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DAA launches new incentive scheme to encourage traffic growth at its three Irish airports

Direct News Source

07-Dec-2010 The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has unveiled a major new financial incentive scheme to encourage traffic growth at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports next year.

The Grow Incentive Scheme will see Dublin, Cork and Shannon airport effectively waiving all airport charges for passenger traffic once an overall threshold of 23.5 million passengers is reached during 2011.

Once the passenger target of 23.5 million for the three airports is surpassed, the DAA will subsequently rebate the airport charges for all of the additional passenger traffic to its airline customers.

The threshold of 23.5 million passengers for next year is equivalent to the throughput across the three airports this year, normalised for the exceptional impact of the volcanic ash crisis.

"This innovative scheme will encourage airlines to maintain and grow their traffic from Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports next year," according to DAA's Director of Strategy Vincent Harrison. "Any additional traffic over and above the 23.5 million threshold will be free of airport charges. We estimate that an increase of 1 million passengers above the 23.5 million target would be worth about ?10 million to airlines in terms of airport charges waived."

Rebates will be based on each airline's proportion of the total traffic across Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports during 2011. Rebates will be paid to airlines in early 2012 for all passengers over and above the 23.5 million threshold.

"Irish airport charges are already highly competitive and the addition of these new incentives makes Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports even more attractive for business," according to Mr Harrison. "The combination of the Government's decision to reduce its aviation tax, coupled with the DAA's rebate of all airport charges for extra traffic delivered to our airports next year provides a powerful incentive to stimulate passenger traffic into and out of Ireland during 2011," Mr Harrison added.

The Grow Incentive Scheme will apply to commercial scheduled and charter passenger traffic recorded between January 1 and December 31 next year. If traffic exceeds 23.5 million passengers during the period, DAA will rebate all airport charges for each passenger in excess of that amount.

The DAA also offers generous financial supports to stimulate the launch of new short-haul and long-haul routes from Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports. Under these support schemes, airlines receive discounts for three or five years after the launch of a new route, including a 100% discount on all airport charges for the first year of operation.