The first flight in 10 weeks has departed from Cork Airport.
Aer Lingus flight EI 710 to Heathrow departed just after 8am.
The airport had been closed to facilitate the reconstruction of the runway, and was officially opened by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at a special ceremony on Saturday.
Speaking to RedFM News, Managing Director of Cork Airport Niall MacCarthy says he is optimistic about passenger numbers going forward.
"I think it's going to be a slow start, and at Christmas it will build up.
"By St Patrick's Day we're expecting a lot of people will just want to travel. You probably haven't travelled abroad maybe in two years, so there's huge demand for pent up outbound travel, and people will want to get to Ireland.
"Hopefully Covid will be back under control by March and we'll have a good summer next year, and we're all looking forward to a good summer, outbound and inbound, restaurants, pubs and hotels and so on."
First flight to take off the newly reconstructed runway @CorkAirport the @AerLingus EI710 operating the A320 St Malachy to @HeathrowAirport departed at 8.09. The sky’s the limit. pic.twitter.com/PVSEOjxleU
— Cork Airport (@CorkAirport) November 22, 2021
