Mr. Evan Cullen:

IALPA welcomes this opportunity to appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications Networks on behalf of the 1,200 professional pilot members in Ireland. Mindful of the short time available to us today, this opening statement is short and focused on one or two key issues identified by IALPA members as significant for the continued survival of the aviation sector in Ireland.

We refer to recent news coverage and reported comments from the Tánaiste in The Irish Times on 26 January that "international travel was unlikely to reopen until sometime in the future, but certainly not for the summer". It appears that there is now a prevailing narrative that international travel is preventing Ireland from becoming a Covid-free island like New Zealand. Clearly, the Government shares this view and is preparing to close Ireland to international travel further for the foreseeable future.

Regardless of whether an international travel ban will suppress virus transmission in Ireland, we are fully supportive of any measure aimed at protecting public health and reducing the prevalence of this virus. However, Irish airlines rely on summer bookings to make enough money to tide them over the loss-making winter season. The loss of a second consecutive summer season after an entire year of practically zero revenue will prove fatal for airlines that have already depleted their cash reserves.

The €80 million support package for the aviation sector announced in November was essentially a grant for Ireland's airports, the majority of which are State owned. The funds left over for the airlines may have, at best, covered a few days' worth of losses. Our airlines are intrinsic to the success of an island nation like Ireland, and they supply economic lifeblood, bringing, among other things, foreign direct investment and an estimated €10 billion into the Irish economy annually. Every aircraft that leaves Ireland will represent lost jobs and lost GDP. It is an economic fact that if our airlines are allowed to go out of business, the consequences for the Irish economy will be devastating.

Most governments have recognised such dangers and have accepted that if they are to intervene to prevent airlines operating for the sake of virus suppression, they must ensure those airlines do not go out of business as a result. New Zealand, so often our favoured Covid comparator, moved quickly to extend supports worth $900 million to Air New Zealand. Much closer to home, the list includes €10 billion for Lufthansa, €7 billion for Air France, €2.5 billion for British Airways, and €1.2 billion for TAP Air Portugal. The UK Government provided a loan worth €670 million to Ryanair, an Irish airline, such was the value it placed on its contribution to the UK economy. We have provided the committee with a copy of recent media coverage detailing the state aid approved by the European Commission for dozens of European airlines from their respective governments. Why does Ireland remain an outlier as the only European country not to provide meaningful financial aid to its indigenous airlines?

The window remaining for decisive action is fast closing. Airlines plan and budget for their vital summer schedules at this time of year and they will soon have to make hard decisions based on expected market conditions. Our Government needs to understand that creditors and airline owners will not allow for yet another lost summer. They will cut their losses and move their money and assets to other countries that support aviation. The market will not save Ireland's airlines.

If international travel must be suppressed into the future, significant financial aid for Irish airlines is the only option available to avert sectoral collapse. If the Government acts to suppress travel, the Government must also act to save our airlines from the destruction that such interventions cause. They cannot have it both ways. We implore the committee to lobby the Government to provide meaningful financial aid to Ireland's airlines before it is too late.

Over the weekend it was reported that Aer Lingus accessed that €150 million loan facility. We understand that was to address a problem it had last year. It will not do anything for the problem that has now been created because the Government has cancelled the summer of 2021. In our submission we also include an IATA document on the importance of air transport to Ireland. We also provide detailed information on the dozens of airlines across Europe that have received direct government aid.