Ryanair pulling Shannon

critical alp

Have heard a nasty rumour that Ryanair are not able to reach agreement with the Shannon Airport Authority on future costs and have now threatened to pull out of Shannon. I believe all employees have been asked to select an alternative base. Little bit 2 faced considering O'Leary gave out stink about Aer Lingus abandoning Shannon!!!

Jay P

Well it's actually not as basic as that. Ryanair have said Shannon is one of the only places where they make a loss, so obvioulsy they can't be blamed for wanting out. The government, or whatever people are involved in running Shannon, are being very stubborn in not facilitating Ryanair with reduced taxes, which is incredibly stupid because Ryanair are practically keeping Shannon airport going. The difference between this and the Aer Lingus thing is that Aer Lingus didn't actually have much of a reason for pulling out because they were filling flights to Heathrow quite regularly. They have accepted this mistake as they weren't making nearly as much from Belfast, so they recently announced they're going to switch back to flying from Shannon.

BLITZ_Molloy

Shannon Airport are just trying to play hardball. They'll crumble on the issue eventually. Half the flights going out of that place are Ryan Air.

opa01_2000

I think FR are struggling to fill their seats and are using the excuse of airport charges to reduce the number of flights - this is the third airport they've used this excuse.

They have reduced from 2 to 1 flight per day out of Derry and the remaining flight (which was always full until EI opened up in Belfast) is usually about half full.

The whole takeover talk is a useful smokescreen to hide FR's problems.

Hawk Wing

BLITZ_Molloy wrote: »

Shannon Airport are just trying to play hardball. They'll crumble on the issue eventually. Half the flights going out of that place are Ryan Air.

Ryanair are keeping the place going from what I see

lostexpectation

shannon is a hoare

m83

I live in Ennis but rarely fly from Shannon because it always works out cheaper to use Dublin.

Clareman

m83 wrote: »

I live in Ennis but rarely fly from Shannon because it always works out cheaper to use Dublin.

Seriously? Even allowing for the cost of petrol in driving up to Dublin? The higher parking charges in Dublin? The longer queues in Dublin? The amount of time it takes to drive up? The wear and tear on your car?

anthony4335

Are you nuts ,Dublin is a pain in the rear. Any time I need to fly I do my best to fly from Shannon. Besides the fact I line in Ennis ,it is just so much easier to fly from shannon ,less stress. The only problem is that most of the flights I need cannot be got out of shannon.

atr209

ryanair are in trouble i believe. over a 100 planes to be delivered in the next few years with no choice, and the business plan of expanding to maintain profit coupled with a global and european recession at the moment make for turbulant times.

Did you know they have parked up aircraft this winter and forced staff to take unpaid leave!! where could that lead to for all business's, maybe something like "sorry guys not busy for the next 3 months, off ye go, see ye when i see ye, best of luck with the mortage". Shouldnt be allowed. Its not fair.

Check out ryanair website recruitment section for cabin crew, the renumeration is extremely low. This company is scraping the bucket in terms of cost already and their air fares are based on this cost base so they have no choice but to pull out of places like shannon if they cant get the deal they want/NEED they have no other area to manoeuvre with in terms of cost, it makes sense. If their fare is anywhere near aer lingus's people will opt for the green i reckon.

Why do you think they want aer lingus, wouldnt it be handy to replace the aerlingus airbus fleet with the 737's they have on order with no home to go to, unfortunately for the aer lingus pilots they would be issued with new training contracts to learn how to fly these aircraft, this would cost thousands of euro,,it would be just like they did to buzz pilots when ryanair bought them. Wait and see.

Ryanair is no friend of shannon but if they drop routes it wont make the headlines, guarantee'd. Aer lingus also let them down in shannon with the heathrow situation but it led to cost restructuring that has resulted in the heathrow reinstatement, great for the west. Great for competition.

O leary believes aer lingus is over staffed ( "Mr O'Leary claims that Aer Lingus is overstaffed") (it prob is) so dont believe the promise of 1000 jobs or any coming to shannon, if he takes over the shamrock. It will be more like a 1000 jobs lost. We know what he,s like.

The best deal for shannon and for the rest of the country is a competitive air service. competition breeds low airfare,s, so more people travelling, so more destinations for us and more visitors for the country. fact.

watch ryanair expand in shannon and watch air fares go up if they take over aer lingus.

Dont say you were'nt warned.

Clareman

Ryanair are an extremely tightly run organisation, they make as much as they can from anywhere and make no apologies for it. I believe that O'Leary came out with threatening pulling out of Shannon cause of the extra tenner tax for certain flights

BLITZ_Molloy

Ryanair fly to too many places from Shannon. Loads of the flights are half empty or worse most of the time. They should narrow their range of destinations for a while.

Aer Lingus is horribly overstaffed. Every airline in Shannon subcontracts to Servisair or Skyhandling to carry out most of their services. But Aer Lingus has staff for everything, and the newest of ramp equipment. When I was there working for Servisair they only had a handful of flights and a ton of staff who were sitting about doing nothing. You could fire half the staff down there and none of the passangers would notice any decline in service quality.

I know it is off topic.

I was in Dublin Airport today dropping off my Brother and his OH who were flying to Bologna.

Anyway to my point, I have never seen that airport so quiet.

Victor

Jay P wrote: »

The difference between this and the Aer Lingus thing is that Aer Lingus didn't actually have much of a reason for pulling out because they were filling flights to Heathrow quite regularly. They have accepted this mistake as they weren't making nearly as much from Belfast, so they recently announced they're going to switch back to flying from Shannon.

Wrong. Aer Lingus changed some of its slots at Heathrow from Shannon to Belfast. Then it changed some of its slots at Heathrow from Dublin to Shannon. They haven't switched back.

eddiehobbs

m83 wrote: »

I live in Ennis but rarely fly from Shannon because it always works out cheaper to use Dublin.

Id seriously doubt that when you take everything into consideration and besides we should be supporting shannon airport given its importance to the region. I would always fly shannon whenever possible. I hope ryanair dont pull out and dont think they will, but passenger numbers took a dip during the summer and ryanair will use this as justification that they should pay less charges.

Clareman

I've just paid 200 extra to fly out of Shannon rather than Dublin, I reckon I've saved at least 100 between the 2 of us.

Also, I know that it's our national carrier etc. etc. but I will never travel with Aer Lingus again, their treatment on the west of Ireland is a disgrace, I don't know what kind of vendetta they have against Shannon, but they don't seem to want to do business out of it. If you think I'm being paranoid, sign up for their email specials, they are always promoting offers from Dublin or Cork, nothing from Shannon or Knock.

midgetflynn

Actually,I've noticed that a lot of the offers are from Cork or Dublin,rarely Shannon from any airline.
I'd much rather fly from Shannon than Dublin.In fact,I just did there at the weekend and the flight to Stansted was pretty much full,give or take a few seats.Shannon should be busier, it's a shame to waste it

finbarrk

m83 wrote: »

I live in Ennis but rarely fly from Shannon because it always works out cheaper to use Dublin.[/QUOT
You surely aren't serious about this.

bowsie casey

I will always fly from Shannon ahead of Dublin - WAY less check-in /security hassle, cheaper parking (or can get the Ma to drop me down the road ), no 2 mile walks to the gates etc - plus supporting local jobs and maintaining a great facility in the West which helps keep business here.

I agree with Clareman that I will choose Ryanair over AL any day because of AL's disgraceful handling of their Shannon pull-out.

georgem25

I always support Ryanair. I wouldnt use Aer Lingus again. It great to have an airport so close from where we can go to so many places!!

I think there are great bargains to be have if you check Ryanair website regularly. I wouldnt have seen so much of Europe if it wasnt for them.

critical alp

Update:
Ryanair briefed staff yesterday, 27/01/09, They are withdrawing two aircraft from Shannon in April resulting in the loss of 40 cabin crew and 20 Pilots. This leaves two Aircraft.:mad::mad:

C.A.

finbarrk

Disaster. I got an email a few days ago fom them regarding a Stansted flight that I had booked for the end of March that was cancelled so this is the start of it.

Clareman

Let's see what our elected officals are like now

Ryanair is to cut services at Shannon Airport with the loss of 100 jobs, it was announced today.

The budget airline’s chief Michael O’Leary blamed the Government’s €10 travel tax for a fall in passenger numbers in the west claiming the knock-on effect could see another 700 support staff axed.

The Ryanair boss said he had no choice but to reduce aircraft, routes and flights from the end of March.

The airline estimates the region will lose 700,000 passengers and as a result of the massive drop in business more than 100 Ryanair positions will be transferred to other bases.

Mr O’Leary branded the airport tax “tourism suicide” and called on the Government to scrap the charge.

“This Government’s decision to impose a travel tax of more than 100% on these price sensitive visitors is insane and simply tourism suicide,” he said.

Personally I think it's Ryanair playing hardball with the Government trying to get them to scrap the tax

eddiehobbs

Clareman wrote: »

Let's see what our elected officals are like now

They just had timmy dooley on today fm, it was a joke. His attitude was pretty much that we just had to accept it. Talk about useless, what about protecting the interests of the people who elected him??

LadyTBolt

eddiehobbs wrote: »

They just had timmy dooley on today fm, it was a joke. His attitude was pretty much that we just had to accept it. Talk about useless, what about protecting the interests of the people who elected him??

And let's not forget this is the same Timmy Dooley who condemned Aer Lingus for withdrawing the Shannon-Heathrow route and lobbied profoundly to have the decision overturned but when it came to the crunch he voted with the Government not to intervene to reverse the decision.

He is a hypocrite and I hope when voting time comes around again people will remember what he did and see him for what he is, a traitor, an 'in it for all he can get for himself, traitor'. I apologise if my words towards Dooley are a bit harsh but I will never forget how he let down the people who put him where is today. He is a disappointment and a big joke.

Clareman

LadyTBolt wrote: »

And let's not forget this is the same Timmy Dooley who condemned Aer Lingus for withdrawing the Shannon-Heathrow route and lobbied profoundly to have the decision overturned but when it came to the crunch he voted with the Government not to intervene to reverse the decision.

He is a hypocrite and I hope when voting time comes around again people will remember what he did and see him for what he is, a traitor, an 'in it for all he can get for himself, traitor'. I apologise if my words towards Dooley are a bit harsh but I will never forget how he let down the people who put him where is today. He is a disappointment and a big joke.

I couldn't believe it, Matt Cooper even called him out on it, what a disgrace

dh0661

LadyTBolt wrote: »

He is a disappointment and a big joke

He is a politician - what do you expect.

Clareman

I've just noticed that he has taken his website down, I'm glad I have a copy of it downloaded for future reference or for when he call to canvas.

Anyway, what do we expect from our politicans? I would expect them to put the people that elected them to office before the overall party line

Hawk Wing

LadyTBolt wrote: »

And let's not forget this is the same Timmy Dooley who condemned Aer Lingus for withdrawing the Shannon-Heathrow route and lobbied profoundly to have the decision overturned but when it came to the crunch he voted with the Government not to intervene to reverse the decision.

He is a hypocrite and I hope when voting time comes around again people will remember what he did and see him for what he is, a traitor, an 'in it for all he can get for himself, traitor'. I apologise if my words towards Dooley are a bit harsh but I will never forget how he let down the people who put him where is today. He is a disappointment and a big joke.

hear hear, a disgrace of a man, he better not come knocking on my door or trying to shake my hand in the street, I'll never forgive him or those other sleevens, like O'Dea and Killeen

Keano

What routes are being cut? No mention in the Ryanair press release.

finbarrk

I heard Newcastle, Berlin and Frankfurt Hahn. Also reduced frequency to others including Barcelona, Malaga, etc.