Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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93. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the actions he has taken to secure an air link between Ireland and China; if he has engaged with the Dublin Airport Authority in order to increase commercial airline activity in Dublin Airport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40823/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has a bilateral air transport agreement with China since 1998. The agreement provides the legal framework for scheduled air services between the two countries and under the agreement  it is open to any Irish, EU or Chinese airline to operate services between the two countries. The establishment of such a service, however, has to be market driven and is a commercial decision for the airlines entitled to operate routes under the agreement. Enhanced air access to key tourism and business markets such as China has always been a key element of Ireland’s aviation policy. I would very much welcome the prospect of direct services to China and have no doubt that such a service would be of benefit to trade relations between both countries.

The Irish airports and Tourism Ireland have attractive incentive and marketing programmes available to help support new services and I am aware the DAA have had discussions with Chinese airlines about the possibility of a service. Dublin Airport Authority recently signed a twinning agreement with Beijing Capital International Airport which will allow the two companies to co-operate to further commercial and tourism links between the two cities. The agreement is also designed to enable the two airports to engage in a joint marketing initiative to deliver direct airline services between Dublin and Beijing. In the meantime, Ireland does have extensive one-stop connectivity with many Chinese cities through the established European hubs such as Heathrow, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt. In addition connectively with China has improved considerably since the commencement of Etihad’s services to/from Abu Dhabi in 2007 and more recently Emirates services to and from Dubai in 2012.