Originally Posted by
takingoff
When you look at 'Taxes/Fees' just above 'Total Price' in the select phase when booking on Ryanair you will notice that the taxes and fees are actually €10 cheaper at Knock Airport in comparison to Dublin airport. The €10 you pay at Knock evens the total taxes/fees you pay over all, making it the same total cost as Dublin. In the end you are not paying anymore in fee/taxes. I know charging €10 at the gate isn’t ideal but you simply aren’t paying anymore.
Ryanair's "Taxes/Fees" line means nothing, and I've travelled on plenty of tickets where the T/F was described as zero. If I'm being asked to pay 10€ to get to the departure gate, then that
is asking me to pay "more". It falls into the same category as the supposed "administration fee" for card payments ... and parking charges for that matter.
"This is a service charge which the Airport charges for the use of its facilities and as a contribution toward infrastructure developments, including passenger and airline services, ongoing maintenance and operation of this airport. "
When an airport decides to associate itself with a LoCo carrier, it should appreciate that LoCo passengers are prepared to put up with all kinds of hassle and poor service. Michael O'Leary says he doesn't care if the terminal is a shed in a field (many of his EU destinations are little more than that) the airport is asking passengers to pay for services that they don't want, the very definition of a rip-off.
The guys from Westport are right - it is cheaper to
not fly from Knock, because Dublin and Shannon do not force you to pay 10€ to get to your flight. It's mostly
departing passengers that use the shopping and catering facilities, so they're already contributing to the running costs. Other landside costs are irrelevant because few people live on the airport's doorstep, and it might in fact be cheaper for someone to get from Westport to Dublin than Westport to Charlestown.
Unfortunately, for me - someone very interested in developing connections to the West & North Western corner of Ireland - the image of "Knock" is one of a rip-off airport primarily served by a rip-off airline ... and I would have been one of the enthusiastic supporters of Horan International as it was once upon a time.