Ryanair threatens to pull Cork routes over new fees
The €200 million facility is at the centre of a political row as Fine Gael accuses the Government of backtracking from a funding commitment made by former Transport Minister Seamus Brennan.
Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley confirmed last night that the airline is reviewing its flights from Cork to Stansted, Dublin, Gatwick and Liverpool.
“The only reasons we have routes out of Cork is we are low cost,” he said.
The low-cost carrier, which operates nine flights a day out of the city, is facing extra annual costs of up to €100,000 as a result of a 900% check-in desk fee increase proposed by the Cork Airport Authority (CAA).
In addition, charges per passenger could jump from €9 to €13. Last year, Ryanair carried 900,000 people in and out of Cork.
Raising the issue with Transport Minister Martin Cullen in a Dáil adjournment debate last night, Fine Gael’s Bernard Allen and David Stanton accused the Government of “double dealing.”
“Seamus Brennan clearly indicated the construction costs of the new terminal at Cork Airport would not be a burden on the new Cork Airport Authority (CAA),” he said.
Concern was heightened last Friday at an emergency meeting of the South West Regional Authority’s Airport Consultative Committee when Junior Minister Batt O’Keeffe said Mr Brennan may have made a mistake when he promised that the new airport authority would start its independent operations without debt.
Speaking last night in the Dáil, Mr Cullen made no firm commitment to take the debt from Cork, saying such decisions would have to be made when the CAA forwarded its business plan to the department.
“The business planning process will provide a basis for determining the most feasible options for carrying through the restructuring. The ability of both Shannon and Cork airports to operate on a fully commercial basis will be fully assessed as part of this process,” he said.
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