Ryanair to slash Shannon operation as sides fail to agree new deal

Shannon Airport and Ryanair are in a war of words after the sides failed to reach agreement on a five-year extension to the airline's operations at the airport.

Shannon Airport director Martin Moroney said the airport had wanted to arrive at a deal with Ryanair, but that the airline's "current demands were unrealistic".

He said Ryanair had offered to deliver only 600,000 annual passengers at Shannon, compared with the previously agreed throughput of two million.

Ryanair hit back tonight, saying Mr Moroney's claim of unrealistic demands was "false" and tied its efforts to reach a new, improved deal at Shannon to the Government's " insanely stupid €10 tourist tax". The airline said this had made Shannon "a hopelessly uncompetitive tourist destination for inbound visitors".

Ryanair said it would now proceed to pull out three of its four aircraft from Shannon this summer, with the loss of 150 jobs, and a loss of 1.5 million Ryanair passengers to the Mid-West region.

Martin Moroney said this was "regrettable".