Ryanair (FR/RYR) has said it will close its bases at Cork and Shannon on 26th October if the Irish Government fails to fully adopt the EU Travel List permitting restriction free air travel to/from Green and Amber regions.
The budget airline has called on Minister Ryan to adopt the policy in full from the 13th October allowing intra-EU travel to the safe zones.
Failure to do so will leave Ryanair no choice but to close its Cork and Shannon bases from 26th October for the Winter season, due to the devastating impact on air travel on and off the Island of Ireland since 1st July 2020.
Ryanair’s CEO Eddie Wilson said: “We had a 30-minute online meeting with Minister Ryan today, during which we complained that neither he or his Department has implemented any of the Aviation Task Force recommendations since they were submitted on 7 July last, some 3 months ago. During that period of time, many EU countries, most notably Germany and Italy, have allowed the return of intra-EU air travel without quarantine restrictions, and they have delivered significantly lower Covid case rates than Ireland.
“While NPHET and the Irish Govt have mismanaged air travel by keeping Ireland locked up since 1 July, Ireland’s Covid case rate has dramatically increased to over 88.8 per 100,000 population in the last 14 days and international air travel cannot be blamed for this increase.“
Both Cork on the Southern Coast, and Shannon on the West coast are two aircraft bases and the closures will put around 130 jobs at risk.
