Airlines for America says there are \u2018active\u2019 conversations with US government on retaliatory measures\n<\/p>\n
Chris Sununu, the president and chief executive of Airlines for America (A4A), told the Oireachtas Transport Committee on Wednesday that he has held meetings in recent days with both the White House and the US Department of Transportation regarding the passenger cap at Dublin Airport.<\/p>\n
He said there\u2019s \u201cvery strong potential\u201d that flights to New York from Dublin would be reduced, for instance, if retaliatory measures were taken against Ireland.<\/p>\n
He warned there are \u201cactive\u201d conversations with the US administration regarding such measures.<\/p>\n
Mr Sununu was the Republican governor of New Hampshire from 2017 until last year.<\/p>\n
A4A has insisted that the cap has put Ireland and the EU in breach of the EU-US Open Skies Agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think this [US] administration is going to have one of their bilateral agreements that\u2019s been in place a long time, violated\u2026 that\u2019s not what these guys do,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the number one issue I can point to where the administration has said, this is a violation of the agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cap limits total passenger numbers between Dublin Airport\u2019s Terminal 1 and 2 to 32 million a year. However, the gateway handled 36.4 million passengers last year.<\/p>\n
The committee is engaged in pre-legislative scrutiny of a bill to scrap the cap. The Government is hoping that legislation will be enacted by the summer.<\/p>\n
A4A has been urging the US Department of Transportation to curtail or suspend the rights of Irish airlines operating between Dublin and the United States unless the cap is removed immediately. Such a move would almost exclusively hit Aer Lingus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States is watching very closely what your next steps will be,\u201d Mr Sununu told the committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue is now before the United States government. I\u2019m not here to speak on the government\u2019s behalf,\u201d he added. \u201cBut we can be clear about how these situations are viewed. When market access for US carriers appears constrained in ways that conflict with international agreements, it triggers a response.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at the White House last week discussing this issue,\u201d he said. \u201cI was at the US Department of Transportation on Monday discussing this very issue. And I\u2019m here today, with all the craziness we have going on in the United States with aviation right here today, this currently is our priority and this is where folks are watching.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willie Walsh, the director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), told the committee on Wednesday that the cap poses a \u201creal and immediate risk\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt restricts route development, limits consumer choice, and undermines Ireland\u2019s attractiveness for investment and tourism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUncertainty around capacity means airlines are already evaluating alternative airports, and to be clear, those airports are not in Ireland,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Sununu claimed that the biggest beneficiary of the cap will be British airports.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know who wants to see this passenger cap in place more than anyone? The Brits. You will get a thank-you note from the UK government as soon as you keep this in place because all the planes are going to start going there, all the opportunity, all the money is going to go there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryanair\u2019s Eddie Wilson and Aer Lingus chief executive Lynne Embleton are also appearing before the Oireachtas Transport Committee today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airlines for America says there are \u2018active\u2019 conversations with US government on retaliatory measures Chris Sununu, the president…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[601,72,10725,11900,61,60,10099,1899],"class_list":["post-364557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-aer-lingus","tag-business","tag-daa","tag-dublin-airport","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-mulligan","tag-ryanair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364557","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=364557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}