Sir, - Michael Cawley, commercial director of Ryanair, is quoted in a recent newspaper article: "There is no other airport in the world that has a development fee." He is expressing the anger of his company at Kerry County Airport for having initiated a £5 per passenger departure levy. The purpose of the charge is to raise £5 million for the necessary expansion of the terminal facilities. The airport is now preparing for an estimated 300,000 passengers annually.
The statement is untrue. Such a charge is widely used in many airports of the world. In South-East Asia the name used is "airport tax". This is money collected by individual airports to fund development plans for the particular facilities of the airport. Examples include Bangkok, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. In Thailand there is an interesting comparison of two sample airports: Bangkok Airport is government-owned and collects its development fee. Kosamui is a privately owned airport which collects its own development funds.
It is particularly disquieting that a company which thrived on private enterprise, is now spending large amounts of money in a campaign to attack the development plans of a private airport company, which serves Ryanair. One must conclude that the logic of Ryanair is flawed. - Yours, etc.,
Richard Shanahan, Dromore, Farranfore, Co Kerry.