Cork Airport Authority recently announced a range of cost increases (38 in total) for various services at the airport including a 300% increase in the rental charge of check-in and ticket desks. These increases will push up Ryanair's costs at the airport by over EUR30,000 per annum. The increases, which are a direct result of the debt, which Cork Airport has inherited as a result of its new,
Taj Mahal-like,
terminal now makes Cork Airport massively uncompetitive against its peer airports throughout Europe and has made other destinations for Ryanair much more attractive. The Liverpool to Cork route will reduce from 7 flights per week to 4 per week.
On the good news front Ryanair also announced that it will be starting a new three times weekly service from Liverpool to Kerry
as a much cheaper alternative to Cork.
Announcing the reduction in services in Cork today, Ryanair's Deputy Chief Executive, Michael Cawley, said
"Cork Airport is in danger of pricing itself out of the market with these outrageous price increases. Cork Airport has to realise that it is in competition with hundreds of other airports throughout Europe for passengers whose only concern is to get low fares. The Cork Airport Authority has spent EUR180M on a terminal for 3 million passengers. Both Frankfurt Hahn and Düsseldorf Weeze built the same capacity for EUR13M and EUR15M respectively. If, by forcing the airport to assume the debt burden arising from this expenditure, the Government insists that Cork Airport is to charge a premium for its services then it will lose out on the hundreds of thousands of passengers which Ryanair and other airlines have brought to the region. For the sake of a cost increase of EUR30,000 the region is going to lose 20,000 incoming tourists and business visitors, the income from which runs to approximately EUR8 million. This is an idiotic way to run an airport and is a direct result of the Government's transport policies of overspending and making its regional airports uncompetitive by building lavish and expensive facilities which passengers and visiting tourists are not prepared to pay for.
"Consequently, Ryanair is reducing its services on the Liverpool route to reflect the reduction in demand which we expect will ensue from this cost increase.
"The good news is that we are able to salvage the tourists with the help of Kerry Airport. We are delighted that we will now be moving these passengers to Kerry Airport who have offered us an extremely competitive cost base, much more reflective of what is available in Continental Europe and we are delighted that, while passengers may not be passing through Cork Airport, they will still be coming to the region, served through a much more efficient and low cost airport".