or...'Cheap Flight Cutbacks’ Argument Is Irrelevant, Claim Ferry Supporters
 | Organisers of the BringBackTheSwanseaCorkFerry campaign have dismissed claims that the argument to restore the link between Cork and Swansea is connected to proposed cutbacks in cheap air flights. They say the benefits the ferry can provide stand on their own merits. |
“The commercial case for reinstating the Swansea – Cork ferry is not linked to the current suggestion that the days of cheap flights is coming to an end,” suggests Adrian Brentnall, organiser of the campaign website www.BringBackTheSwanseaCorkFerry.com. “Essentially the market for cheap flights into Cork or Kerry (at Farranfore) is a different market to that for the ferry, and it has been confirmed that the ferry was profitable even when the cheap airlines were operating at their maximum.
“Over 2,200 people have signed our on-line petition, and over 600 completed our survey, and a significant proportion of those people say they have tried the cheap flights, but they don’t meet their needs in the way the ferry used to.”
A typical comment comes from one petitioner, Chris Taylor. “We own homes in Lincoln, UK, and on the Beara west of Kenmare, and travel between the two several times a year,” he said. “We’ve flown between Stansted and Farranfore several times, and it works for a long weekend. But even if you’re only paying 1 Euro for the trip, for anything longer than a few days it just doesn’t work at all. Financially you have to add parking at the airport, hire cars, etc. – and then you arrive without all the stuff you want with you, that you’d normally put in the car. And the stress of the airport security features at the UK end and ridiculous check in times are the final straw.”
Brentnall offers the www.BringBackTheSwanseaCorkFerry.com top ten reasons why a ferry service is not in competition with the discounted airlines.
- You can pack everything in your car at one end, and unpack the other – airlines restrict what you take, and effectively limit it to what you can carry.
- Flying is fine if it takes you somewhere hot and sunny, with a beach – so all you need pack is your bikini or a pair of shorts, and a toothbrush. Ok, Cork and Kerry have beaches, but that’s not the main reason people visit.
- Your car takes you where you want to go, door to door. Flying often creates longer journeys as you can spend hours driving in the ‘wrong’ direction, just to reach an airport!
- Airports and aircraft are not friendly environments for children, the elderly, or those with mobility difficulties. The ferry removes very much of the stress and pressure.
- Car hire (and insurance) is expensive – especially when you have to leave your own car, already insured and taxed, in an open air public car park costing up to €10 or more per day.
- Let’s not even compare the accommodation and catering between the ferry and a low-cost airline...
- Steaming past Roches Point and up past Cobh into Ringaskiddy is a different class of experience to circling in a holding pattern a mile high over the East Midlands or East Anglia...
- The ferry is accessible to the strong touring caravan market – an impossible group for the airlines to cater for.
- Flying is a stressful chore – while the ferry trip is part of the holiday. That won’t change until the flights offer a Murphy’s Bar with live music, and the chance to take a turn round the deck to blow the cobwebs away before docking.
- And ok, it’s been said only bullocks take the boat. Well, at least bullocks can swim. Sardines (packed into a sealed tin at 30,000 feet) can’t fly…
See – we didn’t even mention the cost!
