{"id":267032,"date":"2026-01-27T19:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T19:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/267032\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T19:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T19:57:09","slug":"airnav-ireland-poised-to-return-cash-to-state-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/267032\/","title":{"rendered":"Airnav Ireland poised to return cash to State \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Air traffic control agency, Airnav Ireland<\/a>, looks set to return cash to the State following a move to reduce its capital.<\/p>\n

The State body published a formal notice this week saying it will ask the High Court to approve a resolution that will allow it distribute reserves to the exchequer via its shareholders, the Ministers for Public Expenditure and Transport.<\/p>\n

The notice does not indicate how much cash Airnav is likely to distribute, but its last annual report showed that it had close to \u20ac87.5 million in cash, with a proportion of this held on short-term deposit.<\/p>\n

The agency earns money by charging airlines for air traffic control services and for aiding aircraft travelling through Irish airspace.<\/p>\n

It earned \u20ac10 million profit in 2024 and had revenues of almost \u20ac197 million. The agency will publish accounts for last year in May. <\/p>\n

Airnav intends to reduce its capital by cancelling \u20ac310 million in its share premium account, \u201csuch that the reserve resulting from such cancellation be treated as profits available for distribution\u201d in line with company law.<\/p>\n

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Companies generally take this step when they are overcapitalised and want to return cash to shareholders.<\/p>\n

Share premium accounts cannot be distributed. Consequently, Airnav must take legal steps, including the shareholders\u2019 resolution and getting the court\u2019s approval, before it can return cash to the State.<\/p>\n

The shareholders, Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers<\/a>, passed the resolution last month.<\/p>\n

Airnav did not comment when asked how much cash would be available for distribution should the High Court give its approval.<\/p>\n

According to its annual report, Airnav had almost \u20ac87.5 million in cash at the end of 2024. This included \u20ac44.8 million held in short-term deposits and investments.<\/p>\n

That report states that the share premium account represents Airnav\u2019s fair value, which would include its cash and all other assets.<\/p>\n

Consequently, it is unlikely that all the \u20ac310 million referred to in its notice will not be distributed.<\/p>\n

State companies regularly pay dividends to the Government.<\/p>\n

The State established Airnav Ireland in 2023 after the Oireachtas passed legislation splitting the organisation from the Irish Aviation Authority, which regulates safety and consumer rights.<\/p>\n

As the State\u2019s air navigation overseer, it earns income from airlines using the Republic\u2019s airports, as well as those whose planes travel through Irish airspace without landing or taking off from here.<\/p>\n

Most aircraft travelling between northern Europe and North America have to travel through Irish airspace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Air traffic control agency, Airnav Ireland, looks set to return cash to the State following a move to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[97351,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-267032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-airnav-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}