Ryanair plans to cut the number of aircraft based at Shannon from four to one from next April. The airline says this will lead to the loss of 150 jobs and will reduce the number of its flights out of Shannon Airport by 75%.
Ryanair had being threatening to pull services from Shannon, if the Government did not scrap its €10 travel tax.
The airline claims it has lost money on each of its last five years at Shannon.
Today Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) confirmed that it is not entering a new five-year agreement with Ryanair, blaming the airline’s ‘unreasonable demands’ which they said were ‘unrealistic’.
The Limerick Post understands that in the new deal, Ryanair has offered to deliver only 600,000 annual passengers at Shannon, as against the previous passenger numbers of two million.
A Ryanair spokesman said the combination of the Government’s tourist tax and the DAA’s airport charges now makes Shannon uncompetitive.
The airline’s current contract with the airport runs out in April 2010.
