O'Leary blames travel tax for routes axe

Low-fares airline Ryanair axed more routes and jobs at Dublin Airport today, blaming a surge in Government aviation charges.

The budget carrier claimed that a tourism tax has forced it to drop four planes from its Irish base with the loss of 200 jobs.

Boss Michael O’Leary said he was forced to take another plane out of circulation and axe a further 50 staff this summer because of a hike in charges from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).

But the IAA hit back, claiming all airlines at the base had an opportunity to question the fees and said a carrier’s decision to cut services must be looked at against the wider global economic downturn.

Mr O’Leary said: “At a time when governments and airports all over Europe are reducing costs in order to stimulate tourism, the Irish Government is raising costs and introducing taxes which can only damage tourism.”

From July the airline will axe four routes, from Dublin to Basle, Doncaster, Teesside, and Oporto in Portugal.

Frequency will also be reduced on a further eight routes from Dublin, to Aberdeen, Biarritz, Billund, Bournemouth, Carcassonne, East Midlands, Malaga and Rome.

Mr O’Leary said the jobs will be lost in July and will affect mainly cabin crew and check-in staff.

“We’ll be switching aircraft out of Dublin and re-basing them at other cheaper European airports,” Mr O’Leary said.

“We’ll save on airport costs, we’ll save on lower passenger fees.”

And another 150 jobs are expected to be lost in Dublin later this year when the airline announces cuts to its winter service.

Ryanair launched a stinging attack on the Government last month for introducing its €10 travel tax, which comes into effect next month, claiming it would devastate the Irish airline industry.

The airline mogul said he was forced to cut the number of Dublin-based aircraft from 22 to 18, but now he has revised the figure to 17, blaming a 12% hike in air traffic control (ATC) fees.

Mr O’Leary hit out at the aviation regulator, Cathal Guiomard, for rubber-stamping the ATC charge increases, demanding he be sacked.

But the IAA said its ATC charges were independently set by the Commission for Aviation Regulation, and all airline customers had the opportunity to make submissions on the determination.

“Any operator’s decision to expand or restrict its activities must be viewed in the broader economic climate where airlines worldwide are reducing capacity and taking aircraft out of service,” the body said.

Mr O’Leary also attacked Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland, claiming their funding should be cut as they have not lived up to their responsibilities.

“Reduce the budget for Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland, neither of whom have ever delivered tourists to this country,” he said.

And the airline boss said plans to introduce toilet charges were still being considered.

“The toilet charge continues to be under review. We just don’t have a mechanism for introducing it yet,” Mr O’Leary said.

Ryanair announced a competition earlier this month for passengers to come up with the airline’s next revenue-generating venture.

The carrier said the response was phenomenal, with 4,000 suggestions to date.

“About 2,000 suggestions generally relate to me inflicting self-harm or damage to myself,” Mr O’Leary said.

“Then there’s about 2,000 very sensible suggestions, from the sublime to the ridiculous.”

One US website apparently suggested placing Mr O’Leary’s face on toilet paper, charging passengers £1 (€1.08) per sheet to deface his image.

Asked how he would feel about that, he quipped: “For £1 a sheet they can deface away until the cows come home ... we’d be happy to produce them.”