Media Archive

Galway Airport questions An Bord Snip recommendations

An Bord Snip aviation recommendations to further widen East -West imbalance

An Bord Snip has recommended that all support, amounting to €17million, to Ireland's six regional airports and regional air services is cut by 2011. This would arise from the discontinuation of the Public Service Obligation for regional air services of €15 million post 2011 and €2million from the discontinuation of Operational Grants for regional airports post 2010.

Joe Walsh, Managing Director, Galway Airport stated "we at Galway Airport are hugely concerned by these recommendations and if implemented they will have serious consequences for the whole region, consequences that people are simply not aware of at this point in time. Air access continues to be a critical infrastructural resource for the island of Ireland and particularly for the west of Ireland. Let's not forget that we are a small island off a larger island off the west coast of Europe and air access continues to play an absolutely vital role in the economic and social development of this state. Within the EU 27 the Irish are the third highest users of air transport".

"These recommendations if implemented will have very serious consequences for the west of Ireland particularly with regard to foreign direct investment - if air access and connectivity is downgraded, a key part of the foreign direct investment tool kit will be compromised. The ‘bottom line' is that these recommendations could have a serious negative affect on jobs and economic investment in the region".

We are primarily a ‘business airport' where local and regional businesses both indigenous and multinational, rely on Galway Airport to provide vital worldwide access via our route network to both their business and customer bases.

Our four daily Dublin services, three of which are PSO, besides providing access to Dublin are more importantly providing vital word-wide access and connectivity. A recent passenger survey (June) confirmed that 94% of passengers, who were starting their international journey at Galway Airport, were connecting onwards from Dublin Airport to major European cities like Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Brussels and further afield to places like Bangkok, San Francisco and Sydney. Access to this air network is vital for business and even more critical in these turbulent economic times".

He went on to say that "industry and business in the Galway region should not be discriminated against as they need the same international air access from a hub airport like Dublin as that enjoyed by business on the east coast".

"Also these proposed recommendations could also compromise future route development at Galway Airport which in itself is a key part of future economic and social development within the region".

Finally he stated "that these recommendations to cut all support to regional airports will eventually cost more, not just simply in economic terms, than they will save and it is absolutely critical that the Government considers this very seriously before deciding on implementing some or all of these recommendations".

ENDS

Contact: Joe Walsh / Michael Moloney at Galway Airport @ 091-755569