Sunday, July 12, 2009

Economics 12/07/2009: Travel figures

As an added bonus to Irish Times eager attack on my article in Sunday Times couple of weeks ago here is last week's press release from Ryanair:

"Ryanair, the World’s favourite airline, today (10th July 09) called on the Irish Government to stop ripping-off travellers after CSO figures confirmed that all Government controlled/regulated bus (up 11%), rail (up 9%) and taxi fares (up 8%) increased in the past year while unregulated airfares fell (14%) thanks to Ryanair. The Irish Government is now targeting air passengers with a self defeating revenue negative €10 tourist tax. The Irish Government’s €10 tourist tax is an effective 100% price increase on many of Ryanair’s winter fares to/from Dublin, Cork and Shannon. Ryanair called on the Irish Government to stop taxing tourists and follow the example of the Belgian, Dutch, Greek and Spanish governments who have all scrapped tourist taxes and/or reduced airport charges to zero to stimulate tourism. "Traffic at the DAA Monopoly run Dublin Airport fell 14% in June to 1.9 million as the Irish Government rips off passengers with a silly €10 tourist tax."

Disclosure (for Irish Times sake): I do not own any shares in Aer Lingus, Ryanair. I have zero allocation to Irish equities at this time, but I feel honoured to be attacked alongside Michael O'Leary...

No comments: