Ryanair today said it has no plans to withdraw any of its flights from Shannon airport following yesterday's announcement that it is to close two of its seven routes at Cork.
As the row over increased charges at Cork airport continued, the airline's deputy CEO Michael Cawley said this morning that speculation over Shannon was unfounded.
"I have no idea where the origin of that speculation arose from," said Mr Cawley on RTÉ's Morning Irelandprogramme. "We have a long-term arrangement with Shannon and they have had a massive increase in passenger numbers with Ryanair now accounting for almost two-thirds of passengers and we have been a massive lifeline to Shannon and the Mid-West region.
"The Cork situation is entirely different because Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) sets the agenda and the prices, dictates commercial policy in Cork and the autonomy promised by Seamus Brennan back in 2004 hasn't materialised and they are unable to make any decision for the benefit of the region,” he said.
Ryanair again denied today that it had reneged on a commitment to a discount scheme that operates on a sliding scale at Cork airport.
The airline announced yesterday that it is to close two of the seven routes it operates from Cork at the end of October following what it claimed was a 20 per cent increase in charges imposed on the routes.
Ryanair's daily flight from Cork to East Midlands will end on October 26th while the service to Glasgow (Prestwick) will close two days later.
The route cancellations are expected to result in a loss of 100,000 passengers at Cork this winter, equivalent to a 6 per cent drop in traffic using Cork Airport.
Ryanair said the decline in passenger traffic could result in up to 200 local jobs being lost.
Cork Airport Authority has accused Ryanair of "misinformation" in claiming that the airport had "raised fees by 20 per cent".
"All airlines are eligible to apply for route support through the route support scheme when introducing new destinations. The scheme operates over a five-year period and is based on a sliding scale with a 100 per cent discount in year one," said a CAA statement.
"In the second year of operation, the discount moves to 80 per cent and so on over the five-year period. The purpose of the sliding scale is to facilitate development of new routes at start-up."
However, Mr Cawley today denied that the airline had signed up for the support scheme.
"We entered the routes on the basis that there would be a zero charge which barely made Cork competitive compared to many airports on offer across Europe. We clearly told the management in Cork at the time that if the costs increased at any time subsequent to the introduction of the routes we would withdraw them,” he said.
Mr Cawley said that the majority of Ryanair passengers into Cork are tourists from Britain and said that the loss from tourism would be "a major blow" to the region.
"To think that this is being caused by a €2.80 cost increase on 200,000 passengers is an outrageous step by Cork Airport Authority,” said Mr Cawley.
"If Cork changes its mind in the next week, and we have about a week to go before this situation is irrevocable, we would be prepared to retain the services," he added.
