Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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96. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the detail of the new routes from Cork, Dublin, Shannon, Donegal, Kerry and Ireland West Knock airports introduced since restrictions on non-essential international travel were lifted in July 2021 [12144/22]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Since the lifting of the restrictions on non-essential travel last July, we have welcomed the resumption of flights and the early signs of the restoration of connectivity from our airports.

As part of a €160 million funding package provided by Government to support the sector, €116 million was allocated to our airports under a Covid Supplementary Support Scheme to support the aviation sector’s recovery as European and international air transport resumed.  This funding helped compensate our smaller regional airports for the damage caused by COVID -19 as well as providing our State airports with flexibility to roll out route incentives/charge rebates, in consultation with airlines, which has helped facilitate the recovery of connectivity.

Decisions on the operation of new routes from Irish Airports are made on a commercial basis by individual operators.  My Department’s role in relation to air services includes granting authorisations to third country air operators seeking to carry out commercial services to and from Ireland.  No such authorisations are required for European operators operating within the Single Aviation Market.  Therefore, the information requested is not readily available in my Department. However, my Department is seeking this information from the relevant airports and will forward it to the Deputy as shortly.