OVER 100K JOBS AT RISK IN AIRPORTS

OVER 100,000 jobs have been placed at risk by the virtual collapse of air traffic since coronavirus has struck, Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly has warned.

Though attention has concentrated on Dublin, figures secured by Ms O’Reilly also reveal the extent of the collapse across Ireland’s regional airports.

The hardest-hit has been Knock’s Ireland West Airport which failed to record a single passenger in the passenger arrivals/transfer transit passenger categories in April.

The airport has, up to the coronavirus emergency, been one of the unexpected success stories of Irish aviation, but it has been shut since March.

Originally dismissed as a white elephant on top of a foggy, boggy mountain the airport, a brainchild of the legendary Monsignor James Horan, has survived two global recessions to become a critical travel hub. But the coronavirus pandemic has

rocked it back on its heels.

The information was disclosed by the caretaker Transport Minister Shane Ross after Ms O’Reilly asked for the number of passengers who arrived in airports in April.

The figures reveal Kerry Airport had no transfer passengers and just two passengers a day (62) over the entire month.

Donegal Airport had just 56 arrivals and no transit passengers.

Shannon Airport had even fewer arrivals with 50, but their figures were boosted by 4,175 transit passengers.

Cork Airport had 694 passenger arrivals and no transfer passengers.

Dublin Airport had just 11,436 passengers and a further 3,545 transit passengers at an average of just under 500 a day, compared with 2.8m for April last year.

Ms O’Reilly warned: ‘The severely restricted capacity underlines the need for a specific targeted sectoral recovery programme which will protect jobs.’

She added: ‘There are nearly 100,000 jobs related directly and indirectly to Dublin Airport and those jobs have to be protected.’