Kenny Jacobs, CEO of Dublin Airport has responded to Clare TD Cathal Crowe call for legislation proposing that ‘Airlines should be compelled to land at Shannon’ Airport saying the views are outdated.
He believes that such proposals misunderstand the dynamics of the aviation industry in a deregulated market.
In a port to Linkedin, Mr Jacobs advocates for measures that genuinely support Irish regional airports instead of reverting to 1980s policies.
He says the growth of Cork Airport, which is managed by daa, is due to a strategic growth plan and not reliant on forcing airlines to divert from Dublin.
He calls instead for new strategies to advance Irish aviation, promoting the removal of barriers like passenger caps to enhance future growth
Mr Jacobs shared: I fully believe in the future of all Irish regional airports and we need new aviation and tourism policies that do more to support them.
But the suggestion this week that we go back to a situation whereby airlines would be compelled to stopover at Shannon Airport, before being allowed to fly onto the airport that the airline and passengers ultimately want to fly to, is bizarre.
Same with the other suggestion that airlines are compelled to take up regional routes if they want landing slots at Dublin.
This represents weak 1980’s thinking, and it goes against EU law and regulation and what it means to be an open economy. It is also anti-passenger.
While those proposing this kind of option may be well-intentioned, they are ill-informed – as in reality ideas like this show a complete lack of understanding of how airports and airlines operate and grow in a deregulated EU market. The fact is that all transatlantic carriers have consistently voiced their criticism of such a stopover. Ask any airline today and they will tell you this as Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson did on Newstalk radio on Saturday 19th.
Given the opposition, the State rightly stopped compelling airlines to stopover 32 years ago as airlines and pax did not want it and did not like it.
So current talk of reinstating a stopover is therefore non-sensical, pie in the sky thinking.
Cork is the fastest growing airport because Cork has a good growth plan, NOT because it is calling for airlines wanting to fly to Dublin to be compelled to stopover at Cork.
Other airports should work on their own growth plan and not on stopover notions or restrictions at other Irish airports that would reduce overall Irish tourism and cost Irish jobs.
People should stop trying to drag Ireland back into the 1980s, and pinning their hopes on dead-end ideas that have already been tried and failed.
Instead, they should put their focus on positioning Ireland for the future – by coming up with new ideas and plans for growth, removing self-imposed barriers to growth like the passenger cap, and making sure we have a faster and more effective planning system that is supportive of that.
