Shannon to lose 17 Ryanair routes

RYANAIR has confirmed it has cut 17 routes from Shannon Airport from the end of March resulting in the loss of 150 jobs and a 75% cut in capacity.

Shannon to lose 17 Ryanair routes

The airline said any passengers that booked flights after that date will be informed by the airline and refunded.

The 17 routes will be axed from 28 March.

The aircraft which were due to operate the routes will be redeployed to other Ryanair bases in Belgium, Holland and Spain which the airline said have axed tourist taxes or reduced airport charges, in some cases to zero.

Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: “These bases will enjoy increased passenger traffic, tourism revenues and thousands of new jobs, while Irish tourism and travel collapses as a result of Shannon Airport’s refusal to compete with other European airports and the Irish government’s suicidal €10 tourist tax.”

Passenger numbers at Shannon will be reduced from a 2007 high of 3.6 million to about 1.25m a year if a replacement carrier is not identified.

A five-year deal between Ryanair and the airport on charges and passenger numbers concludes around the same time that the airline is axing the routes and the Shannon Airport Authority has said it will not enter a new five-year deal due to what it says are Ryanair’s unreasonable demands.

Ryanair is understood to be seeking a 50% cut in its operating costs at Shannon.

The airline will reduce the number of aircraft based at Shannon from four to one.

The flights being cancelled are Alicante, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Carcassonne, Edinburgh, Faro, Girona, Glasgow, Gran Canaria, Krakow, Lanzarote, Liverpool, Lodz, Milan and Murcia and Venice.

The remaining flights are to London Gatwick, Stansted, Malaga, Nantes, Palma, Paris and Tenerife.

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