Madam, - We are more than surprised that The Irish Times did not check their facts before filing their interview with Pádraigh Ó Céidigh of Aer Arann (November 1st). It was riddled with false claims and fantasies as expressed by Mr Ó Céidigh.
1. For the record Ryanair competes with Aer Arann on just one route out of Aer Arann's 40 routes (Dublin-Cork). Given that fact, Aer Arann's financial troubles clearly stem from its problems on its 39 other routes and not the one route it shares with Ryanair.
2. The focus of Ryanair's expansion and competition across Europe is British Airways, Air France and Lufthansa, and not some loss-making regional turbo-prop airline in Ireland .
3. Mr Ó Céidigh's claim that Ryanair "wants to control Cork" is equally absurd. Ryanair recently closed two Cork routes (Prestwick Glasgow and East Midlands), which allowed Aer Arann to enter the Cork-Glasgow route with its mix of high fares and frequently delayed flights.
4. Mr Ó Céidigh's claim that Ryanair wants "to weaken Aer Arann and in fact close it down" is another fantasy. Since Ryanair only competes with Aer Arann on just one of Aer Arann's 40 routes, it would be impossible for Ryanair to weaken or close down a regional, turbo-prop airline with which we hardly compete.
5. The most ludicrous fantasy of Mr Ó Céidigh's many false claims, is that Ryanair "got very significant help from the Irish Government and he didn't". Coming from the head of a subsidy-junky airline which cannot survive without receiving €15 million in annual PSO subsidies, this claim is truly remarkable. Ryanair's development, by contrast, has been marked by repeated opposition and interference from successive Irish governments which awarded Aer Lingus exclusive rights to Heathrow and Gatwick in 1991, prevented Ryanair from reducing fares and entering routes to compete against Aer Lingus in the late 1980s, and in recent years has repeatedly protected its overcharging DAA airport monopoly from competition and allowed it to abusively increase airport charges, at a time when airport charges all over Europe are falling. Even in the case of the Government's recent air travel tax initiative, Aer Arann receives hidden Government assistance in the form of a €2 travel tax on most of its routes despite average air fares that are almost €100, whereas Ryanair's passengers are penalised with a €10 tax, despite the fact that for many of them this represents a 100 per cent tax on the €10 average fare they pay to Ryanair to visit Ireland.
6. The sad fact of life which Mr Ó Céidigh is attempting to cover up is that Aer Arann's business model doesn't work and continues to lose money despite receiving annual Government subsidies of up to €15 million per annum which in the case of many Irish domestic routes is a subsidy of over €100 per passenger to well-off business people flying to Dublin when there are perfectly adequate motorways and train services which render these subsidised domestic routes unviable and unnecessary.
7. Mr Ó Céidigh's claim that Ryanair got rid of Easyjet on the Knock route by entering Knock-Stansted after Easyjet and pulling off Knock-Stansted after Easyjet left the Irish market is also untrue.Ryanair was flying the Knock-Stansted route before Easyjet arrived with its high fares, and we are still flying the Knock-Stansted route today, five years after Easyjet withdrew, because passengers preferred Ryanair's lower fares over Easyjet's higher fares.
8. Mr Ó Céidigh's claim that "Ryanair is eyeing up Aer Arann's slots in Dublin" is another fantasy. This winter Ryanair is reducing the number of aircraft, flights and slots it uses in Dublin because of Dublin's high costs and the attractiveness of much lower-cost airports elsewhere in Europe where all of Ryanair's growth is now focused.
9. As far as the Dublin-Cork route is concerned, Ryanair didn't increase capacity by 200 per cent as Mr. Ó Céidigh claims, we simply entered the route with three daily flights at the request of Cork Airport, who were concerned that frequency on the route had declined following the withdrawal of Aer Lingus's three times daily service and Air Wales's twice daily service which allowed Aer Arann to exercise a high-price monopoly on the route.
Ryanair's Cork-Dublin flights merely restored competition and customer choice by replacing Aer Lingus flights which were withdrawn some six months earlier.
Finally, Ryanair has published a detailed contemporaneous note of Michael O'Leary's meeting with Pádraig Ó Céidigh of the meeting dated 2nd October 2007.
To date Mr Ó Céidigh has failed to do likewise. His claim that he was told to "feck off back to Connemara" is another falsehood and fantasy in a sequence of fantasies in this article.
Ryanair has no agenda against, or indeed interest in Aer Arann, but we do think it is important to correct the record, particularly in cases such as this where some loss-making, heavily subsidised airline is seeking to wrongly blame Ryanair for its problems. - Yours, etc,
JIM CALLAGHAN,
Director of Legal and
Regulatory Affairs,
Ryanair,
Dublin Airport,
Co Dublin.