Two air ambulance operators warned yesterday that their viablity was threatened by a severe rise in parking tariffs imposed by Aer Rianta.
It is thought the increase will also hit wealthy business people such as Mr Tony Ryan and Mr Denis O'Brien, who fly private jets into Dublin airport. Large firms in the international courier business will also be hit.
The private-hire airlines Airlink Airways and Irish Air Transport claimed a tenfold increase in parking fees would push them out of Dublin airport and question their viability. The companies claim to generate about 20-25 per cent of their business carrying organs for time-sensitive transplant operations in Dublin. Irish Air Transport also carries stretcher-bound patients. Outside the medical field, the companies provide air taxi services for business and leisure customers. Because they do not run scheduled services, their aircraft spend long periods parked on the ground at Dublin airport.
The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association said the services were crucial. "Minutes save lives," said its secretary general, Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick. "We have to decide at Government level whether or not we're going to have an emergency facility for the transport of organs for organ transplants and in other instances for the emergency transport of patients."
Airplanes are regarded as important for the transfer of organs at night-time because helicopter services are constrained.
An Aer Rianta spokesman said: "Yes, charges have gone up, but they have not increased since the 1980s."
The owner of Airlink Airways, Mr Tom Staunton, said Aer Rianta increased its parking charge to €85 per day or €2.50 per half-hour from €9.94 per 24-hour period. The €85 charge includes a tariff-free period at night-time. That equated with an annual charge of €31,025, although the parking fee was not levied when the company's six-seater aircraft was in flight.
Mr Staunton said he was considering moving the aircraft's base to Galway, Sligo or Knock airport.
As 95 per cent of his business was generated in Dublin, such a move would push costs up considerably, endangering the viability of the business.
