THERE IS no future for Donegal, Sligo, Galway and Waterford airports, while Knock is "pretty flakey", according to Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary, who has called on the Government to stop subsidising them.
Mr O'Leary also told the Oireachtas transport committee that in three or four years, there would be just five international carriers in Europe. Every other airline, including Aer Lingus, would either go out of business or become a subsidiary of one of the five.
He said Ryanair was the only airline in Europe to guarantee no fuel surcharges and "as a result we are unlikely to make any money this year".
The Ryanair chief executive rejected claims that he was trying to put Aer Arann out of business.
On regional airport development, he said: "There is no future for Donegal; there's no future for Galway; there's absolutely no future for Waterford; there's no future for Sligo and Knock, despite the fact that we fly there, is pretty flakey."
He said Ireland with a population of four million had 11 airports but "seven wouldn't survive without massive subsidies. We subsidise everybody on the Knock-Dublin route to the tune of €120 each." At a time when schools and hospitals needed funding, "we're subsidising the rich to fly between Knock and Dublin. It's insane."
Mr O'Leary said there would be five large airlines in Europe in the next three to four years - "Ryanair, British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France and possibly EasyJet". The rest would go out of business or become subsidiaries of the top five.
Aer Arann managing director Gary Cullen told the committee earlier that if Ryanair had its way, "they will close the small airports, dominate the others and buy Aer Lingus and then you have a monopoly". Mr Cullen said Aer Arann was "hanging in there" on the Dublin-Cork route because it had a strong business customer base.
Transport committee chairman Frank Fahey asked Mr O'Leary why it was necessary to want to put Aer Arann out of business when it was like "a fly on a bullock's back" to Ryanair.
"Ryanair doesn't think about Aer Arann from the 1st January to 31st December in any given year," Mr O'Leary replied. "They are too small for us to worry about."
Asked how he could divert more traffic from Dublin to Shannon, he said "lower prices, but it's very difficult." Probably "75 per cent of Europe wants to go to Dublin. You can't force them to go to Shannon." There were 31 Shannon routes but "you have no idea how difficult it is to fill flights from Frankfurt into Shannon in the middle of November."
Mr Cullen said Aer Arann had "looked at introducing new regional jets in 2010 but have shelved that for 12 months" because "it makes no sense in the current environment to consider moving up to jets".
