Airport investment 'two fingers to doom-mongers'
A €180m investment by budget airline Ryanair in the west of Ireland sticks two fingers up to the doom-mongers who said Shannon Airport would not work, it was claimed tonight.
Michael O’Leary, Ryanair chief executive, said the new Irish base would revolutionise the future growth of the airport and the region.
The low-cost carrier plans to operate four jets on 14 routes from Shannon to the United Kingdom and mainland Europe. Ryanair has guaranteed to deliver 1.3 million passengers in the first year and 2 million inside five years.
“What we and the airport have done in two months is what we couldn’t do in 10 years in this god-forsaken country and that is to win a $240m (€180m) investment,” Mr O’Leary said.
“It gives us a chance to stick two fingers up to the nay-sayers and doom-mongers who said that Shannon would not work.”
Ryanair will launch new routes to cities such as Milan, Stockholm, Barcelona and Paris at at least half the price of fares currently charged. It is hoped Shannon will become the low fares centre of Ireland.
Pat Shanahan, of the new Shannon Airport Authority, said the investment would change the view that the airport was nothing more than a stop-over point.
“The key thing here is that this is going to be for short-haul flights so we’re going to get a range of flights during the day, much more business and much more activity at the airport.”
Mr O’Leary paid tribute to the work of the former transport minister Seamus Brennan.
He said he had soldiered on to break up the “dead hand of the Aer Rianta monopoly” and ensure that Irish airports had the independence to strike their own deals with airlines.
Ryanair also hope to create 2,000 jobs in the Shannon region, the first 200 of these being direct employees of the company.
