City of Derry Airport welcomed the opportunity to submit views to the Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Finance and Personnel

City of Derry Airport, (CoDA), today welcomed the opportunity to submit its views to the Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Finance and Personnel at a meeting in Belfast following the recent publication of Air Passenger Duty Economic Impact Assessment Report by DETI.  Representatives from the Airport meet with the assembly and provided oral evidence on the significantly negative impact of Air Passenger Duty, (APD), on air connectivity across the UK regions and in particular here in Northern Ireland.

Commenting on the report, Clive Coleman Regional City Airport’s Contract Director responsible for the management of CoDA stated:  “Whilst the report is welcomed as the first step in addressing the issues of connectivity to Northern Ireland it is disappointing that it has failed to realise the current situation of airlines not expanding routes into and out of Northern Ireland because of this tax”.

The report is detailed in evaluating the issue of APD, however CoDA have raised concerned that there are a number of significant pessimistic assumptions made in the economic modelling and that a more realistic assessment would significantly improve the case for the tax to be reduced.

CoDA believe that a reduction in levels of APD would have a significant beneficial effect on Northern Ireland’s economy and strongly supports the potential for a Northern Ireland specific route development mechanism which would help to counteract some of the effects of APD on the development of new routes into NI and looks forward to working with the Executive to make this a reality.