Ryanair Cutting Dublin Flights

NI air travellers may have to go further afield to make holiday connections this winter after Ryanair announced it is to cut the frequency of its flights from Dublin Airport.

However, it has also revealed plans to add almost 40 new routes from mainland UK airports to both winter and summer sunshine destinations.

The airline, which flies from Derry City and George Best Belfast City Airport as well as Dublin and Cork, said today its Dublin traffic will decline by 250,000 passengers as a result of the move.

It has blamed the Government's €10 flight tax for the downsizing.

Last winter, the airline based 18 airplanes in Dublin operating 1,200 weekly flights. The move will mean a reduction to 14 aircraft and less than 1,000 flights from the Irish capital.

This morning, Ryanair lodged a complaint with the EU Commission over the €10 charge, calling it a "suicidal and damaging" tax.

The airline claimed the tax, which was introduced in last October's Budget, was in breach of the EU Treaty on the freedom to provide services.

Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said: "Ryanair believes the tax should be scrapped as it has resulted in the collapse of Irish tourism and unfairly protects domestic travel, but if this misguided Government is going to stick by its failed policy of taxing tourists it should at least ensure that it is applied fairly."

The airline claimed Dublin Airport had experienced a fall of 14%, or €300,000 since last June due to the introduction of the tax.

Meanwhile, the carrier has announced it is starting 39 new routes this winter to and from the Canary Islands to take advantage of Spanish tax concessions.

While it has made cuts in Dublin services and recently cut its Stansted flights by 30% this winter, the airline said yesterday that its Canary Islands expansion would bring in two million new passengers and create 2,000 new jobs.

To start in October, the new services include flights to Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Tenerife from Birmingham, Bournemouth and Bristol airports.

Other new services include Gran Canaria and Lanzarote flights from Luton, Liverpool, East Midlands and Prestwick airports.

The move is after Spain introduced a 100% discount on airport charges this winter, but Ryanair said the continuation of the new routes beyond March 31 next year was dependent on the extension of the discount.

Ryanair also announced that it was starting four new routes from Prestwick airport from October - to Alicante, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, and Palma in Majorca.

A fifth new service from Prestwick - also to Ibiza - will start on March 10. Ryanair is also increasing the frequency of flights from Prestwick to Faro in Portugal, Malaga in Spain and Tenerife.

(BMcC/KMcA)