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DAA Rains Some Facts on Ryanair's Latest Colourful Parade 

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) wishes to respond to Ryanair's latest colourful communication with some relevant facts.

• Airport charges at Dublin Airport are paid by passengers and not by Ryanair or any other airline. Airlines pass this charge fully to passengers' via their airline tickets.

• The airport charge at Dublin Airport helps to cover all the Airport's operational costs, including a 24-hour fire brigade service, nearly 700 passenger security employees and up to 100 customer care employees. The airport charge also partly pays for the €2bn investment programme underway at Dublin Airport.

• Ryanair pays a rental charge of €25,000 per year for each check-in desk at Dublin Airport, or total of €750,000 per year. Ryanair generates approximately €40m per annum from check-in and baggage charges at Dublin Airport's check-in desks. The €25,000 charge per check-in desk  represents less than half the full cost of providing these desks and their IT and baggage handling support systems. 

• The DAA is disappointed when any airline announces plans to reduce traffic at Dublin Airport. The DAA believes strongly that Ryanair's own business environment has influenced its announcement today and not the competitive charges on offer at Dublin Airport, from where six new Ryanair routes have been launched to date this year.

The combination of a sharp economic slowdown in many of its key markets, its own failure to provide hedge against historically high oil prices and its heavily loss-making investment in Aer Lingus are the key factors driving this decision to consolidate seasonal schedules and not airport charges, which are paid fully by the airline's passengers.

Ryanair's own recent statements have acknowledged that the scale of the impact of current oil prices alone is sufficient to eliminate the airline's current year profits. In this context, the competitive charges at Dublin Airport paid for by the airline's passengers, are of marginal significance.

The DAA is fully aware of the impact of the current economic environment on all its key customers. As a fully commercial business, its own commercial revenues and operational costs have also been impacted by slowing economic activity and higher energy and other costs.

The DAA will continue to work closely with all its airline customers to try to identify appropriate support for their services in a very difficult aviation environment. Any such support can only be agreed in the context of the DAA's own challenging commercial and investment requirements and, under EU rules, must be fully transparent and available to all airlines at Dublin Airport.  The DAA also continues to evaluate all its costs rigorously.

The DAA can confirm that Ryanair has recently sought support for some of its winter services at Dublin Airport on a seemingly exclusive and non-commercial basis. The DAA finds it ironic that Ryanair, the so-called champion of competition, complains publicly when its request for anti-competitive support mechanisms, are justly declined.  The DAA is responding to correspondence from Ryanair this week, seeking support under current route incentive schemes for routes the airline plans to launch this winter.

Further information contact:

Vincent Wall at 087.6860727

Siobhan Moore at 087.2710065

Ends

15th July, 2008