Mr. John Mulhern:

I thank the Senator for his questions. I will take each in its own right. We have a large marketing plan and a plan for route development which we had in place and ready to push before the Covid-19 outbreak. We were in discussions with some of the smaller airlines to develop connections between our own regions and particularly regions of the UK and also into France and Italy. Covid-19 has put all that on hold. The discussions are still there in the background. Not unlike Mr. Gilmore in Ireland West, we want to see how we can connect our region to smaller regions across the UK, particularly in England and Scotland. We have very strong conversations that looked fruitful on how we could mutually support the establishment of connections with smaller aircraft of less than 100 passengers that would support us for survival into the future with better connections to smaller population centres around the UK.

Not unlike the other airports, the vast majority of our passengers are with Ryanair. Its suspension of all routes in the regional airports has caused significant harm to our operations and profitability. Like other airports, our income is based on passenger numbers. Our franchises with car hire companies, restaurants and cafés, etc. are all dependent on a high turnover of passengers. We have no income from those while we have few if any passengers. We are keen to spread our reliance beyond just one airline. Looking north, Mr. Gilmore and his airport were very successful at that but suffered great harm which we fully understand when Flybe failed recently.

Still, to rely on one airline is difficult for us and we certainly are looking to spread to other airlines if that is possible. However, the smaller airlines are fearful of taking risks and so I agree with Mr. Gilmore that we would be grateful for any support to encourage those smaller airlines to develop routes from regions in the UK and further afield into the regions of Ireland.

Our own airport supports well over a thousand jobs in the county and brings in tens of millions of euro in income from our passengers in tourism and in business. We are very pleased that the airport has begun to encourage remote working for businesses that are wishing to set up in rural Ireland, whilst keeping a connection for the occasions when they need to travel to Dublin and onwards for their own business. We really need that to continue and to recover.

We had a plan that we had presented to the former Minister for Transport, Deputy Ross, not long ago, of which our colleague and friend Deputy Griffin is aware, which involved a €7 million expansion of the airport to allow us to be able to cater for larger aircraft and volumes of passengers. The Senator is right that the airport is small and the accommodation there allows for only 200 to 300 passengers at a time, when there are times when we would like to manage multiples of that. We have a plan, and it is with the Department and the Minister. I recently spoke about it to the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and she could see that it was an important step forward for us if we are to be able to grow sustainably into the future. I therefore agree with the Senator. Once we get through this period of turmoil, we still plan to continue with that blue sky development plan into the future.