SINN Fein Cllr Paul Hayes
has called on the Minister for Transport and the Dublin Airport
Authority to ensure that Cork is granted an independent and duty-free
status in order to increase traffic at the once very busy airport.
The
mountain of debt and the declining passenger numbers at Cork Airport is
a major cause for concern for the business owners of West Cork,
according to Cllr Hayes.
‘Cork has lost a
number of routes over the last few years. From a peak of 3.25m
passengers in 2008, Cork Airport looks set to drop to 2.1m this year.
The loss of the Cork-Dublin route alone made up about half a million in
those figures,’ Cllr Hayes told The Southern Star.
With Aer
Lingus and Ryanair both dropping a number of routes to and from Cork
Airport, Cllr Hayes feels that unless measures are taken now to support
the airport as a vital hub for both business and tourist travel into the
region, the decline will continue.
‘The crux of the problem here
is that Cork is not competing on a level playing field, especially with
Shannon. Because Cork is still servicing a €100m debt associated with
the construction of its terminal building, management say they can’t
afford to offer the same route incentive supports to airlines on offer
elsewhere,’ Cllr Hayes continued.
With this level of debt, Cork
Airport cannot expect to see growth or an increase in the routes needed
to support the very important West Cork tourism industry, he claims.
‘We
are trying to promote the area as best we can, to make the most of the
Wild Atlantic Way and I know Cork County Council is serious about the
promotion of tourism in the county, and I welcome the CEO’s recent
announcement to allocate more personnel to the tourism section of the
Council. But all of this positive action to promote the county will be
lost if the Government and DAA don’t view Cork Airport as a strategic
part of the infrastructure and rid it of its €113m debt and allow it to
flourish and compete with the other national airports on a level playing
field,’ Cllr Hayes continued.
However, Cllr Hayes’ proposal to
write to the Minister for Transport, outlining the Council’s concerns,
had to be postponed due to time constraints at a recent Council meeting
at County Hall.
‘I’m confident that my motion will be supported,
having spoken to a number of other members before the meeting. I’m
obviously disappointed that my motion was deferred to the next Council
meeting due to time constraints, as I was hoping to keep up the momentum
of the campaign.’
Cllr Hayes said he would now utilize the time
before the next Council meeting to garner more support for his motion
and to continue to lobby other elected representatives to highlight the
importance of this issue for the future viability of the airport and its
importance to tourism and local economy in the region.
Source: http://www.southernstar.ie
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