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The heads of three major airlines have come together to urge the Government to axe the tourist tax.

The chief executives of Ryanair, Aer Lingus and Cityjet issued a joint statement today calling for the removal of the tax which they say it hurting tourism.

In the statement from Christoph Mueller of Aer Lingus, Michael O'Leary of Ryanair and Geoffrey O'Byrne-White from Cityjet, the chief executives point out that since the €10 tourist tax was imposed on April 1st, monthly traffic at Dublin airport has fallen by 15 per cent.

It adds that the airport will likely lose 3 million passengers this year as traffic falls from 24 million to about 21 million.

The statement notes that both the Belgian and Dutch governments have recently scrapped their passenger taxes in order to stimulate tourism and that the Greek and Spanish governments have also reduced airport charges in order to combat a drop in visitor numbers.