Sir, - I wish to reply to some of the points raised by Michael O'Leary, chief executive of Ryanair (August 4th).
Independent consultants have concluded that Ryanair's proposal to build its own terminal at Dublin Airport would mean the transfer of between £70 million and £80 million by Aer Rianta to Ryanair over a short period, hence Mr O'Leary's enthusiasm for such a proposal. Aer Rianta is the most competitive commercial airport company in Europe and frequent reference to the airport monopoly by Mr O'Leary does not change that fact.
It is interesting to note that the only airline that criticises the facilities at Dublin Airport is Ryanair. Indeed, many other airlines, including the American Airlines operating out of Dublin, have complimented us on the facilities and services provided to them.
Mr O'Leary's quite extravagant claims about bringing in 1 million additional visitors from Europe is, I would suggest, a nice round figure but one which is very hard to accept for several reasons. Ryanair introduced no new routes on Ireland-Europe in 1998, even though Aer Rianta had what was described (in a University of Westminster report) as the most generous growth incentive scheme in Europe available to it in that year, a scheme which would have given a 90 per cent discount for three years (giving a net charge of 38p per passenger) on any new route and a further four years of generous discounts. At the present time Ryanair's traffic at Dublin Airport is declining against all other airlines, which are showing considerable increase in their traffic numbers, and this is against the offers of £9.99 fares from Ryanair. A recent independent analysis of Ryanair's traffic shows that Ryanair carries more Irish residents than European residents on its existing European services, effectively net imports in tourism terms.
The issue of airport competition is probably too complex to address to any significant extent in a letter but I would like to respond to the superficial comments by Mr O'Leary, who is quoted elsewhere in your paper as rejecting the concept of Baldonnel providing competition for Dublin Airport. Indeed there are no regulatory or legislative barriers to the construction by Ryanair or any other group or consortium of a second airport for Dublin, given normal planning procedures.
I can only conclude that the constant barrage of spurious claims, frequently couched in superficially plausible language, from Ryanair and its highly paid spin-doctors is more to do with Ryanair profits and its share price than with bringing in additional tourists to Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
Noel Hanlon, Chairman, Aer Rianta, Dublin Airport.