AT LAST, an Irish chief executive who is seeing some green shoots of recovery. Maybe the Central Statistics Office is right and we are pulling out of recession.

This week, Geoffrey O’Byrne-White, head of Irish regional airline CityJet, struck an upbeat note when I spoke with him. “We are seeing signs [of a recovery],” he said. “But some of that is because of there being less capacity out there, which means people are using our services a bit more.

“But confidence is definitely coming back into the market. We saw an upswing in business out of Ireland and the UK.”

While based in Ireland, CityJet is the biggest operator out of London City Airport where it flies to Dublin and other European destinations.

Like all airlines, CityJet’s performance this year has been buffeted by the volcanic ash crisis. O’Byrne-White estimates the final cost to the airline, which is owned by Air France and targets business travellers, at about €2.7 million.

It’s a significant sum for an airline with annual revenues of about €280 million.

O’Byrne-White is also unhappy at the recent increase in passenger charges at Dublin Airport and has called for differential pricing to be introduced for the new Terminal 2, which opens in November.

“It’s been designed for long-haul carriers. We’d prefer not to be paying for T2.”