RYANAIR, Ireland's largest airline, has waded into the furore caused by Aer Lingus planning to close its Shannon to Heathrow service.

The low cost carrier said today that if Aer Lingus proceeded with its plan to close the Shannon-Heathrow route and abandon 330,000 passengers who currently use it, then Ryanair would provide three additional daily flights to London to ensure Shannon Airport's capacity and traffic does not fall as a result of this Aer Lingus closure. The new flights include are a fourth daily flight to London Stansted, a second daily flight to London Gatwick, and a daily flight to London Luton.
Ryanair says itss London services will increase from four to seven flights daily, providing Shannon passengers with daily connections to three London airports including Gatwick and Stansted, which offer more destinations and connections to Europe than London Heathrow does presently.

Further, Ryanair also announced that it had written to Aer Lingus requesting that an EGM of Aer Lingus be called, to allow Aer Lingus shareholders the opportunity to exercise their statutory right to consider requesting the Board and Management of Aer Lingus to reverse the Shannon closure decision and maintain Aer Lingus's four daily flights between Shannon and Heathrow. Aer Lingus have confirmed that its Shannon-Heathrow route is profitable and Ryanair believes that by reducing its costs in Shannon Aer Lingus's profits can be further increased in the interests of all Aer Lingus shareholders.

Ryanair has in its letter suggested that Aer Lingus consider using the recently announced four daily Dublin-Gatwick flights as a suitable alternative for its new Belfast base. This would allow Aer Lingus to operate Aldergrove Belfast-London Gatwick four times daily, while retaining Shannon-Heathrow four times daily services.

Alternatively Aer Lingus could operate four daily flights from Belfast to Heathrow using two of Aer Lingus's existing Heathrow slots which are currently used for flights to Dublin and Cork, as well as the two Heathrow slots which are leased out to other airlines.

Ryanair confirmed that - if so requested by the Repbublic's Government - it would be willing to vote its 25 per cent shareholding in favour of the motion to retain Aer Lingus's existing profitable Shannon-Heathrow services. Alternatively the Government could ask Ryanair to abstain from voting, which would give the Government and the ESOT a majority at the EGM and allow them to save Shannon's Heathrow services.
Speaking today in Shannon, Ryanair's, Michael O'Leary said: "As Shannon's largest airline, Ryanair is determined to ensure that Shannon and the Mid-West region will suffer no loss of traffic or flights as a result of Aer Lingus's decision to abandon Shannon in favour of Belfast.

"These three new Shannon-London flights which will connect Shannon to Stansted, Gatwick and Luton, will replace Aer Lingus's existing Heathrow capacity and will ensure that an additional 330,000 passengers annually will travel between Shannon and London should Aer Lingus proceed to abandon Shannon. If Aer Lingus cancels its Shannon-Heathrow flights, then it is inevitable that the Shannon transatlantic flights will also transfer to Belfast Aldergrove in the not too distant future.

"The Government and Aer Lingus's determination to invest in Belfast should not come at Shannon's expense. We believe that our proposals will enable Aer Lingus's Shannon-Heathrow services to continue, while also allowing Aer Lingus to serve Belfast-London four times daily."