Ryanair said today it is to cut 20 per cent of flights at Dublin Airport this summer blaming the decision on increased charges at the airport and on the €10 tourist tax.
The news comes just one week after BMI announced the closure of its Dublin base and a reduction in the number of daily flights it operates to Heathrow airport in London.
In a statement issued this morning the no-frills airline said it expects total traffic at Dublin airport to fall from 20m to 18m as a result of the cutbacks.
The move will also lead to the loss of 150 jobs at the airline and a further 2,000 support jobs.
Ryanair said there will be a 20 per cent reduction in its Dublin traffic from 8.7 million to 6.5 million in the year to March 2011.
In addition, the airline said it will be reducing its Dublin-based summer fleet from 18 aircraft to 15 and cutting weekly rotations by 19 per cent.
Ryanair also warned that further cuts would be announced for its winter schedule later this year.
The airline blamed the cuts on a 40 per cent increase in charges from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and the tourist tax which was introduced last year.
"Irish tourism is now suffering a Government induced tourism collapse under the weight of the €10 tourist tax and the extraordinary anti-consumer order by the Dept of Transport (to the Aviation Regulator) to approve increases in DAA fees of 40 per cent to pay for a Terminal 2 which Dublin’s airlines neither want nor need," said Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary.
"At a time when governments and airports all over Europe are scrapping taxes and slashing fees to win Ryanair’s traffic growth, sadly the Irish Govt is more interested in protecting its high cost DAA monopoly at the expense of consumers or of our tourism industry and until this damaging policy is reversed, Dublin Airport and Irish tourism will continue to suffer traffic cuts and job losses,” he added.
Ryanair today also announced a range of extra holiday flights from Dublin for the peak summer months to Alicante, Canary Islands, Faro and Malaga.
The DAA said it was “disappointed” over Ryanair’s decision to reduce services but refuted the suggestion that its charges had been a factor in the airline’s announcement.
“Ryanair’s public position does not stand up to scrutiny. If, as it claims, charges at Dublin Airport are one of the key reasons that it is reducing capacity, why do those same charges not have any impact on the company’s desire to offer additional flights to sun destination from Dublin this year? A passenger pays the same charge at Dublin Airport whether they are flying to Malaga or to Manchester. Ryanair is making these changes to suit Ryanair’s own financial position, as is always the case,” it said in a statement.
