‘Incomprehensible’ that passenger charges not increased during Covid, airport chief says

Basil Geoghegan will today tell an Oireachtas committee that passenger charge rates set before the pandemic are ‘fundamentally flawed’ and causing significant financial issues for airports

Dublin Airport passenger numbers were 78 per cent lower last year than in 2019. Picture: Fergal Phillips

Ireland’s airports are in a “grossly unsustainable” situation as a result of passenger charge rates which were reduced significantly before the outset of the pandemic, an Oireachtas committee will hear today.

DAA, the owner of Dublin and Cork Airports, has said it is “incomprehensible” that passenger charges have not increased in a year when revenues in the aviation sector have plummeted due to Covid-19.

Basil Geoghegan, DAA’s chairman designate, will this afternoon tell the transport ...