This article is from page 3 of the 2011-05-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE Government decision to follow through on a pre-election promise of abolishing the airport travel tax can kickstart passenger growth at Shannon Airport, if airlines that use Clare’s international airport are up to the challenge.
Shannon Airport Director, Mary Considine, has put it up to Ryanair, Aer Lingus and other carriers to boost passenger throughput to deliver muchneeded growth to the airport.
In a statement to The Clare People , Ms Considine said that the scrapping of the travel tax and the airport authority’s new growth incentive scheme for airlines are the carrot for increased numbers in Shannon.
“These initiatives are an extremely important and timely boost for our efforts to develop new services at Shannon Airport and support our existing routes,” said Ms Considine.
“The Growth Incentive Scheme will be of particular benefit to Shannon as airlines will be rebated all passenger charges for every new passenger they deliver once the airport surpasses the 1.755 million passenger mark we achieved last year.
“The air travel tax change in the Government Jobs Initiative is a further significant development. Its suspension, subject to the airlines delivering additional passengers, is another real incentive for them to grow passengers,” she added.
The controversial travel tax of € 10 was introduced by the Fianna Fáil/ Green Party coalition in 2009, only to be reduced to € 3 in the dying days of the government in Finance Minister Brian Lenihan’s 2010 budget.
After its introduction, Ryanair immediately scaled back its operations in Shannon with the loss of 100 jobs, while passenger numbers reduced from a peak of 53 routes delivering 1.9m passengers down to only 300,000 passengers per annum. Now, under the new growth incentive scheme, airlines using Shannon will be rebated € 12.65 per departing passenger for every passenger delivered over and above the threshold of 1.755.
“We are confident that 2011 will see an increase in passenger numbers at Shannon Airport,” said Ms Considine. “I have no doubt airlines will be keen to take advantage of this given the financial benefits set out in the incentives package. Ultimately, this will be good for the airport and for our region.”
Reacting to the news, Ryanair spokesperson Stephen McNamara told The Clare People that the suspension of the travel tax was “a welcome move by the new Government towards change and reform of Irish tourism. “Hopefully the DAA cost obstacles can also be removed to enable Ryanair to deliver rapid tourism and jobs growth in response to today’s welcome announcement,” he added.