RYANAIR HAS announced that it is to withdraw two of its seven routes from Cork airport.
The airline said the move will result in the loss of around 200,000 passengers passing through the airport each year, with a consequent loss of €20 million to the local economy.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary blamed the decision to drop the daily flights to Glasgow Prestwick and East Midlands on the decision by Cork Airport Authority (CAA) to increase airport charges by reducing a discount on the two routes from 100 per cent to 80 per cent.
CAA rejected the allegations, saying the airline had been aware of a sliding scale of discounts available for new routes.
Mr O'Leary said Ryanair had been in discussions with CAA about the discount and he believed that CAA was willing to do a deal, but the Dublin Airport Authority, which owns Cork airport, was unwilling to agree change.
"We began these routes in October 2007 with 100 per cent discount but, from November of this year, Cork airport plans to increase prices by reducing the discount to 80 per cent. It's barely profitable with oil at $130 a barrel, so if the cost goes up, we will withdraw those routes," he said.
"If Cork change their mind and continue with the 100 per cent discount, we will continue with the route . . . We are not going continue with routes that are losing money, particularly at a time of recession," he said.
"Cork airport will be again shafted by the Dublin Airport Authority - it doesn't want to see lower costs at Cork or Shannon because it doesn't want to see Cork or Shannon develop low-cost routes at the expense of Dublin," he said.
Ryanair regretted the move, which would result in a drop of around 6 per cent in passenger numbers at Cork and the loss of up to 200 jobs in the region, said Mr O'Leary.
He added that Ryanair was happy to continue paying full passenger charges on its other five routes out of Cork.
Cork airport management strongly rejected Mr O'Leary's comments and accused Ryanair of "misinformation" in claiming that the airport had "raised fees by 20 per cent".
"All airlines are eligible to apply for route support through the route support scheme when introducing new destinations. The scheme operates over a five-year period and is based on a sliding scale with a 100 per cent discount in year one," said a CAA statement.
"In the second year of operation, the discount moves to 80 per cent and so on over the five-year period. The purpose of the sliding scale is to facilitate development of new routes at start-up."
Fine Gael TD for Cork South Central Simon Coveney said the Government was partly to blame for yesterday's decision: "If Cork had been given what it was promised by Government - a debt-free, autonomous new airport - I believe that airlines like Ryanair would be expanding services in Cork by now and that ambitious thinking could make Cork more competitive than any other Irish airport.
"It's no surprise that Michael O'Leary drives a hard bargain. However, it is utterly ridiculous that Cork airport management cannot negotiate with Ryanair without the interference of Dublin Airport Authority," he said.