ITTN’s Lorraine Hales attended a fantastic night in Cork last night, where a wonderful Christmas celebration was hosted by Aer Lingus And Cork Airport. It was a night full of intrigue and anticipation as we awaited the exciting new announcement from Aer Lingus and Cork Airport on new routes flying from Cork Airport in 2026 . And the wait is over !!!
Customers located in Cork and the south of Ireland will benefit from services to Nice on the French Riviera, as well as to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, offering convenient access to the Camino de Santiago.
Furthermore, Aer Lingus is extending its Cork-Prague service to operate throughout the year..
Ivan Beacom, Aer Lingus opened the night and warmly welcomed everyone along. Jenny Rafter, Aer Lingus congratulated Ivan for celebrating 30 yrs with Aer Lingus and gave a wonderful presentation on the history of Aer Lingus established in 1936 will be celebrating 90 years next year – with notably the first flight across the atlantic departing from Cork in 1961.
More flights ex Cork was the key message on the night with an impressive 16 Destinations with 65 weekly flights .
- Boosted Sun Routes – ORK -Cork to ACE – Lanzarote, TFS -Tenerife, FAO -Portugal
- Extra Sports Flights Scheduled from Cork to PRG – Prague
Barry Holland – Communications Manager at Cork Airport spoke about Irelands fasting growing airport and the best connected international airport serving Munster and the South of Ireland the solid increase in passengers with a 14% growth to over 3 Million Passengers in 2025.
New routes added to the route network so far this year included:
- Bilbao (Aer Lingus)
- Bordeaux (Aer Lingus)
- Izmir (SunExpress)
- Prague (Aer Lingus)
- Geneva (Aer Lingus)
New routes just announced!!!
- Nice (Aer Lingus)
- Santiago de Compostela (Aer Lingus)
Cork Airport’s winter schedule commenced last weekend with over 1.4 million seats on sale between now and March 2026.
As an appreciation to the trade for attending there were two great prizes up for grabs.
Paul Dawson of Dawson Travel won 2 return flights to Bilbao or Bordeaux and Amanda King of Barters Travelnet awaits to see what her destination choice will be – we can’t wait to hear!
It was an incredible night of good solid networking and lots of fun conversations with beautiful food and the most fantastic hosts.
ITTN look forward to exploring more events outside of Dublin.
#CorkTravelTrade #ittnswitchedon #aerlingus #corkairport #newroutes #flying #airports #cork
