OREANDA-NEWS. Ryanair, Europe's favourite airline, called for an end to political interference in the setting of airport charges at Dublin as the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR), following a Direction issued by Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe on 15 September, reversed its original proposal to reduce Dublin airport charges by 22% and permitted the State-owned Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) to charge an average of over €20 per departing passenger at Dublin in the next five years.

Ryanair's Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Juliusz Komorek said:

"The CAR's decision to increase the cap on airport charges at Dublin from its original proposal is a direct result of the political interference by the Transport Minister, which fatally undermined the independence and credibility of airport charges regulation in Ireland.

The CAR's original proposal to reduce Dublin airport charges by 22% over the next 5 years, although insufficiently ambitious, would have formed a basis for traffic growth and the efficient and economic development of Dublin Airport in a sustainable and financially viable manner.

The CAR's decision to reverse its original proposal follows the recent Ministerial Direction which the Transport Minister described as "general" but which CAR regarded as requiring it to allow Dublin Airport to incur specific expenditures that had previously been ruled unnecessary or premature.

Today's decision proves that the CAR is not independent and that the Transport Minister and the Downtown Office of the DAA (the Department of Transport) put the narrow interests of the State-owned DAA monopoly ahead of the interests of Irish consumers and the Irish tourism industry, which would benefit hugely from a reduction in airport charges and traffic growth.

This decision has totally undermined the Government's decision in April this year to abolish the travel tax, which has resulted in rapid growth of traffic and tourism in the last few months (to the benefit of the State-owned DAA monopoly), and is further proof that the CAR is redundant as airport charges are in fact controlled by the Department of Transport, the DAA's Downtown Office."