Starting a new route to Shannon in the winter (it commenced 28/10) always seemed a strange decision to me. It will be interesting to see how well the loads pick up over the summer months. If it remains around 50 passengers per flight it would seem more suited to someone flying smaller aircraft such as ATRs.
However it does seem to be part of the Ryanair model to run services all year round unlike other lo-cos that have winter routes and summer routes. For example Thomson fly Bournemouth to Palma only in the summer and Salzburg only in the winter. Do Ryanair have any seasonal routes from any of their bases?