Aer Arann to end Galway to Dublin service in July

Date Published: 06-Apr-2011

Aer Arann is to cease its Galway to Dublin flights this July – the first time in over 20 years there will be no service between the Carnmore airport and the capital.

The Galway-based airline is no longer taking bookings for the Galway to Dublin route after July 21, the date when government subsidies, PSO (Public Service Obligation) funding, end.

The decision to end the PSO, which were worth €960,000 per annum on the Galway-Dublin service, was taken by the previous Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, on the recommendation of Value for Money Report on Regional Airports.

Management at the airport are now in a race against time to attract another airline to replace Aer Arann’s service on the route but this is proving difficult because when the discontinuation of PSO was announced most airlines had already finalised their summer timetables.

The ending of the daily services between Galway and Dublin, which carried 40,000 passengers last year, is seen as a blow to tourism and business interests in Galway and the western region.

Aer Arann in a statement to this newspaper said the future of the route is “uncertain”. The company said it is in discussions with Galway Airport about operating a service after July 21 but, it said, at this stage it seems “unlikely”.

The statement added: “At the moment the route would not be viable on a commercial basis without either subsidy support or a significant change in airport costs at both ends of the route.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.