Vol. 408 No. 4
203 Mr. Kemmy asked the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications if he will outline the decline in the number of air passengers who arrived in this country in the first quarter of this year, in comparison with previous years; and if he is in a position to estimate the prospects for an improvement in these figures for the remainder of the year.
Statistics on air passenger arrivals are only available for the three State airports for the first quarter of 1991. These show a 6 per cent decline as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. Data on total passenger movements for the regional airports show a decline of 12 per cent.
Traffic returns for the first quarter of the year are not a reliable indicator of traffic levels for the year as a whole. With the cessation of hostilities in the Middle East, passenger traffic can be expected to pick up again and I am confident that traffic levels for the remainder of the year will remain buoyant.
