ANALYSIS:THE LOW-COST airline arrived at George Best Belfast City Airport in a flurry in 2007 proclaiming "Ulster says 'No' to high fares" and promising to "end the high fare stranglehold imposed", Ryanair claimed, by some its competitors.
A smiling Michael O’Leary claimed that in the next 12 months Ryanair would carry 600,000 passengers to Northern Ireland who could “generate a tourism spend of over £100 million which will sustain 600 local jobs.” But Ryanair and Northern Ireland had a short-lived honeymoon period when it soon became obvious that restrictions on reduced passenger loads and night-time flying were clipping its wings.
The airline was unhappy with the airport’s runway. O’Leary campaigned for an extension, claiming it would allow the airline “to expand further by adding a range of guaranteed lowest fare flights to European destinations”.
In November 2008, the airport applied for planning permission to extend the runway by 590m in the direction of Belfast Lough. The airport claimed at the time the extension could provide an extra 500 jobs. The extended runway would allow a longer take-off distance that would enable aircraft to carry full fuel loads and maximum passenger numbers.
In autumn 2008, O’Leary said he was confident the extension would be completed “on schedule in the second half of 2009”.
As time went by and the increasingly competitive air traffic market suffered as a result of the downturn, the runway extension became a sore point for Ryanair.
It was one of the worst kept secrets in the North’s aviation circles that Ryanair regularly threatened to quit the airport if planning permission was not granted for the extension.
O’Leary claimed if the runway had an extra 590m, it could have generated “five new European routes and up to 500,000 extra passengers annually, which would sustain 500 new jobs in and around city airport”.
But his claims have been consistently refuted by industry insiders who believe Ryanair’s operations in Northern Ireland were not making money.
Some industry heavyweights yesterday questioned why Ryanair did not relocate to Belfast International Airport if it was so unhappy with the situation. According to leading figures in the sector, the new issue for airlines in the North is not simply about airports or runways – it is the new threat posed by Dublin.
“Dublin Airport is now 20 or 30 minutes closer as a result of the new road and that is a source of major competition,” one said.
