The chief executive of Emerald Airlines, Keith Butler, has called on the Taoiseach to “show real leadership” and address the “man-made cap” on passenger numbers at Dublin Airport.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr Butler said the current situation where the cap would mean a potential reduction of one million passengers next year, was “madness”.
“Every stakeholder in this process has admitted it's madness. The Taoiseach even last weekend admitted the situation was madness. I think it's time leadership is shown to address this artificial man-made cap, which has got nothing to do with airport capacity, got nothing to do with local infrastructure capacity at this point, it had originally but doesn't any more.
“We think it's time that there's real leadership shown by the Taoiseach in terms of personally taking ownership of this situation, trying to address it and put practical solutions in place immediately. Just give it a bit of breathing space and to allow the airport to continue to grow whilst a full planning permission for the 40 million increase in the cap is delivered.”
Mr Butler said that all carriers that use Dublin Airport are currently assessing what the full impact of the cap next year will mean, with a reduction in the region of five percent for all carriers anticipated.
“It's going to be harmful not just to airlines, but to the Irish economy in general.”
Emerald Airlines, which operates regional flights on behalf of Aer Lingus, will be equally impacted by the cap, he said. “We are looking at how we will have to reduce our capacity by five per cent and what the implications of that will be on our network.”
Calls for Shannon and Cork airports to be better utilised were not realistic for Emerald Airlines, he said. Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports were competing with every airport in Europe for capacity.
The cap will also have an impact on additional flights for major sporting or cultural events, he added.
