Airports with less than 50 000 passengers departing from them annually will be exempt from the air travel tax, the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said today.
Currently, the exemption threshold for airports included in the air travel tax is 10,000 departing passengers in the previous year.
Based on passenger data the airports that will benefit from the exemption are Donegal Airport in Carrickfin and Sligo Airport in Strandhill.
Making the announcement Mr Lenihan said concerns had been raised regarding the impact the air travel tax could have on small peripheral airports and their ability to develop new routes.
“Having further considered the matter I have decided that flights departing from the smaller airports, which under the existing legislation would be subject to the air travel tax, should be excluded from the air travel tax,” he said.
“This can be best achieved by increasing the current exemption threshold for airports of 10,000 departing passengers in the previous calendar year to 50,000.”
“Consequently I have asked the Revenue Commissioners, and they have agreed, to apply the intended revised 50,000 departing passenger exemption threshold pending the necessary legislative change being enacted."