Region disadvantaged: Airport must have chance to compete

The pace of economic recovery is not being spread evenly across the country.

Just as what happens in most other countries, expanding or new businesses gravitate towards the main cities where where human and infrastructural resources are most concentrated. Uneven broadband services and transport connectivity are very influential too when decisions are being made about where to locate a business.

The perception that the south, and Cork in particular, faces a growing challenge to compete on a level playing field with other regions has been growing over the last number of years because of Cork Airport’s inability to offer like-for-like packages to attract airlines and passengers. This disadvantage is rooted in the airport’s €100m debt, one it took on six years ago to build a new terminal.

That state-of-the-art facility which should have been at the centre of the airport’s development and expansion has become almost a liability because servicing the debt has made the airport less competitive than its regional counterparts. The terminal is therefore grossly underused and falling passenger figures reflect this.

Passenger numbers peaked in 2008 at 3.25m but the 2014 figure is expected to be something around 2.1m. In comparison, Dublin Airport handled 20.17m passengers last year, an increase of 6% on 2012. Cork has seen its passenger numbers fall by almost 5% since January and July figures were down almost 6%. Debt-free and independent Shannon Airport showed a 15% increase in passenger numbers for the first six months of this year.

The biggest blow to Cork Airport has been the loss of the Cork-Dublin route which, at its peak, brought 500,000 passengers through the airport each year. In an effort to reverse this decline, Cork Chamber of Commerce has launched a renewed campaign to try to secure independent status and to have debt issues resolved so the airport can again make a full contribution to the region’s economy and development. Chamber chief Gillian Keating is to meet Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe and she will tell him that the present situation, where the airport is still under the control of the Dublin Airport Authority and saddled with debt that makes it utterly uncompetitive, is untenable and stymies ambition and development in the South. It would not be expecting too much to ask for a constructive response from Mr Donohoe as the airport’s difficulties are direct legacies of broken promises on the debt burden and the decision not to divorce Cork Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority.

There must be a way to restore the fortunes of Cork Airport without unfairly threatening Shannon or any other regional competitor because the continued decline of the facility is having an unacceptable and terribly detrimental impact on all of the south of Ireland.