weekly on Wednesday and Sunday.
Düsseldorf is located in the centre of the Rhine-Ruhr region, Germany’s largest metropolitan area, with a population of about 11 million people.
Welcoming the announcement of the new route, Cork Airport Managing Director, Niall MacCarthy said: “We’re delighted that Aer Lingus has added Düsseldorf to its schedule of services from Cork Airport; it’s great news for business and leisure passengers in the region.”
Germany is the third largest market for visitors to Ireland and Düsseldorf is also a significant international business and financial centre. “We expect there to be strong demand for this route from both inbound and outbound passengers,” Mr MacCarthy said. “We already have 50 routes from Cork Airport, making us the largest airport outside of Dublin, and this new service to Düsseldorf is further recognition of our status as a key gateway in and out of the South of Ireland,” he added.
Düsseldorf will be Aer Lingus’ second German destination from Cork Airport, as the airline also serves Munich on a year-round basis.
“Expanding our connectivity into Germany has been a key target for Cork Airport,” according to Mr MacCarthy. “We have been working hard with key tourism stakeholders both locally and in Germany to secure this new route and credit is due to all of those involved for their tireless efforts working with us to secure the new Dusseldorf service,” he said.
Aer Lingus Chief Executive Stephen Kavanagh said: “Aer Lingus is proud to be Cork’s largest airline with over 1.25 million guests flying annually to and from the 22 destinations on our network. We are delighted to be able to expand that offering and look forward to working with the airport, the tourism agencies and our other partners in the Munster and Düsseldorf regions to make this new route a success.”
Last year, more than 560,000 Germans visited Ireland and growing visitor numbers from Germany is a key target for the Irish tourist industry. Germany is the world’s largest outbound tourism market. German visitors to Ireland typically stay an average of almost 10 nights here and almost 10% stay for 15 nights or more.
