Falling numbers `hit landing fees'

Aer Rianta has rejected suggestions that increases in its airport landing fees and car-parking charges were linked to its dominant position in the market.

Conceding that average landing fees paid by Ryanair were likely to rise from £4.09 (€5.19) per passenger to £8.18 next year, Aer Rianta's chief executive, Mr John Burke, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport that the rise was due to a decline in passenger numbers carried by the airline through Dublin Airport.

Landing fee concessions, which were available to all airlines, were granted on the basis that carriers continued to grow their passenger numbers. Ryanair's concessions amounted to over half of all discounts granted since 1996.