Ryanair vows to axe flights if charges rise

RYANAIR has confirmed it will almost certainly axe any flights on which Irish airports increase their charges.

Following its decision to stop its East Midlands and Glasgow services from Cork, the airline was accused by Cork Airport Authority of reneging on the terms of the new routes scheme. That scheme gave the airlines 100% discount in the first year of the flights before dropping the discount by 20% every year for five years.

However, Ryanair said it had signed up for the two British routes on the basis that the 100% discount would continue and insisted it had told Cork airport several times that it would never pay charges on them.

The airline’s chief Michael O’Leary said: “Shannon’s costs are fixed for another two years. We have already said that if the costs rise in Shannon in two years’ time there will be cutbacks in route and traffic. Dublin is already being cut back at the moment, we are seating four aircraft on the ground this winter in Dublin.

“It is about a 20% capacity reduction and Dublin will see traffic decline for the first time this winter. It is something that is inevitable, the way Dublin keeps ignoring the reality that the airlines are being affected. Aer Lingus is losing money, we are only going to break even this winter,” he said.

Of the remaining Ryanair flights from Cork, the one to Dublin and three others to Britain are subject to the full charges, but the airline said they are profitable and as long as the airport did not increase charges they would continue. The flight to Carcassonne was only a seasonal flight and would not have received the 100% discount either.

Meanwhile, Ryanair has welcomed a decision by a court in Hamburg upholding the airline’s injunction against what it described as the unlawful activities of the screenscraper/ticket-tout website, Vtours.de.

It said the website was one of a number previously selling Ryanair tickets, with inflated hidden mark-ups, to German consumers. Ryanair has said those mark-ups can be as much as 300% and it has refused to honour any tickets bought from the websites.

“Vtours.de had appealed against Ryanair’s original injunction and this case was heard in the Hamburg Court on August 21,” the airline said. “In today’s judgment, the Hamburg Court has confirmed that Ryanair’s injunction remains in place, which will prevent the Vtours.de website illegally screenscraping Ryanair’s website and unlawfully selling Ryanair’s tickets to its customers with unauthorised hidden mark-ups.

“Ryanair is continuing to cancel bookings made through this unauthorised ticket-tout website, and has called on the European Commission, as well as national governments to take action to prevent this illegal and unlawful mis-selling to consumers. Sadly, we are still waiting for the European Commission to take any action to protect consumers, but we live in hope.”