Construction on a new runway at Cork Airport is due to get underway this week after the airport closed for ten weeks yesterday.
The €40 million project to resurface the 3.1 kilometre runway and replace the runway lights was due to take place at the end of next year but was brought forward due to the pandemic.
Management at the airport say the runway has come to the end of it's life and needs to be replaced before the resumption of a full schedule of flights.
Almost 75,000 passengers travelled through the terminal in August, which was the first full month of flights since travel restrictions were eased on July 19th.
Speaking to RedFM News, Communications manager at Cork Airport Kevin Cullinane says closing the airport is much safer and will reduce costs significantly.
"Outside of normal pandemic times we would have had to done these works over nights for 10 months.
"We would have had to close the airport at 10pm at night, divert any last flights from sun destinations into Dublin instead, bring on equipment up to 11pm, and work through the night until 5am and then do a complete safety and security sweep of the work that had been done on the runway before we'd reopen for our first departure at 6am.
"We'd have had to do that every night for 10 months."
