Keeping Dublin Airport’s passenger cap at 32 million people a year would stall inbound visitor growth to Ireland and heavily dent tourism spend here, a new economic impact assessment study has suggested.
Daa – which operates Dublin and Cork airports – is currently trying to get the existing 32 million passenger cap at Dublin expanded to 40 million passengers a year, on the back of seeing consistent strong growth at the country’s main airport.
A new economic study – conducted by leading economist Jim Power on behalf of Aer Lingus – predicts that well over €800,000 would be lost, in annual tourism revenue, for every 1,000 inbound visitors that are blocked from entering the country.
The report also found that around €322m in tax revenues would be lost to the Exchequer, job losses could approach the 40,000 mark and big international sports events – due to be hosted in Ireland (the Ryder Cup, the Europa League Final, the American College Football annual fixture etc) would be impacted.
