Ryanair hits out at DAA price hikes

Ryanair has condemned the decision by aviation regulator Cathal Guiomard to approve the Dublin Airport Authority’s request for a 6% price increase in summer 2012 passenger fees.

Noting that traffic at the airport has fallen 20% since 2008, Ryanair says this latest move will have a negative impact on tourism and jobs.

Ryanair’s spokesman Stephen McNamara said: “The government-owned DAA monopoly has been a disaster for Irish traffic, tourism and jobs in recent years.

“The DAA has increased prices to pay for gold-plated unnecessary new terminals at Shannon, Cork and Dublin airports, even while traffic has declined at each of these airports under the DAA mismanagement.

“While most other EU airports returned to traffic growth in 2011 by lowering costs, the DAA continues to increase fees — up another 6% in summer 2012 — to pay for the €1.2bn it wasted on the T2 white elephant.

“These latest Dublin airport price increases prove that the DAA monopoly should be broken up and competition allowed to deliver lower prices and better customer service where the DAA monopoly has clearly failed.”