The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has rejected claims by Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) that it would raise charges by 45% next year after the budget carrier announced it was pulling 17 routes and relocating 19 aircraft from Dublin amid a row over rising passenger fees and insufficient environmental incentives.
Airport charges are set by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and will increase by only 6% in 2024, the DAA insisted in a statement.
"I love Ryanair, and I love the way they sometimes won't let the facts get in the way of a good story. It is a false claim that charges at Dublin Airport are to increase by 45% in 2024. While the IAA has determined that charges can go up by 6%, we would welcome a bigger increase in charges to allow us to invest more in the service we give our passengers, but we do not set the charges," commented DAA CEO Kenny Jacobs.
He also labelled as equally false Ryanair's claims of DAA capital expenditure mismanagement and its alleged failure to deliver an environmental incentive scheme that rewards lower-emissions aircraft.
Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson accused the DAA of wasting taxpayers' money on what he called ill-thought-out infrastructure projects and failing to support low-cost access and sustainable growth.
"The DAA is increasing its already excessive charges by a ludicrous 45% to fund its EUR3 billion euro (USD3.2 billion) gold-plated Capex programme, which includes a portfolio of unnecessary vanity projects which have no benefit for passengers. A prime example of this is DAA's EUR250 million (USD263 million) cargo tunnel," he charged, also alleging there are no incentives to increase traffic or reward investment in aircraft with lower C02 and noise emissions unlike at other European Union airports.
The DAA said the underpass was a safety project vital for efficient airfield operations. In addition, it said it had recently proposed new sustainability measures to encourage carriers to use lower-emission aircraft in Dublin, including discounts for low-emission flights and higher fees for high-emission flights. Ryanair's announcement was premature, Jacobs said, as formal details would be shared with airlines within days.
According to the Irish Mirror, routes to be cut from Ryanair's Dublin winter schedule include Carcassonne (France), Nuremberg and Leipzig/Halle (Germany), Billund (Denmark), Bournemouth (UK), Castellón de la Plana Costa Azahar, Asturias, and Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Genoa and Palermo International (Italy), Klagenfurt (Austria), Kosice (Slovakia), Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Palanga (Lithuania), Sibiu and Suceava (Romania), and Szczecin Goleniów (Poland).
