RYANAIR WELCOMES SCRAPPING OF TOURIST TAX

[White Cap]

Ryanair News
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

News Release--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

25.02.09
Ryanair Calls for Scrapping of Tourist Tax

RYANAIR WELCOMES SCRAPPING OF TOURIST TAX
FROM SMALL PERIPHERAL AIRPORTS

Ryanair, Ireland largest airline, today (25th Feb) welcomed the decision by the Minister of Finance to scrap the tourist tax for small peripheral airports and called for the tax to be scrapped from airports where tourism and traffic is really being damaged, such as Dublin which has suffered 150,000 passenger fall in January and Shannon where traffic is likely to fall by 30% this year.

Ryanair has repeatedly confirmed that the scrapping of the tourist tax would see the reversal of the recent Ryanair cuts announced at Dublin and Shannon. It highlighted that €150m could be saved annually by closing irrelevant quangos such as Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and the useless Commission for Aviation Regulation.

Stephen McNamara, Ryanair, said:

“It is time for a bonfire of the quangos in order to save €150m a year and scrap this ludicrous travel tax. Ireland should be welcoming tourists during this economic downturn and not taxing them. Dublin Airport recorded 150,000 fewer passengers in January and this fall will be accelerated by this suicidal tourist tax.

“The tragedy here is that the Government is only scrapping the tourist tax from peripheral airports such as Donegal and Sligo while ignoring airport such as Dublin, which lost more passengers in January than Donegal and Sligo carry in a year, and Shannon”.