Madam, - Padraig Yeates, SIPTU adviser and former Irish Times journalist again demonstrates his rather woolly grasp of economics (August 11th). We will try to simplify the issues for him.
1. We don't levy airport charges on passengers who fail to turn up for flights; we levy a non-refundable air fare on passengers who fail to turn up for flights.
2. He complains about the purported dangers of a major company being able to use its enormous media resources to distort facts in the debate on the future of public transport in this country. Perhaps he is referring to SIPTU, whose advisers, friends and supporters have no difficulty putting across the trade union/public service agenda in many of the union-friendly organs of this country, not least of which would be The Irish Times and RTÉ, and nor could he explain why a group of SIPTU's airport staff would close Dublin Airport (an essential national services if ever there was one) for the second time in five years, when not one of their members' jobs was under threat. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL FITZSIMMONS, Head of Communications, Ryanair, Dublin Airport.