Regional airport subsidies to cease

TRANSPORT Minister Leo Varadkar has said that he intends to phase out subsidies for regional airports altogether.

He said that it was “political cowardice that it was ever allowed to happen” that there was an airport for every county down the west and south coasts.

“We have a ridiculous situation where we have an airport if you follow the coastline: One in Donegal, one in Mayo, one in Galway, one in Shannon covering Limerick and Clare, another in Kerry, another one in Cork and another in Waterford.

“What do you think happened? None of them were making any money. They were all losing a lot of money and expecting to be covered by the taxpayer in the case of the regional airports or the DAA in the case of the state airports.

“That is not really an aviation policy at all, it was political cowardice that it was ever allowed to happen.

“It is our intention over a period of time, though it will take a period of time, to phase out subsidies altogether to the regional airports.

“The operational subsidy will be phased out over time. There is evidence that some of the regional airports can do it. Kerry has money in the bank and almost makes a profit, Knock almost makes a profit as things stand.”

“There is evidence that well-run small regional airports can do it for themselves. They do it in other countries too. If they are in that position now, they would be in an even better position in a few years time. We will work with them to do that, it is not an attempt to close them down.”

His comments come as figures for Corrib Airport, which operates Galway Airport, recorded a profit of €59,845 last year, after receiving a grant of €1.8 million from the Department of Transport.

The profit takes account of the non-cash cost of €953,381 in depreciation.

The airport recently opened talks to reduce its workforce by 70%, with 40 of the 55 jobs to be affected arising from Aer Arann’s decision to suspend flights from city.

Aer Arann’s decision followed the Government’s decision to end public service obligation flights in Galway from July 21.

The accounts confirm that passenger numbers last year declined by 22%, with revenues reducing by 5.5% to €4.3m

Underlining the airport’s importance to the Galway economy, the company paid €2.2m in salaries last year.