Cork Airport is to close for almost three months from September to facilitate major runway upgrade works.
The decision by Cork Airport to close the facility for ten weeks from 10 September for upgrade works was underpinned by the impact of Covid-19.
Irish airports have been badly affected by the pandemic and the collapse in air travel. Passenger numbers in Cork have dropped by over 95%.
Cork Airport will close from 10 September to 22 November to allow for work on the runway.
Airport officials plan to operate a summer schedule and then pause all operations for construction and then be in a position to reopen for the Christmas period.
The closure of the airport will ensure the project is done in a fraction of the time compared to it being done around daily flights.
A key element of the project will be replacing the surface pavement of the runway.
Warnings from Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar that Irish people should not plan on overseas summer holidays or even Christmas 2021 breaks have come as a major blow for a sector waiting for a recovery in passenger business.
Airports Council International-Europe (ACIE) stressed that a new industry study has forecast "a systemic collapse" in aviation-related industries because of wholly inadequate State aid rules.
It revealed that since 30 November when new travel rules began to be implemented across Europe due to a surge on Covid-19 cases, air routes began to vanish.
In just two months, some 700 routes have disappeared from Irish and European airports, bringing to more than 7,000 the total number of routes lost since 20 March 2020.
One senior Irish aviation source warned the damage to the aviation sector should not be underestimated.
"With Ireland West-Knock fully closed, no scheduled operations out of Shannon Airport and Cork Airport remaining connectivity hanging by a thread, do not under-estimate the job ahead in late 2021 into 2022 and beyond replacing the damage done by the pandemic to Ireland's connectivity and aviation-tourism infrastructure.
"This ranges from airlines to ground handlers, restaurants to car hire operators, bureau de change to the airport companies themselves whose businesses have been simply devastated by this pandemic.
"A major multi-year recovery programme will be necessary to rebuild these devastated businesses."
Aer Lingus and Ryanair are now monitoring summer schedules amid the threat of extended quarantine controls in Ireland and Government advice against summer holiday travel.
Both are now also understood to be examining transferring aircraft onto business-friendly routes, potentially outside Ireland.
Aer Lingus is already applying to operate long-haul flights from Manchester to the US, while Ryanair's passenger capacity is set to be increased with the clearance by EU aviation officials of the new Boeing 737-MAX aircraft to resume passenger operations.
Because of Ireland's new travel rules and requirement for a negative PCR test, Aer Lingus has offered free flight changes up to two hours before departure and free changes to any summer holiday flights now booked.
However, Cork Airport passenger operations have now been reduced to a single daily Aer Lingus service to London Heathrow, often with less than 50 passengers on board.
That contrasts with eight airlines selling 51 routes out of Cork in summer 2019.
ACIE warned that it has now revised downwards its passenger volume predictions for Europe this year.
The council had expected passenger numbers to fall by 43%, but has now increased the scale of the collapse to 56%.
Fears are mounting that Ireland and Europe's aviation sector will not return to pre-Covid levels before 2030.
Irish and European aviation bodies warned that unless urgent action is taken by Brussels and individual member states, the collapse in air traffic could result in a 52% drop in employment supported by aviation across the continent.
Taken across Europe, that would amount to an economic body blow of €450bn.
The Irish Travel Agents Association has said it is disappointed at the ten week closure.
In a statement this evening, it said it believes the upgrade works could have been completed earlier in the year when flights in and out of the airport were restricted.
ITAA CEO Pat Dawson said: "We are very disappointed to hear that Cork Airport will be closed for almost three months later this year, right at the point when international travel is set to pick up again.
"While we understand that it is essential to have the runways resurfaced, this is a long standing issue which should have been addressed before now.
"With so few people using the airport at the height of the pandemic, it would have been easy to work flight schedules around completing the runway upgrades in order to allow the airport to reopen when the threat of Covid-19 has passed."
