Ms Mary Considine:

I cannot speak for Aer Lingus. We are in ongoing dialogue with it and it is a very important customer to us and services very important markets. Transatlantic services are key for us and, obviously the Heathrow service is our main hub into Europe at the moment, before Brexit. It is a really important customer and we have been in ongoing dialogue with it. The reality is that Covid has decimated aviation and decimated demand. The restrictions in place means people have been advised not to travel except for essential purposes, and we are not supposed to travel beyond 5 km from our home unless it is for essential work. That is the reality. The Government is advising people not to travel and, therefore, the demand has fallen through the floor and nobody is booking flights. As a consequence, the airlines have made the very difficult decision to pull services. This is devastating for us. It is devastating for our employees and for the people of this region, who rely on the services. That is why we all need to do everything we can to get aviation reopened in a safe manner.

We all know there will be a very slow recovery and that is why the measures we are calling for are so important until normal commercial activity resumes. All the analysts say it probably will be 2024 before the market resumes at normal activity levels. After that, they are talking about up to five or ten years before there is a full recovery in yield. That is a real concern and is why supports are needed in the near term and medium term as we recover from this crisis.