A WAR of words has broken out between Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary and DAA chairman David Dilger.

Mr Dilger was at the Bunratty Castle Hotel to address a Shannon Chamber event on Wednesday but when he got there he found Mr O’Leary, who wasn’t invited to the event, in the lobby.
The two rivals both had smiles on their faces as they shook hands and traded a few jibes, much to the amusement of the assembled media.
A number of journalists were at the hotel, expecting to interview Mr Dilger but the media-friendly Ryanair boss also held an impromptu press briefing on the steps of the hotel.
He said that those at the Shannon Chamber event should ask a few hard questions of Mr Dilger.
“The chairman of the DAA should be asked to explain what has he done over the past three years while Shannon’s traffic has gone from 3.6 million to a million. The answer is nothing. But his only previous claim to fame is closing sugar plants that didn’t need to be closed,” referring to Mr Dilger’s time at the helm of Greencore.
Mr O’Leary also denied that his proposal for bringing an extra million to passengers was unsustainable.
“I don’t understand why Shannon say it’s unsustainable when it mirrors exactly the deal that the DAA are presently paying Aer Lingus in Dublin when Aer Lingus aren’t growing at all. They have this transfer growth incentive scheme, they’ve given it to Aer Lingus and when we ask for this in Shannon and say we’ll deliver a million additional passengers they say no, it’s too expensive.”
However he said he wasn’t shocked that the DAA weren’t going to run with his proposal. “Nothing surprises me when it comes to government monopolies, particularly when it means growth, doing something different, being a bit innovative.”
He claimed that the DAA are killing Shannon. “The five year deal wasn’t extended because the DAA said no, we want you to go from paying €1 a passenger to paying €15 a passenger. What did you think Ryanair would do?
“Why has Aer Lingus closed its transatlantic operation for the entire winter schedule?  It’s too expensive at Shannon. And yet the DAA would prefer if Shannon Airport was empty, which it is. They prefer it that way, because it doesn’t embarrass them with their high charges at Dublin Airport.
“They come down here every couple of months and they address a Shannon Chamber lunch where they have the canapés, the fine wines and the chicken and chips and then they bugger off to Dublin again for another nine months and leave you guys in the lurch. It’s time someone down here wised up to this, you’re being abused by Dublin Airport. Welcome to the group, they’ve been abusing us for years.”
When Mr Dilger spoke to the media he said that the Ryanair proposal, which would see the DAA paying Ryanair for passengers, was outlandish.
“There isn’t a business in the country that can afford to pay its customers to deal with it. All of us are in business to earn a reasonable profit; there’s no business that I’ve ever seen that has developed a sustainable future by paying customers to deal with it. If this hotel gave its rooms away for nothing it would be very full but it wouldn’t last too long.”
He denied that any airline is getting a deal at Dublin Airport that is similar to what Ryanair had sought at Shannon.
“We don’t have a deal ever to pay any airline to bring passengers to airports. For sure there are discounts available to people who bring extra passengers and they’re available to Ryanair in the same way as they are to every other airline. Ryanair can and do avail of the discounts for new routes and passengers and growth.”
Shannon is set to make a loss this year Mr Dilger acknowledged but he says it is actually doing better than when Ryanair was at its most active in the Clare airport.
“The fact is that while activity levels at Shannon in 2008 appeared to be at a high level at the height of that deal the financial situation and profitability of Shannon today is much better than it was then, with a far lower number of passengers. The truth is that Ryanair now pay an economic level of charge in relation to the smaller number of passengers than it brings through Shannon.”
He was critical of Mr O’Leary’s antics at the hotel. “Much as it pains me to say it, I think the little event today is an attempt to con, or indeed to insult, the community to whom the future of Shannon is quite important.”
Later in the day Mr O’Leary held another press briefing in Limerick, at which he said that Mr Dilger’s claim that Shannon is now performing better than in 2008 was ridiculous.
“Shannon’s traffic went from 3.6 million in 2007 to 3.1 million in 2008, to 2.7 million in 2009 to 1.7 million in 2010. And Dilger has the cheek to get up and say that Shannon is in a better position now then when it had 3.6 million passengers.
“Only a nutty government monopoly would come out with nonsense like that. You think a radio station would be in a better position if it had a fraction of the listenership it previously had? That’s the kind of mindless nonsense you get from these people.”

O’Leary proposal rejected

MICHAEL O’Leary’s long-running battle with the Dublin Airport Authority continued last Thursday, when he announced that Ryanair was offering to bring one million passengers to Shannon. However, the O’Leary offer was contingent on the airline getting millions of euro in payments, something that was always going to result in rejection by the DAA.
One of the things he demanded was the return of €3.7 million, paid in compensation to the DAA just weeks ago, for failing to meet previous passenger targets at Shannon.
In a conference call to national and local media last Thursday afternoon, O’Leary said growth could be returned to Shannon.
“We have written now to Declan Collier in Dublin Airport and we’ve offered to increase Ryanair’s traffic for a current figure of 300,000 passengers back up to at least 1.3 million over the next five years. In other words we would restore much of the base and the traffic growth that we were delivering there up to two years ago.”
He then outlined some of the payback required. “What we want in return for that is the same traffic growth incentive discounts that the DAA have quite recently offered at Dublin Airport. Essentially it’s a transfer incentive scheme and under that scheme Aer Lingus pay about €2 per departing passenger to the DAA for growth, despite the fact that Aer Lingus aren’t actually delivering any growth; and in return the DAA pay Aer Lingus a fee of €6 per passenger. In other words it’s a nett €4 per passenger that the DAA are paying Aer Lingus.
“We’ve said to Declan Collier that if they put a similar incentive scheme in Shannon we’ll pay the existing charges that have gone up by 33% on the base traffic of 300,000 passengers but on the one million new passengers the DAA would pay us a nett €4 per departing passenger.”
Mr O’Leary said that Shannon would easily make money if it ran with his proposal. “The increase in car parking revenues would pay for it. The DAA’s own figures show that they’re generating commercial income of about €12 a passenger, so it’ll be self financing for Shannon.”
He said that Ryanair alone has the capacity to rejuvenate Shannon. “Only one airline has demonstrated the ability to grow traffic at Shannon and that’s Ryanair. Nobody can take away from the fact that when we were operating more than 50 routes from Shannon there was a buzz about the place, there was traffic growth and we were working closely with the board. People can be cynical and say ‘well Ryanair just walked away when the cost base went up’, well of course we did, that’s what we do. But please don’t be cynical about Ryanair’s capacity to deliver growth.”
He said that the DAA’s response would tell a lot about his concern for Shannon. “If the answer is yes we’ll deliver a million passengers and Shannon goes back to growth. If the answer is no then at least everyone knows the DAA doesn’t give a s*** about Shannon.”
On Tuesday the DAA released a statement saying that the Ryanair offer was not realistic.
“No commercial airport in Europe could agree to the non negotiable terms set out by Ryanair in relation to Shannon. As a commercial company, Shannon Airport is committed to incentivsing growth, but any agreement has to be financially viable for both the airport and the airline. Ryanair’s terms would be financially ruinous for any airport.”
It denied that terms similar to those being demanded by O’Leary were available to Aer Lingus at Dublin. “Ryanair’s claim that it is merely seeking an extension of an existing scheme available in Dublin is utterly untrue. Its claim that other airlines are availing of a similar incentive scheme is also untrue. What Ryanair has demanded bears no relation whatsoever to any existing scheme at any DAA-owned airport.”
It also ruled out giving Ryanair the €3.7 million back. “Having been forced to take legal proceedings over an airline’s failure to meet a previous binding agreement in relation to passenger targets, no airport could be expected to hand back a €3.7 million legal settlement to that same customer in advance of any future deal.”
A DAA spokesman told The Clare Champion that what was proposed by Ryanair could see losses of tens of millions being recorded at Shannon. He also said that what the discount airline was asking for was quite different to the existing transfer incentive scheme that is available at Dublin.
“The Transfer Incentive Scheme involves an airline paying full landing, take off and parking charges, paying the charge for persons with reduced mobility and paying full passenger charges for all passengers on the flight who are not transferring. The transfer discount only applies for the subset of passengers that are transferring onward and it only applies on certain qualifying routes, not every route.”