{"id":98198,"date":"2025-10-02T02:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T02:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/98198\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T02:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T02:25:13","slug":"we-are-picking-up-the-airport-tab-for-ryanair-and-aer-lingus-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/98198\/","title":{"rendered":"We are picking up the airport tab for Ryanair and Aer Lingus \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The DAA<\/a>, which operates Dublin<\/a> and Cork<\/a> airports, availed of its interim results announcement to kick-start its campaign to increase the fees it charges airlines to use its airports. Looking past its interim pretax profit of \u20ac77.8 million, the group pointed towards \u201csustained cost pressures, from energy and regulatory compliance to construction and wage inflation\u201d and thus the need to increase charges in order to maintain services and invest in facilities.<\/p>\n

The airport\u2019s two biggest customers, Ryanair<\/a> and Aer Lingus<\/a>, were quick out of the traps in response. Aer Lingus said the DAA had made \u201cvery significant profits in recent years despite repeatedly claiming that airport charges are too low\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ryanair was a little more trenchant, claiming the airport operator had \u201cthe same attitude to the truth as Donald Trump\u201d before adding that \u201ctheir claims about unsustainably low charges and\/or charges being among the lowest in Europe are false\u201d, claiming it is instead \u201calready one of Europe\u2019s most expensive\u201d.<\/p>\n

What gets lost in all the noise around airport charges is how much money the DAA extracts from passengers to effectively subsidise airlines. If your commercial revenues per passenger are at the upper end of the scale and your aeronautical revenues per passenger are at the lower end of the scale \u2013 as is the case with Dublin Airport \u2013 it\u2019s pretty clear who is contributing to your profits and who isn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

Dublin Airport charges airlines between \u20ac12.70 and \u20ac3.25 per departing passenger depending on the time of year and whether the airline is using an air bridge or making its customers walk up and down a set of stairs from the tarmac. Ryanair adopts the latter model while Aer Lingus uses a mixture.<\/p>\n

According to the Irish Aviation Authority<\/a> \u2013 which sets these charges \u2013 Dublin Airport makes revenues of \u20ac22.64 per passenger, which is just above the midpoint for the airports that it tracks for comparison purposes. <\/p>\n

The figure is split between aeronautical revenue (passenger charges and so on paid by airlines) and commercial revenues (such as parking and shopping, paid by you). Dublin Airport\u2019s aeronautical revenues were \u20ac9.33 per passenger last year. This is less than the average of \u20ac13.44 for the airports tracked by the IAA. <\/p>\n

However, Dublin Airport\u2019s commercial revenue per passenger of \u20ac11.13 ranks towards the upper end of the airports tracked by the IAA (average of \u20ac8.64), according to the DAA. More of that later, but first there is the issue as to whether airlines are being overcharged.<\/p>\n

Ryanair\u2019s average airport and handling charge per passenger across its network was \u20ac8.41 in the year to March. This is almost a euro less than the average for Dublin. The IAA believes that Ryanair\u2019s true cost per passenger is even lower. <\/p>\n

This is certainly suggested by its fares. As of this week you can go on Ryanair\u2019s website and find flights advertised for low double-digit prices. They are offering flights from Dublin to Liverpool for \u20ac14.99 and to Fuerteventura for \u20ac19.99. <\/p>\n

If Ryanair\u2019s airport and handling charges were \u20ac8.41 it would have to be losing money on those fares (although the situation improves after they hit passengers up for baggage charges and overpriced toasties).<\/p>\n

Aer Lingus does not disclose its costs but told the IAA that Dublin\u2019s average airport charge per passenger is \u201cmid-range\u201d compared to the other European airports that it operates to and from. Aer Lingus will fly you to Birmingham or Manchester for \u20ac26.60.<\/p>\n

You can argue, based on the IAA figures, that there is room for some reduction in airport charges in Dublin although you are not necessarily comparing apples with apples. The cost of operating an airport is a function of its input costs such as energy and labour, which are higher here than elsewhere. You cannot blame the airlines for trying but you have to factor the DAA\u2019s cost base into the equation.<\/p>\n

It is harder to argue that a reduction is justified. We all blindly accept that everything at the airport \u2013 from car parking to sandwiches \u2013 is more expensive when in truth there really is no reason why it should be. In so far as most of us think about it, we assume there is some sort of extra cost involved. <\/p>\n

But what we don\u2019t realise is that those costs are in effect the DAA subsiding the likes of Ryanair and Aer Lingus and passing this on to you. <\/p>\n

Unless the DAA wants to go bust, which we presume it doesn\u2019t, then every cent that comes off the passenger charges paid by the airline has to be recouped from the tills in Dublin Airport. <\/p>\n

The two airlines would be better off doing their negotiating in private lest the penny drop with the travelling public as to who is picking up the tab for lower airport charges. Likewise, if the DAA gets its increase it might want to think about passing some of it on to the travelling public. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The DAA, which operates Dublin and Cork airports, availed of its interim results announcement to kick-start its campaign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2442,79,38997,26,18,19,17,12356,623],"class_list":{"0":"post-98198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aer-lingus","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-daa","11":"tag-dublin-airport","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-irish-aviation-authority","16":"tag-ryanair"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}