UP TO 500 jobs will be lost at Dublin airport following Ryanair's decision to substantially cut its capacity at the airport for the winter, the airline has claimed. Ciarán Brennanreports.
Ryanair said it would cut the number of aircraft based in Dublin from 22 to 18, while weekly flights to and from the airport would drop from 1,350 to less than 1,200.
This represents an 18 per cent reduction in Dublin-based aircraft, and an approximate 12 per cent reduction in weekly flights.
Ryanair estimates its traffic at Dublin airport this winter will fall by 500,000 passengers compared with last winter's schedule, and said the Dublin Aviation Authority (DAA) would see the first fall in passenger numbers since 1991.
"The key thing is Dublin is going to lose 500,000 passengers this winter," said Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary.
"Of that, the DAA will lose €5 million in passenger fees and commercial income. Because every 1,000 passengers creates a job, there will be about 500 jobs lost at Dublin airport this winter."
The DAA had rejected Ryanair's proposals for discounts on these flights for the winter season, according to Mr O'Leary, who said the airline was cutting back capacity at Dublin because it was the second most expensive of Ryanair's base airports.
Further cutbacks will be announced tomorrow at its most expensive base which is Stansted.
"The combination of Dublin's high costs, unjustified cost increases - up 40 per cent in the last four years - and a hopeless aviation regulator, who has most recently rubberstamped doubling charging for check-in desks and check-in kiosks, makes it more profitable for Ryanair to ground these aircraft rather than fly them at Dublin airport this winter."
With oil at $140 (€87.93) a barrel, flights at high-cost airports such as Dublin have to be reduced when fares are very low, he said.
"We're doing this because of airport charges," said Mr O'Leary. "Oil prices have a bearing on it, but the cuts are coming at the two highest cost airports."
He said the airline would announce a new base at a low-cost airport in the UK.
"You can see the drift of what is going to happen in the next six to 12 months, which is high-cost, inefficient, regulated airports like Dublin and Stansted will lose out to low-cost, competitive airports throughout the rest of Europe."
The DAA confirmed that Ryanair recently sought support for some of its winter services at Dublin airport on what the DAA termed "a seemingly exclusive and non-commercial basis".
"The DAA finds it ironic that Ryanair, the so-called champion of competition, complains publicly when its request for anti-competitive support mechanisms are justly declined," it said.
The DAA said Ryanair's own business environment influenced its announcement and not the Dublin airport charges.
"The combination of a sharp economic slowdown in many of its key markets, its own failure to provide hedge against historically-high oil prices and its heavily loss-making investment in Aer Lingus are the key factors driving this decision to consolidate seasonal schedules and not airport charges, which are paid fully by the airline's passengers."
