February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The Irish company behind the flights, Slattery’s Travel, which is based in Tralee, Co. Kerry, has reassured customers who have already bought tickets that they will receive full refunds. The refunds will come in the shape of checks for those who paid by cash or check, and a credit to the accounts of those who paid by credit card. The refunds were being processed early this week.
The service would have been the first-ever regular direct link between Cork and New York, and would initially have taken the form of twice-weekly flights. Slattery’s had signed a contract with the Chicago-based Ryan International Airlines to provide the service, which has received considerable publicity in recent months. (Ryan International Airlines is not connected to the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair.) The inaugural flight was due to leave Kennedy Airport on October 26th.
According to Slattery’s Travel CEO David Slattery, about 3,800 customers had booked flights on the service. Slattery told the Irish Echo that approximately 90 percent of those customers were booked on return flights from Cork, but the remaining 10 percent of bookings came from people based in the U.S.
The reason for the abandonment of the service appears to be straightforward: rising crude oil prices, and the resultant increase in the price of aviation fuel. David Slattery told the Irish Echo that his company heard only last Friday that Ryan International would up its price for providing the service. The increase amounted to