Ryanair says increased airport charges are to blame for abandoning route

WE wish to respond to Cork airport management’s letter (September 20) in which they claimed they have not raised charges on the Ryanair routes from Cork to Glasgow and East Midlands. This claim is simply untrue.

On November 1 next, Cork airport plans to reduce Ryanair’s new route discounts from 100% this year to 80% next year. This is a very substantial and unjustified increase in charges.

Cork airport was aware last year, when Ryanair launched these two new, unserved routes, that they would cease if Cork put the costs up because we must have very low costs if we were to use our very low fares (two million free seats this week) to attract 200,000 passengers annually on these two routes over the past 12 months.

There is no justification for Cork airport’s decision to reduce the discounts which — no matter how they dress it up — is a 20% cost increase. This is simply the Dublin airport monopoly telling Cork how to run its business.

The loss to Cork airport will be severe. While Aer Arann will fly the Cork-Glasgow route from November, it will only do it six days a week and with an aircraft that is one-third the size of Ryanair’s aircraft. Aer Arann will only be offering their usual high fares, which the people of Cork have already shown they don’t much fancy. As a result, traffic on the Cork-Glasgow route next year will fall from 100,000 passengers to fewer than 25,000 passengers, a loss to Cork of 75,000 passengers annually.

As Cork airport knows, this traffic loss could have been saved if it had simply extended Ryanair’s low costs for a second year. As usual, the Dublin airport monopoly puts up the charges and Cork loses out.

Stephen McNamara

Head of Communications

Ryanair

Dublin Airport