Sir, - I refer to the Current Account column in your Business Supplement (May 8th) which dealt with Ryanair's announcement this week of its lowest ever fare of £19.99 from Dublin and Cork to the UK. You state that there are likely to be some disappointed customers as at least one person found that the fares were sold out by lunchtime on Wednesday for any flight next Monday. The reality, of course, is quite different.
Ryanair will make available approximately 8,500 seats per week, over 1,000 seats a day, at these fares - this is more than the entire capacity of Cityjet on the Dublin-London route.
This is a permanent fare in Ryanair's system for the entire summer schedule during which literally hundreds of thousands of seats will be made available at this fare.
As to the economic viability of this fare you make the comparison that it is lower than inter-city train journeys and the ferry from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead as well as, obviously, being substantially less than anything on offer from Aer Lingus. In questioning the economic viability of the fare I suggest you focus more on the cost structures in the organisations which offer rail, ferry, and high fare air travel prices rather than querying Ryanair's already proven profit-making ability. - Yours, etc., Michael Cawley
Commercial Director & Chief Financial Officer, Ryanair, Dublin Airport.