Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This has been a real blow to everyone with an interest in aviation. To follow up on the point made by our Chairman, in the week of the announcement of the traffic light system, Ryanair announced the winter closure of its Shannon and Cork bases. In the week the new regime begins, it will withdraw from flights. It is important it is said, and we heard it in the last comment, that this is based on a lack of bookings. Two things are at play here. There is the orange and red countries and the lack of uniformity. That message rings loud and clear as does the need for testing. The fact is that the same barriers make flying out of Dublin difficult. Ryanair will still fly out of Dublin Airport but not out of Shannon and Cork Airports. That point needs to be made loud, clear and several times. The airlines are making this decision on a commercial basis, based on low booking rates for both of those airports.

In terms of flying at Christmas and putting on extra flights, I want to hear from both airlines about their short-term and medium-term commitments to getting planes flying out of Shannon Airport again. Under what circumstances will they revise their spring and summer schedule? I want to hear what both airlines can say to the staff they have based in Shannon Airport because I am aware they talk about good communications. I have seen staff getting videos and Whatsapp messages. They need to know, unequivocally, from both airlines what the coming months will be like for them as workers who work for those companies out of the Shannon base. Will the airlines use staff based in their Dublin base to supplement what they are doing or to replace them if there are flights? I am specifically talking about cabin crew. I want to hear from both witnesses on that, please.