The number of British arrivals at Dublin airport is “falling like a stone” amid growing uncertainty about Brexit’s impact on air travel.
Kevin Toland, chief executive of DAA, t has told the European Parliament that growth in other business is concealing a decline in British travellers to the Republic.
Mr Toland said that Dublin Airport’s passenger numbers were up 6 per cent so far this year. “What that’s really disguising is the fact that inbound trips from the UK are down 7 per cent and falling like a stone,” he added.
He said that 42 per cent of tourists and 44 per cent of business travellers visiting the Republic come from Britain.
Mr Toland warned that, while March 2019, when the UK is scheduled to leave the bloc, seemed far away, airlines would begin planning for that time early next year, when uncertainty about what will happen was likely to persist.
He was addressing a meeting of the parliament’s transport committee, which questioned a number of aviation industry figures about the potential impact of the UK’s exit from the EU on air travel.
Brexit throws a question mark over the UK’s participation in an agreement that allows member states’ airlines to fly freely throughout EU airspace.
