Ryanair slams Govt for buying dearer Aer Lingus seats for staff

Ryanair has called on Aer Lingus to repay the €4m 'state aid it' has received annually from Irish Government departments.

A statement from Ryanair accuses the Government of deliberately choosing more expensive Aer Lingus flights when booking trips for civil servants so they can "clock up air miles for their own personal use".

"This scam has wasted millions of taxpayers’ money and is state aid to Aer Lingus. Assuming 50,000 return flights are booked each year, this is 100,000 seats at a cost difference between Ryanair and Aer Lingus of €47".

Club Travel, the booking agency for Government departments, claims that civil servants don’t chose Ryanair because it "flies to out-of-the-way airports".

However, a spokesperson for the no-frills airline said that Ryanair flies to many of the same airports on more than 20 routes from Dublin.