Government removes travel tax for Sligo and Donegal

The Department of Finance yesterday announced that Sligo and Donegal airports would be exempt from the travel tax which is to be implemented as part of the 2009 Budget. The Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said that he had requested the Revenue commissioners to bring forward an amendment to the proposed legislation which exempts travel from airports where passenger numbers are less than 50,000 per annum.

Ryanair welcomed the removal of the tax "for small peripheral airports" but urged the government to scrap the tax as tourism and traffic numbers will be affected at airports where it is to be implemented.

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