potkettleblack; the sad thing is that the government in the republic have to borrow €60m per day to keep the country going.
The budget estimates suggested that the spend would be €55billon and the income would be the same. Sadly the income is now expected to be at best around €34billion. The government is also paying higher interest on the repayments as they international view is that Ireland is a risky bet so to speak.
With all this in mind, also noting that these are unprecedented times, it is not as simple as the government puts money in to get money out. They have to turn a very grave situation around and quick too. I am not sure that the government has the where with all to do that.
So getting back to PSO and capital investment into regional airports, I think that the Irish government will see this as a must and wont care one bit for the regionals.
Although MR O Leary was quick to jump onto Dublin/Kerry route they havent made a huge difference, it has costed the airport alot in terms of extra manpower to handle the aircraft (738) (info from Kerry Airport website i think), the boardings havent been much better than Aer Arann. I will be watching with interest to see if Ryanair are as interested in continuing this route when/if the PSO is axed?
Any thoughts?
EI-BUD