RYANAIR IS to cut an additional 48 flights at Dublin airport from January as it continues its campaign against the Government’s €10 air-travel tax and recent increases in passenger charges.
The airline said the changes to its schedule would result in it carrying 380,000 fewer passengers through Dublin airport next year and would result in 400 jobs being lost in the wider economy.
Ryanair plans to reduce its weekly flights to Cork, Edinburgh, Manchester, Prestwick, East Midlands and Leeds Bradford.
Ryanair has been steadily reducing its services from Dublin and Shannon over the past 18 months as it puts pressure on the Government to axe the air-travel tax and reduce passenger charges.
It currently carries seven million passengers through Dublin airport.
At a press conference in Dublin yesterday, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said this was “another bad day for Irish tourism” and described the air-travel tax as “moronic”.
“We’re growing like gangbusters everywhere but in our home market because of this tax.”
He also criticised the cost and scale of the new Terminal 2 (T2) facility at Dublin airport which opens tomorrow. He said it has been “rechristened as the welcoming suite for the IMF”.
This was a reference to growing speculation that the IMF will be involved in a bailout of the Irish economy.
“We don’t need a second terminal,” he said, before restating his call for T2 to be mothballed until visitor numbers to Ireland increase.
Mr O’Leary said Dublin airport would handle about 18 million passengers this year, about five million from its peak of a couple of years ago. “This is being built for 40, 60, 100 years’ time. That’s fine if the people in 40 years’ time pay for it.”
The Ryanair chief said he had been invited to the launch of T2 and he would be attending the event. He admitted the new terminal “does look lovely, but so does the Taj Mahal”.
He reiterated his call for the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) to be broken up, with Cork and Shannon sold to the “highest bidder”.
The Ryanair boss described the DAA as “technically insolvent”, but said the sale of its assets could be used to pay down its €1 billion-plus debts. “You won’t pay down all the debt, but you’ll certainly retire most of it.”