RYANAIR IS planning to drop more of its services at Shannon airport this winter following a recent decision to increase passenger charges there.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary will announce the cuts at a press conference to be held in Limerick this afternoon.
Mr O’Leary will blame the planned increase in passenger charges at Shannon and the €10 Government-imposed air travel tax for Ryanair’s decision to cut services at the Co Clare airport.
Ryanair currently operates 11 routes out of Shannon, where it bases one aircraft and employs about 40 staff.
It is understood that Ryanair will cut some of the routes from its winter schedule while also reducing the number of flights on other services.
The move is another blow to Shannon and the midwest region this winter. Aer Lingus has already announced plans to pull transatlantic flights for the first three months of 2011, as they were heavily loss making.
Ryanair currently flies from Shannon to Edinburgh, Liverpool, and Gatwick and Stansted in the UK.
It also operates services to four Spanish airports – Malaga, Majorca, Gran Canaria and Tenerife – as well as Paris Beauvais and Nantes in France, and Wroclaw in Poland.
It handles about 500,000 passengers at Shannon, down from a peak of close to two million in recent years.
The gradual reduction in its services followed a failure to agree a new low-cost, multi-year deal on airport passenger charges with the Shannon Airport Authority.
The passenger charge at Shannon will rise by €1.58 to €6.32 per flight from November 1st. This means passengers will pay €12.64 on return flights.
Shannon airport director Martin Moroney described it as a “small, but necessary, increase”that reflected the fact that the airport was “loss-making and needs to improve its viability”.
Mr Moroney said it was the first increase in charges since 2004.
“Even with this adjustment, airport charges at Shannon remain lower than those at Dublin and in line with those at other comparable airports,” he said.
Ryanair described the increase in charges as “inexplicable and unjustified”, when it was announced in late August.
“At a time when Shannon airport should be lowering costs, particularly entering the winter, the airport has announced a crazy plan to raise passenger fees,” Mr O’Leary said last month.
Shannon’s passenger traffic fell by 12 per cent last year to 2.8 million. Ryanair has claimed it will decline to 1.7 million this year.
Local Fine Gael TD Pat Breen yesterday expressed his concern at Ryanair’s plan to cut capacity at Shannon.
"It would be worrying to see Ryanair reducing operations because Shannon is in crisis and we don't want it to lose other services," Mr Breen told The Irish Times.
“It’s time the Government put some emphasis on Shannon because it’s in danger of becoming a ghost town.”
