16th Oct 2013 15:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC Wednesday pledged to fly one million passengers more from Irish airports after the country's government Tuesday said it would scrap a EUR3 a person travel tax from April next year.
Europe's largest low-cost carrier said it had invited the main Irish airports - Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock and Kerry - to meetings in Dublin Thursday and Friday to finalize how potential extra Ryanair flights would be split between the airports.
The Irish travel tax was introduced in January 2009 as part of a package of measures the government introduced to try and bring down its deficit in the wake of the financial crisis. Ireland was one of the countries that had to be bailed out by lenders including the European Union.
Ryanair blames the travel tax for a decline in traffic at Ireland's main airports to 23.5 million in 2005, from 30.5 million in 2008.
"Ryanair will engage over the next 2 days with all of our Irish airport partners to see how and where we can add new routes or additional frequencies on existing routes," Chief Operating Officer Michael Cawley in a statement.
The airline said it hopes to be able to announce details of new routes, or extra capacity on existing routes, in coming weeks.
Shares in the airline were trading up 0.03 euro cents at EUR6.18 Wednesday afternoon.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @hanassallnews
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