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Ireland West Airport welcomes today’s announcement of funding of €1.9m for the airport under the Public Policy Remit Operational Expenditure Subvention (PPR-O) and Covid-19 Supplementary Support Funding Scheme.

This funding is being administered under the Regional Airports Programme 2021-2025, the Covid-19 Regional State Airports Programme 2021, as well as the Covid-19 Supplementary Supports Scheme for Irish Airports recently approved by the European Commission.

Funding provided under the Regional Airports Programme contributes towards vital safety and security operations at the airports such as air traffic control, fire services and security, ensuring airports can continue to remain compliant with regulatory requirements in these areas.

Funding provided under the Supplementary Supports Scheme to Irish Airports includes an allocation under Phase 2 of the Supplementary Supports package approved by Government on 10th November 2020.  This funding has been allocated to each airport on a pro-rata basis in line with 2019 passenger numbers and calculated in accordance with the eligibility criteria of all measures under the approved State aid Scheme. 

Passenger numbers at Ireland West Airport in 2021 are expected to be 188,000 which will be a 77% decline on pre COVID passenger numbers, which reached a record high 807,000 in 2019. In 2020 142,000 passengers used the airport with commercial flight operations suspended for almost 9 months across 2020 and 2021.

Welcoming the announcement, Arthur French, Chairman, Ireland West Airport, said ‘I wish to thank the Taoiseach, Ministers Ryan and in particular our local Minister Hildegarde Naughton TD, who works tirelessly in supporting this airport and region and also to our local TD’s, political representatives and the Western Chambers for their strong support for the airport and the regions it serves over the last 18 months in particular. Without this ongoing support and that of our Local Authority shareholders and airline partners, the airport would have been in a critically vunerable position through the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the airport and indeed the entire aviation sector continues to be adversely impacted by COVID-19 we are confident that once the pandemic subsides, demand for international travel will rebound stronger than ever and we will return to passenger growth sooner than antipicated‘.