Ryanair issued 2007 traffic statistics for its Irish routes, which show that Ryanair will carry a record 13 million passengers to / from 7 Irish airports in 2007.
Ryanair is now the largest carrier of visitors to Ireland on 135 low fare routes from Britain and Europe. Sadly, while Ryanair’s low fare routes are Irish tourism’s single largest asset, this Government’s failure to deliver low cost competing terminals at its semi state Dublin Airport monopoly is seriously undermining Ireland’s competitiveness.
In 2002, Bertie Ahern promised a competing terminal at Dublin Airport but broke this promise and awarded the second terminal to the DAA monopoly. The DAA’s Terminal 2 has already quadrupled in cost from €200m to €800m and is ten times more expensive than other terminals in Europe. This has already led to a doubling of parking charges and will lead to a doubling of passenger charges at the DAA monopoly. These unjustified price hikes will damage Irish Tourism.
Speaking today, Ryanair’s Head of Communications, Peter Sherrard said: “In 2007, Ryanair will carry 13 million passengers through Irish Airports generating a visitor spend of €1.4bn for the Irish tourism industry, while sustaining 13,000 jobs in the tourism sector.
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