Air travel hit by foot-and-mouth crisis

The foot-and-mouth crisis has contributed to a decrease in air traffic between the Republic of Ireland and Britain over the first three months of the year, Aer Rianta reported today.

According to the airport operator, 3.4 million passenger journeys passed through Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports in the first quarter of 2001, a rise of 2 per cent on the same period last year. Dublin airport also revealed an increase in passenger traffic to 2.7 million journeys, a rise of 2 per cent.

However, journeys between Dublin and Britain dropped by 6 per cent to 1.5 million, which Aer Rianta sees as a direct result of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.Travel between Cork and Britain decreased during this quarter by 5 per cent to 178,000 journeys. Foot-and-mouth and industrial action were both cited as contributing to the fall.

But there was positive news on European and transatlantic routes which showed a 16 per cent growth in passenger numbers to 832,146 and 182,171 respectively.

Surprisingly the best performing routes wereShannon-European routes which increased by90 per cent to 30,599 journeys. Shannon-Britain routes grew by 29 per cent to 152,000 journeys.