Vol. 491 No. 6
61 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the study, if any, carried out by her Department of per passenger landing charges at Aer Rianta airports for airlines that are not enjoying introductory discounts and are long-term users in comparison with those at comparable airports in Britain and on the continent; and if charges in question here are higher or lower than competitors. [12875/98]
My Department commissioned an independent study on airport charges in 1995. The findings of this report undertaken by the Transport Studies Group of the University of Westminster, were in real terms, Aer Rianta's charges remained constant over the period 1985-87 and then declined by 19 per cent between 1987-95 due to the pegging of the charges at absolute 1987 levels. The report compared charging regimes at some 50 European airports over the period 1990-95 and found that Aer Rianta's basic charges were significantly below the European average rates. The recent Cranfield report, commissioned by the Association of European Airlines, also indicated that charges at Dublin Airport were below average.
I should point out in respect of the growth incentive discount schemes introduced by Aer Rianta since 1994 that these discounts apply not only to new routes but equally to new traffic on existing routes and are available to all airlines.
