Ryanair offers to take Aer Lingus’ place at Shannon

Ryanair, Ireland’s largest airline, held a press conference in Shannon Airport this morning (Tuesday 14 August) to announce that if Aer Lingus proceeds with its plan to close the Shannon-Heathrow route and abandon 330,000 passengers who currently use it, then Ryanair will provide 3 additional daily flights to London to ensure Shannon Airport’s capacity and traffic does not fall as a result of this Aer Lingus closure.

The new flights include:
- A fourth daily flight to London Stansted
- A second daily flight to London Gatwick
- A daily flight to London Luton

Ryanair’s London services will increase from 4 to 7 flights daily, providing Shannon passengers with daily connections to 3 London airports including Gatwick and Stansted, which offer more destinations and connections to Europe than London Heathrow does presently.

Ryanair also announced that it had written yesterday to Aer Lingus requesting that an EGM of Aer Lingus be called, to allow Aer Lingus shareholders the opportunity to exercise their statutory right to consider requesting the Board and Management of Aer Lingus to reverse the Shannon closure decision and maintain Aer Lingus’s 4 daily flights between Shannon and Heathrow.

Ryanair confirmed that – if so requested by the Government – it would be willing to vote its 25% shareholding in favour of the motion to retain Aer Lingus’s existing profitable Shannon-Heathrow services. Alternatively the Government could ask Ryanair to abstain from voting, which would give the Government and the ESOT a majority at the EGM and allow them to save Shannon’s Heathrow services.

However, on its own, Ryanair’s 25% stake will be insufficient to influence this decision.

Speaking today in Shannon, Ryanair’s, Michael O’Leary said:

“As Shannon’s largest airline, Ryanair is determined to ensure that Shannon and the Mid-West region will suffer no loss of traffic or flights as a result of Aer Lingus’s decision to abandon Shannon in favour of Belfast. These 3 new Shannon-London flights which will connect Shannon to Stansted, Gatwick and Luton, will replace Aer Lingus’s existing Heathrow capacity and will ensure that an additional 330,000 passengers annually will travel between Shannon and London should Aer Lingus proceed to abandon Shannon.

“If Aer Lingus cancels its Shannon-Heathrow flights, then it is inevitable that the Shannon transatlantic flights will also transfer to Belfast Aldergrove in the not too distant future. The Government and Aer Lingus’s determination to invest in Belfast should not come at Shannon’s expense. We believe that our proposals will enable Aer Lingus’s Shannon-Heathrow services to continue, while also allowing Aer Lingus to serve Belfast-London 4 times daily.

“Aer Lingus’s rules confirm that any 10% shareholder can ask for an EGM to be called. It is surprising that neither the Government nor the trade unions, both of whom own over 10% have taken up Ryanair’s previous offer to work together or called for an EGM to be held. Accordingly and in the interests of retaining a profitable route for the benefit of all Aer Lingus shareholders, Ryanair has asked Aer Lingus to call an EGM and we will be asking the trade unions and Bertie Ahern’s Government to support this motion calling for Shannon’s 4 daily flights to Heathrow to be maintained.

“This need not come at the expense of Belfast, since we believe that Aer Lingus can switch its recently announced 4 times daily Dublin-Gatwick flights to Belfast. Competing from Belfast to Gatwick against the relatively high fare Easyjet, will certainly be more profitable for Aer Lingus than competing against the much lower fare Ryanair on the Dublin-Gatwick route.

“These moves will we believe deliver superior profits and returns for Aer Lingus shareholders and should therefore be endorsed by the management and shareholders of Aer Lingus. Alternatively Aer Lingus can still fly four times daily from Belfast to Heathrow by switching one Dublin and one Cork flight and taking back the two Heathrow slots which it presently leases out.

“Since Ryanair remains committed to working closely with the Shannon Airport Authority to help them grow and develop Shannon, we have confirmed to the Chairman of Shannon Airport, that these 3 additional daily flights to London will be suspended should Aer Lingus decide to maintain its existing 4 daily flights operation between Shannon and Heathrow.

“It would not make financial sense for Ryanair to add these flights in circumstances where Aer Lingus continues to provide capacity for 330,00 passengers annually on the Shannon-London route.”