Read the item about Shannon on the Ryanair website, it's funny to see that what Ryanair mean by "Ryanair & Shannon
Discuss 75% Cuts in Shannon Base" is: "Ryanair has written to Shannon Airport" with a list of threats and demands.
And there are two main questions here:
- Are SNN going to give into Ryanair?
If they do not, then Shannon could loose half their passenger numbers. Has Ryanair really "lost money in each of the 5 years it has operated a base at Shannon Airport"? Why stay there so? Shouldn't shareholders be demanding an immediate revision of Shannon operations in that case? Or maybe Ryanair are making nice money out of Shannon but can fiddle the books to show whatever statistics suit. On fares alone they make a loss, bur on fares and ancillaries they make a profit for example. Eitherway Shannon are between a rock and a hard place.
If Ryanair do seriously pull the plug, who could potentially step in and fill their shoes? Aer Lingus are for sure a no-no and will more than happy to fly Shannoners from Cork to Alicante / Paris / Barcelona / Malaga / Faro etc, and Aer Arann could only deliver a limited amount of passengers. If airlines like Flybe or Wizz were to pick up the abandoned routes they would no doubt go looking for as good a deal as Ryanair are demanding, knowing that Shannon would be desperate for passengers.
- Will the Irish government scrap the €10 travel tax at Shannon by February?
I'm thinking this is highly improbable, but not impossible... Even if Ryanair do carry out their threat of reducing the Shannon base from 4 to 1 based aircraft, who's to say they won't maintain a similar level of routes/passengers by operating routes with the aircraft from other bases...