Ryanair seeks increase in regional airport funding cap

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan should raise the funding cap for regional airports to boost tourism and growth, Ryanair has said. Regional airports, including Knock and Kerry, qualify for the Department of Transport funding programme only while traffic remains below one million passengers a year. Ryanair argues that Mr Ryan should increase the limit to two million. The airline says the current cap blocks tourism and economic growth by giving airports no incentive to increase numbers past the one million limit. The Department of Transport recently said its regional airports programme met national aviation policy objectives, which pledge to increase international routes and maximise air travel’s contribution to growth. However, Ryanair said on Friday that the programme contradicts this policy as it bars growth at regional airports beyond one million passengers a year. The 32m-passenger-a-year cap at Dublin Airport, imposed by planners, compounds this, the airline added in a statement. Eddie Wilson, CE of Ryanair DAC, the group’s biggest carrier, declared that it was “astounding” that the Minister presided over the Dublin cap while also constraining regional airports. “It makes no sense that the regional airports are being penalised with the removal of exchequer funding for growing tourism and delivering economic benefit to the regions,” he argued.<br/>