Dublin Airport is offering free charges if certain passenger targets met.
International travel took a tremendous hit during 2020, with the pandemic massively impacting the amount of people who travel through airports.
Dublin Airport saw numbers drop 77% compared to last year, and Cork Airport passengers were down 79%. So far in 2020, Dublin Airport has 24.4 million fewer passengers due to the impact of COVID-19, while Cork Airport saw a reduction of almost 2 million passengers.
In light of this, Dublin Airport and Cork Airport have both announced generous discount schemes for airlines, with the hopes that it will encourage airlines to resume services that that have been reduced or dropped entirely due to COVID-19.
The schemes have been created as a means "to allow airlines a higher level of confidence to commit capacity to Ireland, as market conditions improve, vaccines are rolled out and Government guidelines are further relaxed during 2021."
Dublin Airport Authority Chief Executive Dalton Philips had the following to say about
the scheme:
"Irish aviation has been decimated by the impact of COVID-19, and it is essential for the Irish economy that we rebuild lost connectivity as quickly as possible.
"daa is stepping up and taking the lead to help rebuild this vital sector and we’ll work closely with our airline customers and other stakeholders to stimulate growth. Ireland is one of the most open economies in the world and has a huge dependency on trade, tourism, exports and foreign direct investment. The vast majority of Ireland’s economic activity needs air connectivity, and these discount schemes will help restore vital air routes."
"We recognise that airlines are making decisions now about where to place their aircraft for next summer, and that many of our customers have smaller fleets than they had last year."
Dublin Airport's proposed scheme is aimed to stimulate growth from March 28, 2021 (the official start of aviation's summer season) and March 26, 2022.
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