Aer Lingus Cork - Amsterdam route stopping in March 2025

Hello,
On 12th December 2024 Aer Lingus decided to cancel the Cork - Amsterdam route with effect from March 2025 onwards. As a large number of Dutch visitors use this route every year, it may mean a fairly big reduction in Dutch visitors to Southern Ireland.
One very odd aspect is that no announcement of any kind is present on the Aer Lingus site. There's a link to 'Latest Travel Updates' where you would imagine a fairly drastic move like this would be announced. No luck there. I had made a booking for May next year on 9th December, and on 12th December I received an email informing me of the cancellation from March 2025 onwards.

The alternative, a KLM Amsterdam - Cork route, is 256% more expensive. For example, I booked a return flight for two to Cork from Amsterdam (8/5/2025 - 23/5/2025 ) for 272 euros. The KLM equivalent (same dates) is a whopping 698 euros.
As my Aer Lingus flight is now cancelled, I hope you can understand I'm very sore about this, along with a large no. of Dutch travel agencies who have already reserved fly/drive arrangements. I live in the Netherlands and I know that many Dutch people plan and make reservations for their holidays months in advance.

If you go to https://www.aerlingus.com/html/en-NL/home.html, and even if your Dutch is not too good, you'll see they are still offering flights from A'dam to Cork for 49.99 euros, right up until April 30!
Very strange.

I speak and read Dutch so reply in Dutch to this message if you want to.

Colm O'Flynn, Alkmaar, the Netherlands

Hello Colm,

I understand that the cancellation of the Amsterdam - Cork route by Aer Lingus is extremely disappointing, and I totally agree with you that a large number of Dutch people use this route to enjoy their holidays in Ireland. The confusing dates and information on the website of course don't help either...

Maybe it's an idea to contact Aer Lingus directly to ask them to clarify the changes regarding this route? We are in no way affiliated with Aer Lingus, so we are unfortunately unable to give you any further information than what you've already received. 

Hopefully we can still welcome you on our island next year, and let me know if we can assist you in any other way!
Happy holidays Colm.

Kind regards,
Alinde 

Hello Alinde,
Thanks for taking the trouble to reply to my post and apologies for my late response. Aer Lingus are very reticent about why they have decided to stop this route as, anecdotally and from my own experience the flights are very often 100% full. I've read (Irish Examiner) that more than 208,000 passengers traveled (return trips) to Amsterdam from Cork (Aer Lingus & KLM) in 2023, and increase from 160,000 in 2019.

From a lot of trawling through social media, and for what it's worth, this is what I know so far:

Aer Lingus is part of the IAG network, which comprises Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and Level. At Schiphol passengers who arrive from Cork and are in transit will not use BA to fly onwards (BA has only 2 routes from Schiphol, both to London). Aer Lingus would prefer these passengers to fly to London Heathrow and use British Airways to fly onwards (161 BA routes from London Heathrow).

The Amsterdam route is the third busiest out of Cork behind London Heathrow and London Stansted. Data from the Central Statistics Office shows Cork to Amsterdam grew strongly post-covid jumping from just under 160,000 passengers to and from both cities in 2019 to more than 191,000 in 2022 and more than 208,000 last year.

Best regards,

Colm O'Flynn