Pat Byrne, CityJet: Aviation sector 'still being short-changed'

The notion we should cocoon the whole island, in the context of international connectivity, is a nonsense propagated by those who believe the Covid virus can be eradicated says airline boss 

The Government is neglecting aviation, according to CityJet boss Pat Byrne.

I believe the budget has left Ireland’s aviation industry short-changed – and provided little hope for the 140,000 people who work, or had been employed, in what has been one of the country’s great success stories.

The Government had an opportunity to send out a clear signal to the aviation sector that we are on your side. Instead, we received little or nothing of any note and we are left, once again, to question when will we be given a meaningful signal from Government that aviation and travel, both business and leisure, are being placed at the forefront of national recovery.

Up to very recently, Ireland used to be a leader in world aviation and now we have settled back into being the leading outlier. The notion that we should “cocoon” the whole island, in the context of international connectivity, is a nonsense propagated by those who believe the Covid virus can be eradicated.

But, even if we did achieve a very low level of virus transmission, what then? Do we keep the island moored in the Atlantic and continue to hang out our sign that says to international travellers – ‘fliers not welcome’?

What exactly are we waiting for and why can we not regain our aviation leadership without compromise to public health?

The travelling public has been made very aware of the effectiveness of the air filtration system on modern aircraft that dramatically de-risks the likelihood of infection spread once onboard. Air passengers have shown responsibility and adopted new safety measures in the past, evident from their embracing the burden of the security check regime imposed since 9/11

There is little doubt that those passengers anxious to fly again will accept additional new measures and inconveniences associated with making the total end-to end journey of flying from A to B safe from a Covid perspective.

I completely agree with the Daa, the operator of Dublin and Cork airports, that we can make it feasible through pre-departure testing for passengers to travel ‘Covid- free’ with top-up tests being complied having arrived in-country where required based on duration of stay.

If both the aircraft and the airport are safe through measures such as social distancing, hand-sanitising and mandatory masks and more, then the missing piece is Covid-free certification for passengers.

We need a test centre complete with a field lab installed at our major airports and we need passenger test results to be available within an hour. The budget could and should have provided the funding stream and assistance to make airport testing a reality. This was an opportunity missed. Aviation is the lifeblood of our tourism and hospitality sectors.

The shameful neglect by Government for an industry that has done so much for our economy over decades is extremely difficult to comprehend and most certainly impossible to accept. The budget should have outlined a rapid move to embrace and accept antigen testing at airports in line with many other countries.

We also need to see an abandonment of the ridiculous quarantine requirement for all visitors arriving into this country which is tantamount to saying to them this island is closed and we do not want you to come here. If you can produce a valid negative test result you should be allowed to enter.

A pragmatic approach to airport testing is so long overdue and needs to be implemented now. Any further blockage of this could become something of particular concern to the not inconsiderate numbers of voters who work in the aviation and wider tourism and hospitality sectors.

Pat Byrne is chief executive of regional airline CityJet.