MINISTER FOR Transport Leo Varadkar said yesterday that he wants to phase out subsidies for regional airports. Mr Varadkar said it was “political cowardice that it was ever allowed to happen” that there is an airport for every county down the west and south coasts. “We have a ridiculous situation where we have an airport if you follow the coastline: one in Donegal, one in Mayo, one in Galway, one in Shannon covering Limerick and Clare, another in Kerry, another one in Cork and another in Waterford.”
He said: “What do you think happened? None of them were making any money. They were all losing a lot of money and expecting to be covered by the taxpayer in the case of the regional airports, or the DAA [Dublin Airport Authority] in the case of the State airports.”
Mr Varadkar added: “That is not really an aviation policy at all, it was political cowardice that it was ever allowed to happen.”
“It is our intention over a period of time, though it will take a period of time, to phase out subsidies altogether to the regional airports.”
“The operational subsidy will be phased out over time,” he added. “There is evidence that some of the regional airports can do it. Kerry has money in the bank and almost makes a profit, Knock almost makes a profit as things stand.
“There is evidence that well-run small regional airports can do it for themselves.
“They do it in other countries too. If they are in that position now, they would be in an even better position in a few years’ time. We will work with them to do that, it is not an attempt to close them down.”
Mr Varadkar’s comments came as new figures from Corrib Airport Ltd, which operates Galway Airport, recorded a modest profit of €59,845 last year but only after receiving a grant of €1.8 million from the Department of Transport. The profit takes account of the non-cash cost of €953,381 in depreciation.
Galway Airport recently started talks to reduce its workforce by 70 per cent with 40 of the 55 jobs to be affected arising from Aer Arann’s decision to suspend flights from the west coast capital.
The decision by Aer Arann followed the Government’s decision to end Public Service Obligation flights in Galway from July 21st this year. In a letter to Galway Airport on the issue, Mr Varadkar stated that “given the financial crisis this State finds itself in and the substantial reductions that will be made in next year’s budget, it will not be possible to provide any further current or capital funding to Galway Airport beyond the end of this year”.
Passenger numbers last year fell by 22 per cent with revenues falling by 5.5 per cent to €4.3 million.
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