Niall MacCarthy was speaking after Ryanair announced they will be basing a third aircraft at the airport this summer.
The budget airline also announced 7 new routes to destinations including Sardinia, Venice and Valencia.
Cork Airport say they are now expecting around 2 million passengers to pass through the terminal this year compared to just 250,000 last year.
Speaking to RedFM News, Niall MacCarthy outlines how the routes will benefit the region:
"This summer we will have over 40 routes from Cork airport and that means we would bring in visitors from all 40 of those routes, so not all of them are inbound routes and Malaga would have very few inbound visitors and Portugal with a few inbound visitors, but our roots in France our roots in the UK, our roots in Germany will have a lot of inbound visitors. So we will be pumping visitors through Cork airport to benefit the restaurants, the hotels, all the attractions throughout the south of Ireland. So it's not just about Cork, it's about the south of Ireland but primarily we pump in visitors into cork businesses and onwards from there."
