*Photograph: Shauna Kennedy
Dublin Airport’s monopoly should be tackled in the best interest of Shannon, the wider region it serves and other regions outside the capital, economists have stated.
Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Limerick Stephen Kinsella and Limerick Chamber economist Dr. Catriona Cahill entered the debate on Dublin Airport’s unhealthy dominance of the aviation market by stating there are clear grounds now for specific supports for Shannon Airport, in particular.
Addressing almost 200 business people at Limerick Chamber’s Economic Breakfast Briefing at the Castletroy Park Hotel, Dr. Cahill said that while there has been considerable growth achieved in the region over recent years, connectivity is one of the key areas of concern. She maintained Shannon was under pressure from two fronts, one being Dublin Airport as it mops up 96% of all new passengers coming into Ireland, but also from regional airports such as Knock and Kerry which can avail of grants in that Shannon can’t because of its status as a ‘state airport’.
“There is a very worrying trend of Dublin’s increasing dominance. Shannon last year achieved 1.86m passengers but has the capacity to serve many more and act as a counterbalance to the DAA monolith. Under EU legislation any airport with passenger numbers of under 3m can qualify for state funding. Shannon airport meets this requirement yet the State has elected not to support Shannon in this manner due to its status as a state-owned airport. This gives other privately-owned regional airports an unfair advantage. For example, European legislation recently came into effect requiring security upgrades that came in at a cost of €10milion at Shannon whereas these upgrades at Knock and Kerry airports are in the main being funded by the Department of Transport.
“Also, Tourism Ireland has a budget of €45million this year to market Ireland. The promotion of air access is an important aspect of this outlay. Despite its dominance, airlines seeking to develop routes from Dublin airport can avail of funding. There is no transparency with regards to the distribution of these funds. This needs to change and priority must be given to the promotion of air access outside of the capital,” the former Executive Researcher for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment added.
UL economist Dr. Stephen Kinsella said that Shannon has a special case for funding supports due to the impact of Brexit. “Brexit, in addition to being an existential threat to the Mid-west in agri-food production and obviously manufacturing, is also a big threat to our regional airport, Shannon, because it has its major hub into Heathrow. This might be to our disadvantage. In that case we’ll need to see a package of supports for Shannon and that package of support will have to be comprehensive.”
Dr Kinsella said that the current spread of passenger growth into Ireland, with Dublin Airport grabbing 96%, is not sustainable. “We should not accept that. It doesn’t need to be the case that 96 percent of all increase in traffic goes to Dublin and the other 4 percent is split between the regional airports. We don’t need to accept that at all. A policy of proper balanced regional development means not everything goes in one place. The government’s adopted and preferred strategy is balanced growth and balanced regional development. So, if the if the policy and the strategy is that, then the funding and the policy platforms need to come behind that to support it. We haven’t seen that up to this point. It would be brilliant if we did see it.”
