Aer Rianta has submitted a formal request to airport regulator Mr Bill Prasifka to approve the fees it imposes on airlines using airport check-in desks at Dublin, Cork and Shannon.
Aer Rianta has been levying the charges since January 2001, but this is the first time they have been the subject of an official request for approval from Mr Prasifka.
The requested fees are the same as those currently in place at the three airports.
Mr Prasifka will now examine the charges and has requested views and comments from the airlines involved. He will assess whether Aer Rianta has complied with specified criteria in setting the fees. The charges must be relevant, objective, transparent and non-discriminatory, he explained yesterday.
At Dublin Airport, Aer Rianta is seeking approval for an annual check-in desk rental fee of €16,717. The airports company has told Mr Prasifka this charge is "significantly below cost" and full cost recovery would put the charge at €64,751.
At Shannon Airport, the airports company is seeking approval for an €8,000 check-in desk rental fee.
Aer Rianta believes a full-cost recovery at Shannon would involve a check-in desk charge of €43,687.
At Cork Airport, the requested fee is €7,846, with Aer Rianta calculating that full-cost recovery would put the actual charge at €27,089.
Aer Rianta has told Mr Prasifka that on July 1st each year it will be seeking to adjust the charges for inflation.
The issue of charges for check-in desks or "airport installations", as they are known, has been the subject of litigation in the Irish courts.
In 2002 Ryanair initiated a High Court action against Aer Rianta claiming the imposition of such charges was invalid because the company had not sought the prior approval of the Minister for Transport.
The High Court ruled against this action and Ryanair appealed to the Supreme Court.
Initially, the Supreme Court referred the specific issue of check-in desks to the European Court of Justice and, after it considered the issues, the whole case was re-presented to the Supreme Court in March 2004. This time the court made the declaration that the check-in fees were invalid .
On foot of this Aer Rianta has now submitted the charges for formal approval to Mr Prasifka.
It is understood Ryanair is currently paying some charges to Aer Rianta for check-in desks, but the company has declined to say how much.
A spokeswoman last night said the company was forced to go to the High Court over the issue of check-in desk charges because it believed they were adding huge costs to its operations.
She said the "Aer Rianta monopoly" was now trying another route in a bid to impose fresh costs to airlines.
