Minister’s solution to passenger cap row ‘simplistic’ and ‘naive’, says DAA chief

Dublin Airport operator DAA and Aer Lingus have rejected a suggestion from Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin that the solution to the passenger cap impasse at the national aviation hub can be solved by diverting traffic to regional airports. Speaking to reporters outside the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation’s (ITIC’s) annual conference on Wednesday in Dublin, the former Green Party deputy leader said regional tourism balance is the solution to the crisis. Reiterating a point raised by some of her Government colleagues in recent weeks, the Dublin Rathdown TD said there are “no capacity issues” at regional airports such as Shannon and Cork and that the “dispersal of tourists” to regional areas would be a “win win”. Martin said: “Even if there wasn’t a cap in Dublin Airport, we should be really focusing on regional tourism.” However, Aer Lingus chief corporate affairs officer Donal Moriarty and DAA CE Kenny Jacobs later rejected the suggestion. On Wednesday afternoon, Jacobs told the ITIC conference that the Government’s suggestion is “naive and simplistic” and “does not reflect how the airlines actually work”. He said the Government should encourage the airlines “to go to the regions”. However, he said: “By capping Dublin, all you’re doing is immediately costing the Irish economy jobs, you’re hurting the Irish tourism industry and you’re giving Irish aviation and tourism a bad look.”<br/>