Ryanair has called on Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to protect Irish aviation, Irish tourism and the daa itself from a traffic collapse and issue a shareholder direction to the airport operator to abandon any application for cost increases at Dublin Airport.
Ryanair said today it rejected daa's application for an 88% price increase on what it called its already high airport charges at Dublin.
The airline said the proposed increase comes as the daa is "mismanaging" the Covid-19 recovery, and stranding thousands of airport passengers in long security queues that wind outside the terminal building.
"There is no justification for an 88% increase in daa's already high airport charges, especially when Irish air traffic and tourism needs to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and can only do so with lower airport charges and lower airfares," the airline said.
Ryanair chief executive Eddie Wilson said that at a time when Irish air travel and tourism are struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, the application by the daa for an 88% price increase is unjustified and unwarranted.
"Dublin Airport has the facilities to grow traffic using the new second runway, but this growth can only be delivered with lower airport charges and lower airfares, not unnecessary gold-plated facilities such as "tunnels under runways," Mr Wilson said.
"The daa should instead concentrate on fixing recruitment to deliver an efficient customer service through security rather than dreaming up new charges for facilities that nobody wants and which damage tourism recovery," he said.
"The daa have mismanaged the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis and are now seeking to jeopardise the future growth and development of Irish tourism with this price gouging application for an 88% increase in airport charges, which it seeks to justify by proposing ludicrous spending on unnecessary "tunnels under runways" which Dublin's airlines and Dublin's passengers don't need, and can't pay for," he added.
