Ryanair Announces Flight & Job Cuts at Dublin Airport

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Ryanair News
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News Release
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12.02.09
Ryanair Announces Flight & Job Cuts at Dublin Airport
AS IRISH GOVT €10 TAX DEVASTATES TOURISM

Ryanair, Dublin airport’s largest airline, today (12th Feb) announced details of its first ever Summer season flights and traffic cut backs at Dublin Airport, as the combination of high and rising DAA charges, allied to the Irish Government’s crazy decision to impose a €10 tourist tax from 30th March next is set to decimate traffic and tourism through Dublin Airport.

Ryanair confirmed that the combination of the DAA’s high costs and third rate facilities has already caused traffic at Dublin to collapse this winter, with DAA’s monthly traffic now running some 9% behind the previous year. This is a loss of 150,000 passengers per month or almost 2 million passengers annually. Ryanair believes this traffic decline will accelerate on 30th March next when the Irish Government’s idiotic €10 tourist tax is introduced. This will make Dublin and Ireland a higher cost destination and render it uncompetitive against other European cities/countries, where airports are lowering costs and Governments are welcoming tourists, not taxing them. Ryanair’s traffic continues to grow at airports that do not impose such idiotic taxes as demonstrated by Ryanair’s 11% traffic growth in January 2009.

Ryanair today announced substantial reductions in its base at Dublin Airport for the summer 2009 schedule including:

A 20% cut in Dublin based aircraft (22 to 18).
A 18% cut in weekly rotations (from over 700 to under 600).
A 20% drop in Ryanair’s Dublin traffic from 10.8m to 8.7m pax in 2009/10.
The loss of 200 jobs among pilots, cabin crew and engineers.
Further cuts in Ryanair’s Dublin winter schedule will be announced later.

Announcing these Dublin cutbacks, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“The combination of the DAA’s high costs, and awful facilities has already created a traffic collapse at Dublin Airport this winter (December traffic fell by 9% with 150,000 fewer passengers). The decision by the Irish Government to introduce a flat rate €10 tourist tax from April is nothing less than “tourism suicide”. This travel tax when introduced (appropriately on April Fools Day) will exacerbate the traffic decline at Dublin, as price sensitive visitors will avoid Ireland and choose other lower cost destinations.

“Ryanair has repeatedly called for this tax to be made fairer by making it a percentage of the air fare paid, or alternatively why not scrap the tax altogether and generate equivalent savings by closing quangos like Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland which spend over €150m p.a., but deliver few if any visitors.

“This travel tax has already failed in the UK and Dutch markets, where they caused traffic declines and sadly the Irish Government’s tourist tax is doomed to a similar failure. This Government must realise you can only promote tourism by welcoming visitors, not taxing them.


“The catastrophic collapse in Irish traffic and tourism over the coming year will add more weight to the growing calls for the break up of the DAA monopoly, the dismissal of the useless Irish Aviation Regulator and further evidence, if it were needed, that the Department of Transport’s sole policy continues to be the protection of its high cost, inefficient semi-state monopolies at the expense of Irish consumers and visitors.

“As in Shannon, these cuts can and will be reversed if the Government’s suicidal €10 tourism tax is reversed on or before 30th March next”.