Airline woes,Likely to be heightened following attacks
Tourism and airline chiefs believe the potential impact of the terrorist attacks in the United States could be enormous in Ireland. Experience of the past has show conflicts such as the Gulf war lead to a downturn in the numbers of US visitors here.
The figures have not been worked out yet, but the tourism and aviation industries are bracing themselves for what they believe could be a potentially disastrous fallout from the terrorist attacks in the US.
Bord Fáilte says the Gulf War in 1990 led to a significant downturn in the numbers of US visitors coming to Ireland in 1991. The experience has shown that it usually takes three years to get those figures up again.
It had been expected that Ireland could lose up to £500m in foreign exchange earnings because of the foot and mouth crisis. Losses are not now expected to be that high, but the overall impact on tourism has to be completely revisited in light of last Tuesday's attacks.
The signals from the international aviation industry are not encouraging. The US group Continental has announced it is letting 12,000 staff go. Australia's second biggest airline, Ansett, has folded because of crippling debts.
Aer Lingus is already in the middle of a root and branch review of its finances because of the foot and mouth crisis and the global economic downturn. It has been suggested it could be facing losses of anything up to £60m.
In last week's attacks aviation was used as the weapon of war, and this will affect the whole future of the aviation industry. In addition people face new security regimes which will add considerably to travel time.
Bags are security checked at check in and again at the departure gate. More rigorous checks of personnel are also underway once people are on board airlines.
