Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our witnesses. My questions are more specific to Kerry Airport but they may be of general interest. I am old enough to remember when Farranfore airstrip was a little playground for amateur aviators. Who would have thought it would become the success story it is today and how important a part of the great infrastructure of Kerry and Munster it would become? I note that prior to Covid, in the past year, it was showing an increase in passenger numbers of 1.2% so the systems were all heading in the right direction. The Government's injection of capital into all three airports, especially the smaller regional airports, shows the confidence it has in their capacity to survive and to continue to develop, hopefully, when this terrible crisis is over.

My questions are general to all three airports. Sooner or later, hopefully, Covid will be over. Apart from depending on Government grants to restore normality, do the airports have contingency post-Covid plans in place to hit the ground running, restore flights, increase capacity and maybe create further jobs?

Kerry Airport should be commended for sourcing new routes such as Frankfurt, Alicante and Faro. Will it be possible to continue on that line in future? Are we too reliant on one or two airlines? Do they have a type of monopoly on the airport? Is that a problem? Is there any way that additional airlines could be persuaded? I noted with interest Mr. Gilmore's observation that it is a higher risk for airlines to fly into smaller airports than those in London and so on. I take that on board. Hopefully there might be something there.

I have a point which is very specific to Kerry Airport. I commend its directors. It is a private company but the board of directors is very embracing of business, tourism and local authority interests. I am glad that a local authority elected member is on the board. The space is a sign of the difficulty which success brings. Does Mr. Mulhern have any plans to increase the airport concourse? It can be very crowded at busy times with departures and arrivals all up on top of each other. Are there plans to develop it and extend?