Irish Competition Authority Drops Aer Arann Complaint ON CORK †DUBLIN ROUTE

Aer Arann’s complaint, (which was filed with the Competition Authority over18 months ago), accused Ryanair of unfair competition because Ryanair was charging much lower fares than Aer Arann on the Cork – Dublin route and carrying 80% of the traffic compared to Aer Arann’s 20%. Ryanair demonstrated to the Competition Authority that its low fares were profitable and that Ryanair’s prices were competing with train, car and bus journeys (which dominate travel on the Dublin – Cork route) and not with a high fare airline like Aer Arann.
 
Ryanair welcomes the decision of the Competition Authority, which exposes Padraig O’Ceidigh false claims that Ryanair was trying to put Aer Arann out of business. Even Aer Arann’s Chief Executive, Paul Schultz, recently admitted that these claims were false, when he confirmed in a speech in Cork that Ryanair and Aer Arann don’t really compete with each other because both the airlines only operate on one of Aer Arann’s 40 or so routes.
 
Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said:“We welcome the decision by the Competition Authority to drop its investigation into Aer Arann’s baseless complaints on the Dublin – Cork route. Ryanair offers the lowest fares on the Dublin – Cork route because wehave the lowest costs and we are competing with train, bus and car services,and not with Aer Arann. Ryanair has 80% of the air traffic on the Cork –Dublin route because Ryanair offers much lower fares, better punctuality and four return flights each day compared to Aer Arann’s two, high fare,inferior service flights.
 
“Perhaps Aer Arann and Padraig O’Ceidigh will now admit that they can’t compete with Ryanair’s prices, our punctuality, or our passenger numbers. Ryanair would have to substantially increase its prices to compete with Aer Arann, which is a loss making PSO subsidy junkie. The reason why Aer Arann is losing money is not because of the one route (Cork-Dublin) where it tries to compete with Ryanair, but because its costs and fares are too high on the 39 other routes it operates where it doesn’t compete with Ryanair at all”.
 




(c) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 24-Jul-09