Sir, - Your Editorial of January 8th seems to suggest that the future success of Aer Lingus depends on removing the present 50/ 50 stopover arrangement between Shannon and Dublin for transatlantic flights. With due respect, your article is contradictory, since the significantly increased traffic and profits generated by Aer Lingus in the past few years suggest that our national carrier has not been hampered by this arrangement.
Doing business out of the midwest and attracting tourism to our region is both difficult and expensive. At the same time Dublin city and airport are bursting at the seams. The function of government is to develop balanced regional economic growth and Shannon was and still is proof of the merit of this policy. It is still too costly to fly from Shannon to the UK with Aer Lingus. But for A.B. and Virgin, Aer Lingus would have a monopoly that would continue to stand in the way of more trade and travel. It is a popular misconception to suggest that in some way Aer Lingus has acted as a sugar daddy to Shannon. The greater Dublin area services about 1.75 million residents, but don't forget that Shannon acts as the international gateway for most of the West of Ireland, especially to the US. While the numbers of passengers through Shannon has increased, many of these are simply returning emigrants or passing through. At the same time I read recently that the "increase" in tourism revenue for Dublin was £500 million last season. The proof of this boom is that hotels in Dublin cost at least twice their equivalent on the west coast.
At a time when Dublin appears to be sucking in valuable resources from all over the country, the last thing needed is a further heightening of this lunacy for short-term gain. A free-for-all, under the guise of an open-skies policy, will inevitably lead within 10 years to such a concentration of economic activity in Dublin that diminishing returns will quickly follow. When that day surely arrives, our Government will regret not preserving strong and vibrant regional airports. - Yours, etc., Gearoid Costelloe, FCCA,
Lower Church Road, Raheen, Limerick.