In its ongoing campaign against Aer Rianta proposals to increase landing charges, Ryanair has announced a new low fare to London of £9.99 one-way. However, this fare will only last as long as landing charges at Dublin airport remain as they are, according to the airline's group financial director, Mr Michael Cawley.

He said that the fare arose from a poll of Ryanair passengers flying into Dublin in the six weeks coming up to Christmas, who were asked to vote either in favour of Ryanair's campaign for lower charges or for Aer Rianta's plans to raise charges. Of the 50 per cent who voted in this poll, 99.9 per cent voted in favour of the Ryanair campaign, he said.

At a press conference to announce the new fare, Mr Cawley said that there would be over 1,000 seats available each week at this price, which requires 14 days' advance booking. This fare is of limited availability on certain flights on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Passengers flying to London must also pay a total of £16.50 in taxes on the round trip.

The fare may be booked directly with Ryanair, which, according to Mr Cawley, is recruiting more telesales staff to deal with demand, or with travel agents. To obtain the new low fare intending passengers will be expected to say (at least to Ryanair salespeople), "I say no to the monopoly." He said that 60 per cent of Ryanair seats were sold through travel agents, and he thought they would be more "flexible" about the slogan.

Mr Cawley said that access to Dublin was now comparable in cost to access to Rome. Aer Rianta charged £1.94 per single passenger, and this was set to double. "Every new airport we will fly out of, and the existing airports we use, are cheaper than Aer Rianta," he said. "It will give Dublin a competitive advantage for visitors from the UK if Aer Rianta keep costs low."