RYANAIR CEO Michael O’Leary, claims he can double passenger numbers at Shannon Airport, if the DAA (Dublin Airport Authority) agrees to his terms.
However, the DAA have dismissed Ryanair’s proposed incentive agreement which, they say, would cost them €4.70 per passenger.
Michael O’Leary has written to the DAA with an offer this week:
“We’ve offered to increase Ryanair’s passenger numbers from a current figure 300,000 annually up to at least 1.3 million over the next five years.
“Shannon is in freefall…it’s facing a traffic collapse…Ryanair is the obvious and only way that this traffic collapse at Shannon can be rectified.
“At least somebody is coming forward with a plan to grow traffic at Shannon Airport
“Shannon, at the moment, is dying on its feet… it has almost no flights and very few passengers”.
The airline are seeking an agreement that they say would be similar to a scheme that Aer Lingus operate in Dublin.
“We’ve said to Declan Collier if they put they put a similar growth incentive scheme in place in Shannon, we will pay the existing charges of 33% on the base charges of the existing 300,000 passengers annually.
“We would restore much of the base and the traffic growth that we were delivering up to two years ago.
“This offer from Ryanair would double Shannon’s current passenger number, particularly during the winter period,” said O’Leary.
Ryanair’s offer is a direct response to traffic at Shannon Airport falling by 27% inside one year, and they have given the DAA up to March 6 to come back with an answer.
According to the DAA, it is the first time that they have been requested to pay an airline for delivery of passengers.
Their statement read:
“The traffic decline at Shannon Airport referred to by Ryanair over the past 12 months is almost entirely due to the withdrawal of Ryanair services, following the end of Ryanair’s previous agreement with Shannon, the terms of which Ryanair failed to honour.
“Such a notion would be economically unviable for any airport. The DAA, however, provides a range of incentives for the delivery of new passengers at our airport, including discounts of up to 100% for new routes”.
Confirming that they had received the offer from Ryanair, the DAA described it as unsustainable for a number of reasons.
These included; the DAA paying back a €3.7 million legal settlement that Ryanair paid the DAA less than six weeks ago; Ryanair not paying aircraft and landing charges for any passengers; and receiving free offices, free check-in desks, a free crew room, free communications and other unspecified free facilities at Shannon.
Asked if they would react negatively to their offer being rejecting, Michael O’Leary replied:
“No. We won’t pull any more routes… we’re down to about 300,000 passengers annually which isn’t a lot more than our London operation, and a couple of summer routes from Shannon as well.
“That’s pretty much the core operation… our Shannon base won’t get any smaller than that.
“The one million traffic growth offer is genuine and it’s not couched in terms that if you don’t agree this, we’re going to take our toys away”.
The airline owner also stated that he was expecting a radical response to issues at Shannon from the new government, and said that one of their first actions should be to sell the airport without its debt.
