Airports to cut staff and seek increase in charges from regulator

A MAJOR cost-cutting programme will see job cuts and increased charges at the country’s three main airports this year.

Dublin Airport is also scrapping plans for a second €200 million runway as investment plans are cut by 50% to €400m.

This news comes on top of 100 job cuts at the airports last year.

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), which manages Cork, Dublin and Shannon airports, said profits after tax were down 28% to €78m last year.

It expects significantly higher losses next year and in 2010 as the result of a fall in spending and an expected 11% drop in passenger numbers, the first since the Gulf War in 1991.

The DAA will be meeting with staff at all airports in the coming weeks to discuss ways to reduce its operating costs.

DAA chief executive Declan Collier refused to give exact details on the scale of the job cuts.

He said they will be meeting with staff at all airports in the coming weeks to discuss the cost-cutting plans, adding that the likelihood is there will be a reduction in staff numbers.

“The company is facing a very difficult financial situation. This is the deepest recession since the 1930s and it is having a huge impact on the aviation sector,” said Mr Collier.

The DAA employs 3,200 people across all of its operations.

It said terminal two (T2) at Dublin Airport will be completed in February 2010 and will open in November of that year.

All of Aer Lingus’s operations will transfer to T2, which will cater for up to 15 million passengers when fully operational.

The airport is also in discussions with airlines with a view to operating services to China and the Middle East from Dublin.

The DAA is seeking a price increase on passenger charges from the Commission for Aviation Regulation.

DAA chief executive, Declan Collier said this decision will be “crucial” and it is looking for a “more appropriate” price cap.

It expects a draft proposal from the regulator in June with a final decision on a possible 40% increase in charges in October this year.

The profit after tax figure did not include a once-off loss of €31m linked to pensions. After once-off items were included, profits fell from €348m in 2007 to €47m.

Turnover was up 1% at €631m.

Passenger numbers at the three airports were down 0.6% to 29.9 million last year.

Passenger numbers at Dublin are expected to fall from last year’s 23.5 million to around 21 million, and by a million in Cork and Shannon combined.

The DAA also said it has no plans to sell its international operations.

Aer Rianta International, which manages the group’s overseas investments, contributed €25m to profits.

This was down 13% on 2007, but was affected by the sale of its 24% stake in Birmingham Airport that year.

Ryanair yesterday called for an “urgent inquiry into the DAA monopoly” by the Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General.