Dublin Airport flights will rocket to over €1,000 this Christmas if the ‘absurd’ passenger cap is not lifted, Michael O’Leary has said.
On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, the Ryanair CEO once again hit out at the Transport Minister Eamon Ryan over the cap.
He said the ‘insane and stupid’ cap would see Ireland losing out on thousands of tourism jobs as airlines move their planes to more welcoming cities.
He called on Minister Ryan to either instruct airport operator DAA to ignore the cap – or to pass legislation to bypass the planning process and remove the cap.
“If we had a Minister for Transport who was modestly interested in aviation or even modestly interested in economic growth and development - which his own aviation policy is at the heart of - he would fix this,” said Mr O’Leary.
He said the airport would be welcoming 40 million passengers within three or four years if the cap is removed.
“Tourism accounts for about 10% or 12% of Ireland's GDP,” he said. “About 120,000 jobs in this country.
“We're opening new hotels, we're developing new restaurants, the Wild Atlantic Way and all of these tourism facilities need continuing growth in visitor numbers and that can only be done in Ireland through the continuation of low-cost air access.”
He said the ‘bizarre thing’ about the dispute is that Ryanair is set to “make a fortune” out of it.
“If we're not allowed to add in those 270,000 extra seats at Christmas, we'll put them somewhere else – they'll go to Spain or they'll go to the UK, they'll go to Italy,” he said.
“But the airfares in and out of Dublin this Christmas will be €1000 return – they’ll be €500 each way.
“We're going back to the old days of flag carrier monopolies.”
________________________________________________________________________________________________
📱 Have you downloaded the Newstalk app?
- Find the app in the Google Play store:
[ Ссылка ]
- Find the app via Apple: [ Ссылка ]
#️⃣ SUBSCRIBE to the Newstalk social channels:
- YOUTUBE | youtube.com/@Newstalkfm
- TWITTER | twitter.com/newstalkfm
- INSTAGRAM | instagram.com/newstalkfm/
- FACEBOOK | facebook.com/newstalkfm
- WEBSITE | [ Ссылка ]
🎧 PODCAST - listen at your leisure: newstalk.com/podcasts
- iTunes: search for Newstalk in your app!
- Spotify: search for Newstalk for our latest pods and news
- Or wherever you get your podcasts!
📱GET IN TOUCH WITH NEWSTALK
- WhatsApp: get in touch on 0871400106
