Ryanair gives qualified welcome but says customer not well served

Ryanair has "conditionally" welcomed the Commission for Aviation's report but claimed the best interests of the consumer were not being served.

Ryanair chief executive Mr Michael O'Leary questioned how the regulator, having found that Dublin Airport was 50 per cent more inefficient than its peers, could justify no more than a 5 per cent reduction in costs at the facility.

"For an organisation that's had a state monopoly for the last 40 or 50 years, if this is the best he can do on his first outing, consumers haven't been well served," he said.

He contended that a 5 per cent reduction in charges was not sufficiently large to justify passenger fare reductions at Dublin, but said that increases at Cork and Shannon would undoubtedly be passed on. However, Mr O'Leary commended the regulator's decision to disallow £726 million of Aer Rianta's £998 million capital expenditure programme which he said was "loony".

Mr O'Leary's views were echoed by Mr John Power, chief executive of the Irish Hotels Federation, who said that he was "pleased that \the Commission has seen fit that passengers should not be charged to finance rail links and additional terminal and runway links at Dublin". He stressed, however, that new access routes to Cork and Shannon airports needed to be developed.

This point was taken up by the Cork Chamber of Commerce, which recognised the need for investment in Cork Airport, but questioned what it called the "discrimination against Cork and Shannon in the new charges".

Cork Chamber president Mr John Cashell said that he was "extremely disappointed" with the Commission's determination and expressed concern that it would hamper Cork Airport's ability to attract new airlines to the region.