It is understood that the cutbacks at Shannon are all but announced at this stage whereas those at Dublin are still at the discussion stage. When the government announced the €10 travel tax in it's budget, Michael O'Leary predicted tumbleweed on the runway at Shannon as a result. Several reports have indicated that the Shannon base will be reduced from 6 aircraft to four.
It is difficult to determine Ryanair's schedule from their ticketing information but comparing services out of Shannon for this week compared to the end of May highlights the following changes :
Lodz, Hahn, Fuerteventura and Turin are no longer in the schedule, a loss of 6 return flights.
On UK services Stansted sees a drop of 4 flights per week, Manchester drops 2, Prestwick drops 3, Liverpool drops 4. Gatwick and Luton are unchanged.
On sun destinations there is a predictable increase in schedule with Malaga up 2, Carcasonne up 1, Faro up 1, Murcia up 4, Nantes up 4, Palma up 3, Venice up 1.
On other European routes Katowice is down 1, Krakow down 1, Beauvais down 2.
These figures do not support a 30% reduction in based aircraft but probably indicate the direction that the cuts will take.
One thing is for certain, with Ryanair contributing 65% of the passengers that used Shannon in 2008 and Shannon contributing 3.4% of Ryanair's passenger load in 2008 it's easy to see who needs whom the most.
The 2m Ryanair passengers who used the airport last year far outnumber the local population in Shannon's hinterland giving an indication of just how important these visitors are, not just to the airport but to the local tourist industry.
We await developments.......
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