This article is from page 4 of the 2007-06-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
RYANAIR boss Michael O’Leary has confirmed that the airline will never operate a long-haul or transat- lantic flight but is in the process of establishing a sister company which will do so but not for a number of years yet and definitely not from Ire- land.
Suggestions that Ryanair would commence transatlantic flights were first mooted in 2001 but resurfaced last month following confirmation of the scrapping of the Shannon stopo-
ver and the introduction of a US/EU Open Skies policy.
Mr O’Leary said however that while such flights would not oper- ate from Ireland, some of the new company’s aircraft could be based at Shannon and that the mid west air- port could be used as a hub for these transatlantic services. Speaking af- ter he announced eight new services from Shannon Airport he said there was no possibility Ryanair would ever operate a long haul flight.
‘‘However, we are looking at a sep- arate stand-alone company that will
not be Ryanair, which in the next downturn in the industry, will pro- cure a fleet of long-haul aircraft to provide low fare point-to-point serv- ice across the Atlantic but they will not be from Ireland to the US.”
“We are talking about €10 or $10 fares from Europe to the US. It will not be from Ireland to the US but what we have in mind is with a fleet of 30 to 40 long haul aircraft, we would base two or three in about six or eight of Ryanair’s larger base air- ports in Europe and Shannon could be one of those.”
The most likely European bases would be Barcelona (Girona), Stan- sted in London, Frankfurt Hahn and probably Brussels and Stockholm Skavsta. There is a possibility that we could link Shannon with six or eight very exciting destinations and bigger cities in the US. Wherever we have a large base in Europe there is every likelihood that some of those long-haul planes could be based at Shannon.”
Mr O’ Leary stated however that all of this would not happed for “three or four years yet.”