Ryanair will launch nine new routes from Shannon to the UK and continental Europe from next May, making the airport one of its European hubs. Barry O'Halloran reports.
The airline also expects to begin operating out of a new base in Italy next year after it was approached by a number of airports there following the collapse of one of its competitors there, Volare.
Launching the new routes yesterday, Ryanair chief executive Mr Michael O'Leary said that within days of the airline signing the agreement with Shannon, six large Italian airports approached it with offers.
He told The Irish Times it was likely that the airline would launch routes from a new base in Italy as soon as it had the craft, which would be next year.
The no-frills carrier revealed that it is to fly from Shannon to Luton, Gatwick, Nottingham, Barcelona, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Milan and Stockholm beginning on May 3rd, 2005. The nine routes will be added to five that the airline is already servicing from there.
Mr O'Leary said it would invest €180 million in basing four craft at the airport. This will make it the carrier's 12th European base.
Shannon's decision to cut passenger charges dramatically for new routes, and for airlines basing new craft at the airport, prompted the airline to decide to fly to new destinations from there.
The airport is offering a five-year package that starts off with a charge of €1.50 per departing passenger for the first 12 months. As there is no charge for arrivals, that will work out at an average 75 cents per passenger per leg of the journey.
Under the terms agreed between the two, Ryanair can only benefit from the deal if it delivers on passenger numbers.
Mr O'Leary said the targets were 1.3 million passengers in the first 12 months and two million passengers annually within five years.
"That will double the existing traffic into this airport," he predicted. "And 80 per cent of it will be in-bound."
It is understood that the figures include the passenger numbers from the existing five routes.
Mr O'Leary estimated yesterday that every extra one million passengers would create 1,000 new jobs in the airport. He said that the new routes would result in 2,000 extra people working in the airport.
However, those charges will not apply to the existing routes operated by Ryanair on which the airline is still paying an average of €2.50 per passenger.
An increase in charges prompted Ryanair to switch a flight to Frankfurt from Shannon Airport to Farranfore, across the estuary in Co Kerry.
The shift in charges policy results from the fact that an independent board is now responsible for running Shannon Airport.
The Dublin Airport Authority, which replaced Aer Rianta two months ago, approved the new charging structure. The Shannon board is still ultimately answerable to the Dublin authority until next year.
