Cork and Dublin airports ‘run empty’

Cork and Dublin airports, “the engines of the Irish economy” are empty, a committee from Oireachtas will hear today.

Representatives from across the aviation industry will expose the Oireachtas Transportation Committee to the dire effects that the Covid-19 pandemic has had.

DAA, which owns and operates Dublin and Cork airports, will report to the committee that Dublin passenger numbers will be as low as in 1995.

“Dublin and Cork airports have been engines of the Irish economy but are now running on a vacuum. In total, our airports have already lost 20 million passengers compared to 2019, Dublin Airport will have fewer than 9 million passengers this year, that means we have returned to 1995 levels. We have lost 25 years of growth.

“Our sector has been demonized since this pandemic began. Other key sectors were allowed to reopen with the understanding and acceptance that there is an element of risk involved. The Irish aviation sector, however, is being held at a low level. much higher and frankly unreasonable standard, with continual restrictions placed on the opening of international travel.

“Because of this, Ireland’s connectivity to the world is failing.”

The company will tell the committee that its losses reached 150 million euros this year, but will say that it has the capacity to do 15,000 pre-departure tests at Dublin airport, but needs help from the government.

“The government needs to approve a scalable, low cost and rapid response test solution for use at Irish airports so that we can move quickly.”

DAA will present a pre-testing plan to the committee that would see passengers screened at a DAA facility 24-48 hours prior to departure.

Meanwhile, Ryanair has submitted a communication to the committee saying that the government is not prepared to improve the aviation sector and risks losing jobs in Cork and Shannon.

A presentation from the low-cost airline says that if there is a rebound in the industry, Ireland will not be able to capitalize. The communication adds that Ryanair’s European competitors have been bailed out to the tune of billions, something that Ireland’s private airlines have not done.

“Ireland currently does not have a policy or strategy to support aviation in the emergence of this C-19 pandemic. As a nation, we are currently not prepared to reap a spike in demand in a post-successful vaccine scenario.”

Government policy appears to assume that airline seating capacity will rebound to pre-C-19 levels, but it will not.

The airline says Ireland should adopt the EU traffic light system and the recommendations of the Aviation Recovery Task Force, which could generate around 900 million euros in the sector.

“These supports to retain and attract airline capacity. We estimate in the region of € 300 million per year for intra-European traffic which represents a real value to support the 140,000 jobs in aviation and the 325,000 jobs in the tourism, and would structurally prepare Ireland to reap the benefits of any recovery in a post-vaccine scenario. “

The committee will also hear from Mary Considine, executive director of the Shannon Group, who will say that “urgent government action is required to adopt the proposed pan-European traffic light system and a test protocol at the European level.”