Ryanair critical of Belfast City Airport delay

RYANAIR launched an attack on Belfast City Airport yesterday saying delays to the extension of its runway could result in job losses and less route expansion.

This came as rival airline Aer Lingus announced that passenger numbers fell by just over 6% last month compared to the same month last year.

Aer Lingus shares were down 1.3% yesterday to 76 cent, while Ryanair surged 3.3% to €4.08.

Ryanair said up to 500 new jobs and more routes to Europe are being jeopardised by the delay to the George Best Belfast City Airport runway extension.

The airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary said five new direct links to Germany, Belgium and Italy could have gone ahead this year without the political “fudge” at Stormont. He said the delay also meant Belfast would lose out on half a million extra passengers a year.

Environment Minister Edwin Poots last month decided to put the matter to public inquiry after a high-profile campaign by some residents living near the east Belfast airport who claimed the extension will increase noise pollution levels.

“They have devolved decision making powers here in Northern Ireland and the first decision they have taken is to fudge this off to a public inquiry. We are used to that in Dublin but we had higher hopes for the independent thought and political action here,” said Mr O’Leary.

Mr O‘Leary said Ryanair’s operation in Belfast was breaking even but said the airline agreed to move there on the understanding a longer runway would be in place by 2010.

He added that the extension would bring a massive payback for Belfast in tourism.

“We would like to develop new routes at Belfast City Airport, we would like to offer choice and competition over the very few high fare services at Aldergrove but not with one hand tied behind our backs.”

“We have many hundreds of thousands of visitors being denied access to Belfast and to Northern Ireland by the absence of services.

Meanwhile, Aer Lingus carried 713,000 short-haul passengers last month, a 4.7% drop, and 69,000 long-haul passengers, a 20.7% fall.

The load factor, or percentage of seats filled in the month, was almost 76%, with capacity decreasing by 11.3%.