How much does it cost the taxpayer to fund Sligo Airport

Posted on June 9, 2011 | Filed Under Press Releases 

There has been much reporting on the plight of regional airports over the past few months. In particular a lot was written about Sligo and Galway airports because of the withdrawal of funding.  Despite the quantity of words written and said in the media I find that there is a distinct lack of specifics.  There is no simple straightforward summary of how much the taxpayer pays towards these airports.  The summary below is a contribution towards the gap in information by summarising the total public spend on Sligo Airport  over the last six years.

All figures are in Euro

Public Funding Towards Sligo Airport
Year OPEX Grants 

€

 CAPEX Grant 

 

€

PSO Grants

 

€

 Total 

 

€

 Passenger Numbers Subsidy per passenger 

€
2005 255,000 55,852 2,483,054 2,793,906 39,593 70.6
2006 231,200 124,000 2,578,626 2,933,826 34,310 85.5
2007 9,000 303,911 2,701,711 3,014,622 44,533 67.7
2008 0 1,907,729 2,689,345 4,597,074 42,493 108.2
2009 313,000 223,607 2,684,776 3,221,383 26,706 120.6
2010 395,000 n/a 2,953,165 3,348,165 21,578 155.2
Total 1,203,200 2,615,099 16,090,676 19,908,975 209,213 95.2

Average

cost per year

 200,533 523,020 2,681,779 3,318,163 34,869
OPEX Grants are grants paid directly to the airport in respect of operational expenses
CAPEX Grants are grants paid directly to the airport in respect of Capital Expenditure
PSO Grants are grants paid to an airline (in this case Aer Arann) to subsidise
the cost of the flight from Dublin airport to Sligo Airport
Source of this data is Minister Dempsey’s written answer to Dail qustion on 16 December 2010
http://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2010-12-16.1274.0&s=pso#g1276.0.r
Passenger numbers for 2010 are based on 11 months actual and 1 month estimate

 

I am not saying whether the airport should be retained or not.  I am merely trying to ensure everyone is fully informed on the true cost before they decide. The overall cost to the taxpayer of funding the airport and the flight from Sligo to Dublin was €20 million over the last six years.  That is an average cost of 3.3 million per year. Over the six years that is an average subsidy per passenger per flight of €95.20 or €190.40 per round trip. With the drop off in passenger numbers over the  last two years the average is now closer to €150 per passenger per flight or €300 per passenger per round trip.

It is always good to know how the politicians are spending your money.

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