[PR] Cullen announces new Ireland Canada Air Transport Agreement

Victor

http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=9091&lang=ENG&loc=2126

Cullen announces new Ireland Canada Air Transport Agreement
28 April 2007

Transport Minister, Martin Cullen, T.D. has announced today (Saturday, 28 April 2007) that a new Ireland Canada Air Transport Agreement has been reached and will take effect immediately on a provisional basis. The agreement was initialled in Ottawa by senior officials from the Department of Transport and Transport Canada.

The new agreement, finalised yesterday evening (Friday, 27 April 2007 at 10.30pm Irish time), replaces the agreement first negotiated in 1947 and last updated just fifty years ago.

Minister Cullen said: "This is a further major step in Government policy of expanding the regulatory framework to develop new air services to and from Ireland. As a highly open island economy, we must maximise access connections with all of the key business and tourism markets. Air Canada operates a summer service between Toronto and Shannon and Dublin. The new agreement provides for services between any point in Ireland and any point in Canada. In contrast, the previous agreement restricted Irish carriers to just one point in Canada - Montreal. I am confident that the more liberal measures set out in this agreement will allow the development of year round services between Ireland and Canada."

International travel by Canadians is at an all time high, with Europe the destination of choice for about half of overseas trips. It is an ethnically diverse nation with 34 ethnic groups having at least 100,000 members each. The largest ethnic group is Canadians at 40%, followed by English at 20%, Scottish at 14%, Irish at 13% and German at 9%.

Minister Cullen added: "From a tourism perspective the potential for growing the market in Canada is very significant. Apart from the fact that we have a competitive tourism product that has a wide appeal, there is a substantial Irish community in Canada. Ireland gets less than 100,000 Canadian visitors a year, while the U.K. gets over 800,000."

An element of this agreement is a change in the requirements in relation to serving Shannon airport. The requirements, which were similar to those applied to and from the US, are now being phased out, (i.e. from 1:1 to 3:1) and will take full effect from 30 March 2008.

Editor's Note

Canada, with a population of 33 million, is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a per capita income of over $35,000. For the past decade, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly, with low unemployment - 6%, and large Government surpluses.

The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation which has been a strong advocate of a new agreement with Canada, has predicted that with a liberalised air service agreement between Ireland and Canada there is every reason to believe that Ireland's visitor numbers could grow to a figure in excess of 150,000 by 2013, representing €125 million revenue.