The suggestion, labeled as a ‘cop-out’, has come amid an ongoing row over the passenger cap at Dublin Airport, and as Ryanair said that exorbitant prices this Christmas will mean passengers from the UK will be forced to get the ferry home.
After a meeting with Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary on Wednesday, Mr Lawless said: "I’ve gone to Paris (Beauvais) with Ryanair, Venice (Treviso) with Ryanair – why can’t I fly to Dublin (Shannon) with Ryanair?"
Shannon Airport is around 230km away from Dublin City or at least two and a half hours depending on the method of travel, while Cork Airport is 260km away or at least three hours.
Beauvais is 84km from Paris (1hr 20mins), while Treviso is 41km from Venice (36mins).
Pressed on whether he would advise tourists who want to visit Dublin to consider using another airport, Mr. Lawless said: "Yes, very much so.’ But his comments have been criticized as ‘disconnected from reality" and "flippant".
Junior transport minister James Lawless.
Labour transport spokesman Duncan Smith, whose constituency of Fingal includes Dublin Airport, said there should be more balance with the flights into Cork and Shannon airports which have the excess capacity – but "it’s not simple to just divert air traffic like that".
He said: "I’m sure the minister didn’t mean it to sound flippant but it comes across like that. At the root of this is we need a decision on the cap from the planning authority. With every passing week, it’s getting more and more frustrating."
The power lies in the hands of Fingal County Council, which imposed the cap of 32 million passengers when it granted permission for Terminal 2 in 2006. Mr Smith said: "We know the cap was broken last year, we know they’re going to break it this year, so they’re in contravention of the planning authority as it stands. In the absence of a decision all we have is this talking and lobbying, all of which is pretty useless until we have a decision.
"The current situation is making a laughing stock of the planning."
Travel industry expert Eoghan Corry said of Mr Lawless’s remarks: "This is basically 'develop the regional airports'. But it assumes that airlines will move their flights from Dublin to Cork and move the growth there."
Airlines that had planned to open routes to Dublin are not switching to Cork, Shannon or Belfast but are switching to Manchester, he said. "That’s the sort of airport they’ll look to, as they don’t see Cork or Shannon as having a big enough base population and a big enough selection of routes for feeder traffic. Dublin is the only airport in Ireland you could describe as a hub."
He described Mr. Lawless’s idea as a "cop-out". "It’s a diversion from the real problem and it’s also the sort of thing a politician says.
"It’s what people in the regions like to hear… And it’s an election year."
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On Wednesday, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary warned that Irish people returning home from the UK will be forced to take the ferry this Christmas. He also said that flights for sporting fixtures in the UK and France, as well as flights to Lapland, will also be affected.
He had previously cautioned that return flights to London could cost as much as €1,000 if more flight slots are not made available. The outspoken boss of the no-frills airline held an hour-long meeting with Mr Lawless yesterday but said it had failed to yield any solutions.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary.
Mr O’Leary said the cap was now creating "real-life challenges", and he had urged the Government to direct the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to ignore the cap while a planning proposal aimed at increasing is considered.
"We’ve done a deal with Leinster Rugby, for example, to take the team to their matches in Bristol, France and other places this winter. We now can’t get slots for those flights," he told Newstalk.
"The Lapland Christmas charters – we now can’t get slots for the Lapland flights. We can’t get slots for the Christmas extra flights, so there are real daily challenges being caused by this and all of this is solvable if Eamon Ryan, the Minister for Transport, simply issues a direction to the IAA to issue these additional slots."
Ahead of the meeting, Mr Lawless had said he was looking for creative solutions to the problem. "Unfortunately, he didn’t have any," Mr O’Leary said.
Mr O’Leary said Mr Lawless had questioned why Ryanair did not send its additional flights to Cork and Shannon.
"Well because 60% of the traffic is inbound and it doesn’t want to go to Shannon and Cork; it wants to go to Dublin," he stated.
"Lapland at Christmas, the kids don’t want to go to Cork or Shannon, they want to go to Lapland. The Christmas extras coming in from London and from the UK don’t want to go to Cork and Shannon to go home to Dublin or to places around Dublin, they want to go to Dublin… I think the vast majority of Irish people coming home this Christmas will be traveling on ferries. We’re going back to the future again. You’ll all be back on the boats because Eamon Ryan won’t issue a letter to the IAA."
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Lawless said he would examine all of Ryanair’s proposals, as well as those from other stakeholders like Aer Lingus. He had earlier said he did not believe the Ryanair proposal of simply authorizing new slots ahead of planning permission being granted was "a runner". He suggested that greater regional balance would help in the meantime.
"We have 22 million passengers coming to Dublin at the moment. That’s still a lot. I want it to be 40 million, but that’s still a lot," he said.
"We have a minuscule fraction of those numbers going to Shannon, going to Cork…. They’re flying to Dublin because Dublin is known as a destination. If you’re studying geography, if you’re living abroad, you don’t necessarily know other locations. That’s a marketing effort."
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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