DAA and Ryanair in Mexican standoff over Marrakech route

RYANAIR AND the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) have had more Mexican standoffs than your average spaghetti western.

So it should come as no surprise to learn that yet another sequel is in the offing.

It is understood that Ryanair is hoping to launch a new service from Dublin to the Moroccan city of Marrakech later this year with the help of the DAA's route incentive scheme.

This would offer it a 100 per cent discount on airport charges in year one, with the discount diminishing as time rolls on.

Happy days, you might think, but the devil, as always, is in the detail.

To qualify for the scheme, the service must be to destinations outside the European Union, not currently served from Dublin airport and have a frequency of at least three times weekly.

Ryanair checks all those boxes, but hits some turbulence on one other condition, namely that the new route is "expected to increase the overall number of passengers using the airport".

Earlier this month Michael O'Leary said he planned to ground about five aircraft at Dublin airport this winter.

This cost-cutting measure is necessary in the face of rocketing fuel prices and what Mr O'Leary considers to be prohibitively high airport charges there.

With Ryanair accounting for about 40 per cent of Dublin's expected 24 million people this year, the grounding of five aircraft will obviously have a significant effect on DAA's passenger throughput.

It also places a question mark over whether the Marrakech service would actually add to overall passenger numbers.

While the request for financial support on the Marrakech route has not been rejected, it is understood that the airport authority has requested details from Ryanair of its plans to put some of its Dublin-based planes into cold storage for the winter before it makes a decision.

Ryanair has yet to respond, but you can expect there will be guns blazing.

Where's Lee Van Cleef when you need him?