Ryanair forecasts €50m hit and job cuts as it launches airport cap case

The Dublin Airport cap will cost Ryanair €50 million next summer and result in 90 job losses, the airline has said as it launches a legal challenge over the restriction, the Sunday Business Post is reporting.
In a fresh escalation of its battle against the Irish Aviation Authority’s imposition of a seasonal cap of 25.2 million passengers next summer, Ryanair has lodged legal filings against the agency.
The IAA has imposed the restrictions to ensure the overall 32 million cap is not breached.
Ryanair has claimed this will hit its revenue by €50 million, lead to 90 job cuts, make moving more fuel efficient planes to Dublin unviable and directly cost the wider Irish economy €125 million from its lower activity.
In the affidavit filed in its legal action against the IAA, Eoin Kealy, director of competition and regulatory at Ryanair, said the summer cap is “unlawful” and will seriously impact Ryanair’s ability to run its existing routes.
This, Mr Kealy said, will result in Ryanair losing existing slots and lead to the further withdrawal of slots in subsequent seasons. He said if the summer restrictions are not quashed, they will have “very significant financial, operational and reputational impact on Ryanair in summer 2025 and beyond”.
Simon Harris racks up bill of €500,000 on private jets
Taoiseach Simon Harris has spent almost €500,000 over six months on private flights to meetings in Europe, The Sunday Times reports.
Three days after his ascension to the Taoiseach’s office, Harris spent €87,576.58 on a single-day charter to Brussels, then Warsaw and a return flight to Dublin on April 11th.
The head of Fine Gael was attending his first meeting with European Union (EU) leaders in Brussels, followed by an EU strategic agenda meeting, co-hosted by Charles Michel, president of the European Council, and Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister.
Harris chartered flights for nine trips between April 11th and September 5th this year with a total cost of €498,617.69.
Meta seeks to sublet unused space at its Dublin nerve centre
Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, has brought part of its European headquarters in Dublin to the market as a ­sublet, according to the Sunday Times. The move comes nearly two years after the social media company announced that it would not occupy all the buildings on the site.
About 18,000sq m of space will be available at the development, known as Fibonacci Square. That equates to a little over half the space, one of two blocks that Meta agreed to rent in 2018.
Cushman & Wakefield, Meta’s letting agent, stated on its website last week that the social media company was seeking a headline rent of €59.50 per sq ft (€640.50 per sq m), for Block 1, which lies opposite the Royal Dublin Society.
Sean Quinn’s former hotel Slieve Russell sells for €30m
The Slieve Russell hotel and golf resort in Co Cavan, once the jewel in Sean Quinn’s property empire, has been sold for €30 million, according to a report in the Sunday Business Post.
Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) liquidators have completed the sale to the Australian-based Brady group, owned by Irishman Tony Brady and his family, for less than the €35 million being guided by CBRE.
Cavan man Brady’s group owns three hotels and two aparthotels in Melbourne as well as an extensive property portfolio. The Slieve Russell was developed by Sean Quinn and it built up a successful wedding and conference business before and after his stewardship. IBRC liquidators took control of the hotel and other Quinn assets in 2019.
Scale of struggling Solar 21 investor exposure put at €370m
Troubled renewables investment firm Solar 21 owes an estimated €370 million that it borrowed from as many as 4,000 Irish investors, according to new analysis by the Sunday Independent.
The firm continues to face serious challenges in its bid to repay investors – who on average invested €80,000 in the firm’s projects – and question marks continue to overhang the crucial sale of two key assets.
“I fear I’ll never see most of my money again. I’ve given away a big lump of my children’s inheritance,” said one businessman