Metro Herald - 15/10/2009 digital edition

METRO FREE Thursday, October 15, 2009 Enjoy Sensibly Visit Visit facebook.com/CaptainMorganIreland See Page 12 for details Got A Little CaptainInYou? The CAPTAIN MORGAN words and associated logos are trade marks. Captain Morgan Rum Co. 2009. AER LINGUS joined forces with Rya- nair yesterday to demand the scrapping of the tourist tax. The airlines, along with CityJet, have united to call on the Government to scrap the 10 tourist tax introduced in last Aprils budget. The three companies claim the tax has had a devastating effect on traffic and visitor numbers at Irelands airports. Yesterday, Aer Lingus chief executive Chris- toph Mueller, Ryanairs Michael OLeary and Cityjets Geoffrey OByrne-White issued a joint statement claiming that, since the 10 tourist tax was imposed, the monthly traffic at Dublin Air- port has fallen by up to 15 per cent. They also stated that Dublin Airport will lose 3million passengers this year as traffic falls from 24million to around 21million. They pointed out that the Belgian and Dutch governments have recently scrapped their pas- senger taxes in order to stimulate tourism, and the Greek and Spanish governments have also reduced airport charges, or in some cases abol- ished them, to stimulate tourism. Mr OByrne-White said the Irish Government only had itself to blame if airlines moved their businesses elsewhere. While I wouldnt be saying that the 10 tax is responsible for the entire recession, it has cer- tainly had a negative impact on passenger num- bers and on revenues, he said. He added that the decision to impose the tax was a knee-jerk reaction, taken without any con- sultation with the industry. The Department of Finance said the tax was in- troduced in response to fiscal challenges and will raise 125million a year and added that Ireland was not unique in its imposition of the tax. BY ROSS McDONAGH Airline bosses: Scrap this tax Daniel Van Wyk (centre) Angelo Van Wyk (left) and Emile Jansen from arts group Black Noise in Dublin yesterday. They will perform Hip-Ns, a mix of sean-ns and hip hop in The Axis, Ballymun, on Saturday and Vicar Street on Tuesday Picture: Aidan Crawley hip hop And AwAy... HELP METRO HELP THE ENVIRONMENT. RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER TODAY inSidE TodAy 8 pages starts on page 21 metro extralife The best in Classifieds... Today: Jobs&Courses ++ OutofOffice ++ Property index.html 2.html 3.html 4.html 5.html 6.html 7.html 8.html 9.html 10.html 11.html 12.html 13.html 14.html 15.html 16.html 17.html 18.html 19.html 20.html 21.html 22.html 23.html 24.html 25.html 26.html 27.html 28.html 29.html 30.html 31.html