Ryanair to cut Shannon flights by 75%

Enigma'

Ryanair is to cut the number of its flights out of Shannon Airport by 75% from next April, with the loss of 150 jobs.

The airline plans to cut the number of aircraft based at Shannon from four to one.

The airline's current contract with the airport runs out in April 2010.

Shannon Airport has confirmed that it is not entering a new five year agreement with Ryanair, blaming the airline's 'unreasonable demands'.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1030/ryanair.html

This has more to do with the Government travel tax rather than the Shannon Airport Authority's refusal to reduce fees I'm thinking...It'll certainly have major implications for the airport and the region if FR do indeed reduce the Shannon base by that amount.

Will be interesting to hear the reaction from the politicians in the region....anyone taking to the streets to protest this time round?;)

sonyair

Let ryanair go and let some other airline come in, aer arann are in talks might be good

EchoIndia

This is standard Ryanair behaviour. They get the benefit of start-up incentives and then pull out once these expire, unless they are renewed on the same or better terms. One has to assume that the airport considered what was being sought and decided that they would lose more than they would gain if they acceded to Ryanair's terms. This also goes to show that Ryanair's boasts about all it does for Ireland are pretty hollow; it does what is best for Ryanair - nothing more and nothing less. The travel tax is a side-issue, in my view.

Delta Kilo

EchoIndia wrote: »

This is standard Ryanair behaviour. They get the benefit of start-up incentives and then pull out once these expire, unless they are renewed on the same or better terms. One has to assume that the airport considered what was being sought and decided that they would lose more than they would gain if they acceded to Ryanair's terms. This also goes to show that Ryanair's boasts about all it does for Ireland are pretty hollow; it does what is best for Ryanair - nothing more and nothing less. The travel tax is a side-issue, in my view.

Nail on the head I reckon.

Run_to_da_hills

O Leary did warn us that there would be tumbleweed on the runways of Shannon.

EchoIndia

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

O Leary did warn us that there would be tumbleweed on the runways of Shannon.

That's not even an original saying. I think it (or a version of same) dates back to the transition from piston to jet airliners on the North Atlantic, and the then predictions about Shannon's fate.

N2

sonyair wrote: »

Let ryanair go and let some other airline come in, aer arann are in talks might be good

An ATR to Malaga........you would 3 weeks off just to get there...

Dacian

sonyair wrote: »

Let ryanair go and let some other airline come in, aer arann are in talks might be good

Could be an opportunity for another LCC to move in. FR wouldn't be as able to swamp them with only 1 B737 based there.

N2

Like who?...it appears to be a historical fact that you just can't make money at Shannon....ie Virgin Express, Skynet, more recently City Jet.

sonyair

Skynet had money problems and cityjet couldn't compete with aer lingus(hard to believe) when heathrow returned

netwhizkid

Shannon airport should be closed with Cork given a longer runaway and run Transatlantic flights from there, Expand Knock to counter act the closing of Shannon.

highlydebased

netwhizkid wrote: »

Shannon airport should be closed with Cork given a longer runaway and run Transatlantic flights from there, Expand Knock to counter act the closing of Shannon.

That is a sensational statement to make on many levels

EchoIndia

netwhizkid wrote: »

Shannon airport should be closed with Cork given a longer runaway and run Transatlantic flights from there, Expand Knock to counter act the closing of Shannon.

Got to hand it to you for imagination! However I don't see any of these things happening any time soon (and probably not in my lifetime!).

netwhizkid

EchoIndia wrote: »

Got to hand it to you for imagination! However I don't see any of these things happening any time soon (and probably not in my lifetime!).

Shannon Airport is located in the middle of nowhere, it was established in the days when it took 12 to 15hours to fly the Altantic and planes had to refuel in the Azores and Shannon. The west doesn't have the population density to support it and alot of travellers from the west fly via Knock, Derry and Dublin, Cork to the south caters lovely for Munster and all it lacks is transatlantic flights. Having to drive 2.5 hours to Shannon to fly to the US is a disaster for me when I can be at the front door of Cork in an hour and a half even on a bad traffic day.

The new Limerick Tunnel will help Shannon but Dublin Airport is becoming so attractive now with cheap connecting flights from the regional airports and the new Motorways to Dublin, Dublin also has choice and if you want to fly anywhere off the beaten track it is either Dublin or regional via London.

I can't see Shannon being sustainable and Ireland would be better off if both Shannon and Knock closed and open a proper Airport in Galway ideally located mid point between Cork and Derry and with motorway access from Limerick and the East into Galway it would relieve pressure on Dublin by pulling away passengers from mid Leinster.

highlydebased

While it might be wishful thinking to have a centralised airport with services to everywhere, it will never happen in any of our lifetimes

Shannon cant sustain an awful lot more than holiday flights, UK and some US flights...continental Europe (e.g Berlin, Frankfurt etc) were not overly succesful. Poland was the largest market for a while but given how things have changed in that regard its not so much anymore

alpha2zulu

This has more to do with the Government travel tax rather than the Shannon Airport Authority's refusal to reduce fees I'm thinking...It'll certainly have major implications for the airport and the region if FR do indeed reduce the Shannon base by that amount.

Hopefully it will give the Government something to think about. In my opinion the tax in the first place shows absolutely zero respect for the investment put in by the airlines and the wafer thin margins that are involved.Absolutely sickening to see the Govt so devoid from reality. They can be at the beck and call of the MNC's by guaranteeing 12.5% corporation tax rate for eternity yet the airline industry as we all know is just as labour intensive. Just look at a typical turnaround in DUB or elsewhere to appreciate this and the effect that the disappearance of each based aircraft would cause and the cascade effect with everything from ATC to the security to guys driving the car park buses,retail etc

Did they honestly not think that if FR/EI/RE could have extracted an extra 10euro from each passenger without crashing loads they would have done so already.
I'm by no means in the MOL fan club but I have to say fair play to him in sticking it to the Department of Finance. Its just a pity that Christoph in EI and Paul Schutz in Arann arent more vocal. I remember seeing one joint press release from FR/WX/EI and a token mention in various EI shareholder presentations but thats been it,RE dident even include themselves in the joint press release for whatever reason.

highlydebased

alpha2zulu wrote: »

Hopefully it will give the Government something to think about. In my opinion the tax in the first place shows absolutely zero respect for the investment put in by the airlines and the wafer thin margins that are involved.Absolutely sickening to see the Govt so devoid from reality. They can be at the beck and call of the MNC's by guaranteeing 12.5% corporation tax rate for eternity yet the airline industry as we all know is just as labour intensive. Just look at a typical turnaround in DUB or elsewhere to appreciate this and the effect that the disappearance of each based aircraft would cause andd the cascade effect wwith everything from ATC to the security to guys driving the car park buses,retail etc

Did they honestly not think that if FR/EI/RE could have extracted an extra 10euro from each passenger without crashing loads they would have done so already.
I'm by no means in the MOL fan club but I have to say fair play to him in sticking it to the Department of Finance. Its just a pity that Christoph in EI and Paul Schutz in Arann arent more vocal. I remember seeing one joint press release from FR/WX/EI and a token mention in various EI shareholder presentations but thats been it,RE dident even include themselves in the joint press release for whatever reason.

Well said.

Fishtits

I've always enjoyed the no-hassle trans-Atlantic experience from Shannon.

Having said that, it has sod all else going for it at the moment.

O'Leary screwed it for what he could, he's huffing and puffing about travel tax, passenger charges etc... yet was only committing FR to 670K pax PA?

Bull, they were always going to pull out.

Shannon has a history of surviving on external subsidies/deals, the Atlantic Stopover, the Aeroflot fuel deal, World Airways/US Troops...

As much as I'd like to, I can't see Shannon as viable in the long term without a serious re-invention. It just doesn't have the inherent air traveler catchment area.

alpha2zulu

Fishtits wrote: »

I've always enjoyed the no-hassle trans-Atlantic experience from Shannon.

Having said that, it has sod all else going for it at the moment.

O'Leary screwed it for what he could, he's huffing and puffing about travel tax, passenger charges etc... yet was only committing FR to 670K pax PA?

Thats certainly a valid point, that travel tax is undermining the industry-no doubt,however look at the EI operation down the road at Cork. They have maintained 4 based aircraft despite the travel tax,recession and FR/EZY London war in 2004/2005 and apparently the Cork base is safe from the current wave of EI fleet cuts in Ireland,or is it that EI are very sheepish about upsetting any Dept of Transport/Finance heads right now.

I guess that MOL is well used to playing a high stakes game,from his point of view perhaps,put 3 aircraft/1million pax at SNN on the line. If he "wins" with the tax disappearing or getting halved etc, the big pay day will be getting the 14+ DUB based machines and flights into DUB operated by Ryanair from their foreign bases,free from the tax. Straight away you have reduced your liabilities by the bones of 50million euro. However its all the guys and gals working for Servisair at SNN or with FR directly that will bear the brunt of this spat. Horrible position to be put into.
From the FR press release:

If the Government €10 travel tax is removed at Shannon, then Ryanair will commit to delivering more than 1.2m passengers annually, on up to 4 based aircraft and 200 Ryanair jobs being maintained at the airport.