DAA chief executive Dalton Philips was speaking today in front of a Joint Committee on Transport & Communications Networks.
He said "As I speak to you today, I’m thinking of people like Rob Rankin from Vagabond Tours in Wicklow, who has had virtually zero revenue since March, because there have been no international visitors. I’m thinking of Stephen Teeling and his staff in Teeling’s Whiskey Distillery in the Liberties, who rely on our shops as their biggest sales outlet."
He said Ireland is one of the most open economies in the world and is hugely dependant on Foreign Direct Investment, exports and tourism and on the air travel to stay connected with global markets.
Speaking about airports under the authority of the DAA, he said "Dublin and Cork airports have been engines of the Irish economy, but now they are running on empty.
"In total our airports have already lost 20 million passengers compared to 2019; Dublin Airport will have fewer than 9 million passengers this year - that means we are back at 1995 levels." He said the airports have lost 25 years of growth."
He said the sector has been 'demonised' since this pandemic began. He argued that other key sectors have been allowed to re-open with the understanding and acceptance that there is an element of risk involved.
Unreasonable standards
The Irish aviation sector in his eyes is being held to a much an "unreasonable standard", with continued constraints being placed on opening up international travel.
Mr Philips said last week American Airlines withdrew a Dallas flight from Dublin, which means for the first time in 10 years, they will not have a presence in Ireland this coming winter.
He said industry sources are suggesting it could be 2024 before the sector sees any recovery. He also said the sector has accumulated more than €150 million in losses since the pandemic began and their net debt will have doubled by the end of 2020.
He added "There has been minimal movement on the European Commission’s recommendations in relation to the easing of travel restrictions published in May, or on the recommendations of the Government’s Aviation Recovery Taskforce published in July."
He did welcome the government's adoption of EU's Traffic Light system which identifies which countries are safe to travel. However, he said it needs accompanied by testing protocols for high risk ‘red list’ regions, discarding blunt travel restrictions and quarantines.
Mr Philips also said that the DAA have developed proposals to facilitate mobilising pre-departure testing at Dublin and Cork airports by mid-October with capability to deliver up to 15,000 tests per day.
