The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) suspects that any block on private jets at Dublin Airport (DUB) could stifle investment in Ireland and has duly raised these concerns with the Irish Ambassador to the US (US).
The NBAA has written to the Irish Ambassador, Claire Cronin, expressing worries because DUB proposes to scale back non-scheduled flights, which would come with business aviation, so as than it doesn’t exceed its annual passenger limit of 32 million.
DAA, which manages the Irish capital’s airport, applied to extend its passenger cap to 40 million in 2023. Nevertheless, the method may take as much as two years, and it needs to seek out ways to administer numbers within the meantime.
In response to the Irish Times, DAA’s CEO, Kenny Jacobs, told politicians that efforts to maintain passenger numbers inside the 32 million cap would impact business aviation.
“In essence, this motion by the DAA will end in no business aviation flights being allowed to fly in or out of Dublin Airport until planning is secured to extend passenger capability,” the NBAA wrote in its letter to Cronin.
The NBAA highlighted that business aviation flights are on the “center of much of the Irish-American economic relationship” and that any type of ban would “greatly hinder Ireland’s attractiveness as a location for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)”.
“Business aviation activity also supports a whole bunch of jobs, many supporting U.S. firms, on and across the Dublin Airport. We expect that local businesses will eliminate lots of these jobs should the DAA ban take effect.” the NBAA wrote.
The NBAA has proposed that, should the appliance to extend the airport’s passenger cap to 40 million be succesful, then 20,000 passengers ought to be allocated for business aviation.
“This represents a mere 0.0625% of the passenger limit, maintaining access to Ireland and the Dublin area for business aviation, which brings substantial economic and business advantages while still adhering to the 32 million cap,” the NBAA advised Cronin.
DAA told the Irish Times that it would stay under the 32 million passenger cap until the situation changes.
“The present cap is resulting in discussions with all aviation customers, including those that operate general aviation and charter flights, and DAA will proceed to work with the slot co-ordination process to try to realize one of the best final result,” an airport spokesman said.
In an analogous vein, an effort to ban business jets from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) was suspended late last yr.