Travel tax axe to boost Ryanair capacity by 1m

Ryanair is set to announce “a range of new routes” in the coming days to facilitate an extra 1m passengers as a result of the abolition of the air travel tax in the budget.

The airline’s deputy chief executive, Michael Cawley said the company is hopeful of striking deals with the five main Irish airports, within the next couple of weeks, but refused to speculate on how much Ryanair may grow at each airport.

Management has already met with one of the airports and will meet with the rest by the end of the week.

Asked whether it would be right to surmise that Dublin Airport will see the lion’s share of the increased business — or even 50% of it — Mr Cawley suggested it was “too early to say”.

Ryanair has been a vocal critic of the tax since it was introduced by the Fianna Fáil Government in Jan 2009, describing it as “insane and simply tourism suicide”.

It said that — via a combination of new routes and additional frequency of existing routes — it will grow at Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Kerry, Derry, and Knock airports. Fuller details of routes, regarding each airport, are expected in the next fortnight.

Mr Cawley said there has already been enough indication from the airports that agreements for increased business will “get over the line”, although he stressed that no deals have been completed as yet.

Total traffic at Irish airports has fallen from 30.5m to 23.5m since the introduction of the tax in early 2009; Dublin seeing an 18% fall in that time, Cork a 28% dip, and Shannon a 56% decline.

Ryanair stated that much of that deterioration can be reversed on the back of the tax going next April, making Ireland “a more competitive and attractive destination for in-bound visitors” in the process.

It said that by adding 1m passengers to Irish airports, alone, it would be creating at least 1,000 jobs. Most of these will be airport-based jobs, but 200 will be directly employed by Ryanair. All, however, will be located in Ireland.

“Government’s don’t create jobs, but they can create the environment in which to generate them.

“The repeal of the air travel tax helps restore Ireland’s competitiveness and attractiveness to overseas visitors, from the UK and continental Europe in particular,” said Mr Cawley.

CEO of the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) Pat Dawson said: “The ITAA welcomes this change which will encourage inbound and outbound traffic to Ireland. We call on the airlines to follow through on their promise that they will produce at least 1m extra passengers.”

To further help this growth, we urge the airlines to play their part and reduce some of their charges such as the Ash Crisis Protection and administration fees.

“Anything that brings income to the country is good for our members as that money circulates in the economy and everyone benefits particularly employment,” he said.