Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The committee is doing a body of work on the national aviation strategy. To date we have met Mr. Willie Walsh, a former chief executive of Aer Lingus and now the director general of the International Air Transport Association. We have met representatives of Ryanair. We have met the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, and the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Naughton. The committee has also travelled to Schiphol Airport and Rotterdam The Hague Airport. In the new year we will meet representatives of the airports.

A review of the regional State airports programme is about to get under way. As the chief executive is probably aware, for the first time Shannon and Cork airports have qualified for inclusion in the programme, which provides additional funding to airports. However, the current programme only applies to airports that have fewer than 1 million passengers. I, and I think the committee members, would like to see the programme extended to include airports that have up to 3 million passengers, which the Government is entitled to do. Dublin Airport is extremely busy. It has around 31 million passengers, which is huge given Ireland's population of about 5.5 million. By comparison, Schiphol Airport has 71 million passengers and Holland has a population of 17 million. We have four airports on the western seaboard. Shannon Airport can take 4.5 million passengers, Cork Airport between 2.5 million and 3 million, and there is Ireland West Airport Knock and Kerry Airport.

I am a Limerick based Deputy so Shannon Airport is a huge issue for us. I welcome that Aer Lingus has brought back the Heathrow routes. I know the witnesses dealt with queries about Covid, but to clarify, when Covid came, did Aer Lingus reduce its number of long-haul aeroplanes?