Ryanair is to pull two further routes from Shannon airport and transfer them to Kerry and Knock airports from next March.
The company announced today that it is transferring its Faro and Alicante routes from Shannon to Kerry and Knock from March 30 next.
The company has blamed high costs at Shannon compared to lower costs at the two other regional airports. It says the move will mean that the number of aircraft based at Shannon will be reduced from four to one by next March. It predicts that Shannon will suffer steep traffic declines in 2010 because its charges are uncompetitive.
Shannon said the move was not unexpected as Ryanair had continued to make 'unreasonable demands' and wanted to continue some routes at a minimal level of charge, which did not make commercial sense for Shannon.
Ryanair had a five-year contract with Shannon to run until next May, when it promised to deliver two million passengers per year. This target has not been met, and the airline wanted to reduce that to just 600,000 passengers a year.
Meanwhile, Ryanair has named Malaga and Faro and its 38th and 39th European bases. It will base four planes at Malaga and launch 19 new routes, while there will be three planes and 14 new routes from Faro.
