Ryanair, Ireland's largest airline today criticised the ineffective Aviation Regulator for his decision to permit the Irish Aviation Authority to jack up Air Traffic Control fees by an estimated 12% plus inflation over the next 5 years. This further increase in passenger costs will damage Irish tourism and make Ireland a more expensive destination for overseas visitors.

Ryanair criticised this latest price increase approved by the Aviation Regulator on a number of grounds as follows:

1. There has been no real consultation between the IAA and the user airlines who must pay for its services.
2. The Aviation Regulator has largely ignored the submissions of the main airlines, including Ryanair, Aer Lingus and others.
3. These high ATC costs will be further increased with new and unnecessary Air Traffic Control towers at Cork and Dublin airports. The existing ATC tower at Dublin is less than 10 years old, it does not require replacement.
4. These two new ATC towers are more gold-plating, which like the new terminal at Cork Airport, are not necessary. They are designed to boost capital expenditure and increase passenger charges so that the regulated monopoly (in this case the IAA) can jack up its income for the foreseeable future.

Responding today to these latest price increases from the Aviation Regulator, Ryanair's Chief Executive, Michael O'Leary said:

"The system of aviation regulation in Ireland is worse than useless. Like all the other ineffective regulators in this country, the Aviation Regulator has again signed off on unnecessary facilities and rewarded an inefficient state monopoly with big price increases while ignoring the views and inputs of the users who will have to pay for this regulatory failure. Given the enormous increase in traffic which lower fares are delivering in Ireland at present, the cost per passenger should be falling, not rising.  The Aviation Regulator is allowing both the airport and the ATC monopolies to build unnecessary gold-plated facilities and to pay for these with inflation busting price increases.

"These latest prices increases from this failed Aviation Regulator shows yet again that regulation doesn't work. The Office of Fair Trade in the UK is presently considering whether the BAA airport monopoly should be broken up because of the failure of the CAA's regulatory regime in the UK. It is time we had a similar review by the Competition Authority in Ireland, because the Aviation Regulator's office has yet again failed to protect the reasonable interests of users. Aviation users in Ireland want efficient facilities and lower costs, not gold-plated terminals, shiny new ATC towers and inflation busting price increases."