MID-WEST holidaymakers, leisure travellers and the business community were stunned this week to learn that Ryanair were not taking internet bookings for their popular routes from Shannon airport from next March.
In fact, several destinations have already been cancelled. Those who purchased holiday homes in sunny climes such as Spain and Portugal, because of the ease of access from Shannon, contacted the Limerick Post to express their anger that the routes will no longer be available to them.
The Ryanair flight schedule from late March will be skeletal, with daily flights to just two UK airports; Gatwick and Stansted.
The remaining flights available will be once weekly to Malaga, Nantes and Tenerife, twice weekly to Mallorca and Wroclaw in Poland, and three times weekly to Paris.
Destinations to be axed are Shannon to Murcia, Alicante, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Carcassone, Faro, Lanzarote, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Barcelona, Gran Canaria, Krakow, Liverpool, Milan, Venice and Lodz.
Flights to Manchester have already ended.
Those who have second homes or family living in these locations; those who are from these locations living in the Midwest, or tourists who are merely interested in holidaying in these popular spots, will now have to travel to Cork or Dublin, to access them.
Anyone who now attempts to book flights to these destinations for the end of March onwards, will find no flights available on Ryanair’s website.
The Post has also learned that Ryanair’s seven Shannon-based engineers will be reduced to one, with the remaining six being offered alternative employment abroad.
In early November, the airline had claimed that the Government’s “insanely stupid €10 tourist tax”, introduced in April of his year, was leading to the loss of more than four million passengers for Irish airports. They reduced the number of aircrafts based at Shannon from six to three this Winter and are now fulfilling threats to further reduce aircrafts to just one as of Spring 2010.
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Speaking to the Limerick Post earlier this month, Shannon airport chief Martin Moroney, said that, if implemented, Ryanair’s threats would reduce traffic through the airport from nearly three million to just two million passengers for 2010.
He stated that Ryanair’s demands were not realistic, saying: “We must operate the airport commercially and we do require some payment from airlines to land and use facilities”.
Ryanair’s announcement will act as a huge blow for the entire region, with local politicians suggesting that the airport town will now become a ‘ghost town’.
In a further blow to Midwest access, Iarnrod Eireann are to reduce their direct train services on the Limerick to Dublin route each way, though there will be an increase in connecting services at Limerick Junction.
