RYANAIR CALLS FOR IRISH TRAVEL TAX TO BE SCRAPPED AS WEF REPORT RANKS IRELAND AMONGST THE WORLD’S WORST FOR AVIATION TAXES

KAZAKHSTAN, MOZAMBIQUE & RWANDA MORE COMPETITIVE THAN IRELAND

2013-03-25 — /travelprnews.com/ — Ryanair, Europe’s only ultra-low cost carrier (ULCC), today (25 Mar) called on the Irish Govt to scrap its €3 travel tax after the World Economic Forum’s Transport and Tourism Competitiveness Report ranked Ireland in the bottom half in an aviation charges competitiveness study of 140 countries.

Ireland was ranked 79^th in the WEF’s index listing the cost of access to international air transport services, placing Ireland below Kazakhstan, Mozambique and Rwanda and well behind fellow EU countries Luxembourg (3^rd), Latvia (11^th) and Finland (29^th). The UK, which continues to suffer the effects of a similar unfair travel tax (APD), was ranked even lower than Ireland at 139^th out of 140 countries.

Ryanair calls on the Irish Govt to stimulate jobs and growth by ‘axing the tax’, which has badly damaged Irish tourism, with passenger numbers at Irish airports falling from 30m in 2007 to just 22.8m in 2012, even while other EU countries scrapped their travel taxes and returned to travel growth.

Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said:

“The World Economic Report offers conclusive evidence of the serious damage being done to Irish tourism by the Irish Government’s misguided €3 travel tax.Ireland, which was ranked lower than Kazakhstan, Mozambique and Rwanda in terms of aviation competitiveness, cannot grow tourism by taxing visitors and raising airport charges to uncompetitive levels. Other EU countries have returned to growth by scrapping tourist taxes and cutting airport charges, in some cases to zero, and Ireland should now follow this lead.”

* Report (page 436) http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TT_Competitiveness_Report_2013.pdf