Cork city in Ireland is set to see a boost this year with the announcement of a new, direct summer route to from Paris-Charles de Gaulle to Cork with Air France.
Increasing the number of inbound tourist visitors taking a trip to Ireland, more than 2.3 million passengers flew through Cork Airport last year in 2017.
France is one of the top four markets for tourism to Ireland, with some 544,000 visitors expected to take a vacation in Ireland in 2018 (an increase of almost four percent on 2017 figures).
Hotels in Cork as well as various business and tourism chiefs welcomed the big announcement, which is one of three European summer routes unveiled by Air France.
The service will be operated by one of the world’s largest airlines Air France Hop! from May 26th until October 27th using the 76-passenger capacity Embraer 170 aircraft.
The service will add 33,750 seats to Cork Airport’s capacity and provide outbound passengers with access to Air France’s extensive network of over 180 destinations worldwide from Charles de Gaulle.
Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said the new route was also good news for tourism to Cork, West Cork and the South.
“We already work very closely with Air France and we look forward to co-operating with them to maximise the promotion of this new service from Paris,” he said.
“As an island, the importance of convenient, direct, non-stop flights cannot be overstated,” added Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland.
“Ireland is ranked as the fourth most popular destination with the French and the new service from Cork will further grow inbound tourism from this key continental market to counties across the south of Ireland,” he said.