Cork and Shannon to get €22m extra funding

Cork Airport is in line for an extra €13.7m from the Government's revised support package for the aviation sector

Cork and Shannon airports are set to get an extra €22m next year under a package of new government supports to help them survive the Covid crisis. 

The funds set aside include €13.7m for Cork Airport and an additional €8.4m for Shannon, Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath said.

Spending on security and safety systems at the airports as well as on runway maintenance will likely be covered by the new funds.                

In addition, Cork and Shannon will participate, along with Dublin and the regional airports in Knock, Kerry, and Donegal, in a rebate scheme that the Department of Transport said will be worth €20m.                           

The Government said that including measures in last month's budget, it will now inject €80m into all the airports next year. 

Cork Airport managing director Niall MacCarthy said the extra funding was “very welcome” and would help in the “long journey” to economic recovery.

“Cork Airport is, ordinarily, the second busiest and best-connected airport in the State. However, the aviation sector has been extremely hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and our business is now less than one-twentieth of what it was last year,” Mr MacCarthy said.

“We have a long journey to travel here at Cork Airport as we seek to regrow our network and become an engine of growth for the south of Ireland economy once again,” he said.

Kerry, Donegal, and Knock will get a further €6m in combined extra funding under the existing so-called Regional Airports Programme for 2021.

Dublin Airport will also be included in the revised package through the rebate scheme, subject to approval by the EU under its state-aid rules. 

“It is expected that it may be some time before it is possible to permit a large scale return to air travel, but we remain committed to ensuring that the aviation sector can maintain the necessary core capability to retain strategic connectivity and to quickly rebound when circumstances allow,” said Transport Minister Eamon Ryan.

Minister Ryan said the Government was “fully alert” to the impact Covid has had on international travel and to aviation’s “critical role” to the Irish economy.

The Daa – which operates both Dublin and Cork airports – welcomed the announcement and said the Covid crisis has had “a devastating impact” on both airports.

Fine Gael's Kieran O'Donnell, who chairs the Oireachtas Transport Committee, said the new funds were required because Covid had placed the airports onto "a war-time" footing.               

However, Ryanair called for changes to the new rebate measure to way beyond the planned three months.  

It said it welcomed the package but believes the proposed airport rebate scheme will need to go on for years. 

"If our aviation and tourism industries are to have any chance of rebounding to pre-Covid levels, then a structural package of incentives is required over three years – not three months – to support this industry on which so many people depend for their livelihoods," the airline said.