Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

The figures for this year so far may be somewhat misleading in that the numbers are down across the three airports, particularly Shannon and Cork. The numbers were down for January, February and March, but up for April as a consequence of low figures for last year as a result of the ash cloud disruption, and will probably be up for May for the same reason. It will be interesting to see whether they are up in June, July and August. The increase thus far this year arises from the relatively low figures for the corresponding periods of last year when there was disruption due to the ash cloud. We will have a better idea in June or July whether passenger numbers are rising anyway apart from this factor. A major aspect of the decline in passenger numbers is the reduction in domestic travel, and this will further reduce when the PSOs end in July. In the absence of an incentive, most commentators would expect the figures to be quite flat this year. That is why we are introducing this incentive.

It was the DAA which proposed that 2010 be set as the baseline. Under the old scheme it was 2010 adjusted for the effect of the volcanic cloud. When we asked the authority to come up with a more attractive airline incentive scheme it proposed that the unadjusted 2010 figures be used as the baseline.

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