No shit Sherlock
The question is to what degree
Ireland was down nearly 90% and the second lowest in Europe YoY in July.
The Irish figure was likely masked because it still is good for connections, so many Americans based in Europe who want to get North America can do so because (thankfully) Aer Lingus are still providing routes. Similarly nordies travelling through Dublin who had more āGreenā list countries to choose from.
Similarly in August, Ireland was amongst the worst performers
These figures are particularly bad in the context of Irelandās position in Europe as an island nation. Many Europeans could simply have jumped in the car to travel the continent if they didnāt want air travel abroad, no such option in Ireland.
As previously shown, the removal of Spain and France by the UK had a significant impact there, with reduced travel and frantic returns home. Many will ignore travel advice but most will not, that is the reality and is borne out by the figures.
Irelandās decision to not follow the ECDC advise was a disgrace. As I mentioned, given our position in Europe and the relative importance of aviation to our economy (with Europeās most flown airline, Aer Lingusās reputation, AirCraft leading etc); we should have been leaders in the early adoption of EU advice. As the AerCap CEO wrote in the Irish Times yesterday; thereās an Irish company helping role out testing for American Airlines, why wasnāt this trialed in Ireland? We are the country that needs this more than nearly any other one?
Our domestic tourism could have done with the extra 10% or so that would have given us the EU average. Even 5% would have translated to an additional few thousand a day arriving here.
Diplomatically and for perception purposes, we went for the cowardly route, as Eoin Drea summed up;
āViewed from afar, Ireland seems stuck behind a āCeltic curtainā obsessing about case numbers in Britain and the United States. Much of continental Europe has understood the trade-off between allowing society to function as close to normal as possible and an increased (but manageable) level of virus cases. Here in Flanders, my daughter returned to school in May, free testing for those who want it is available and international travel is restricted (but allowed) based on the latest virus data available.
In Ireland, the Governmentās unease at a health system with very limited capacity has made Irish people afraid of travel, afraid of tourists, seemingly afraid of themselves. Instead of utilising best-practice examples from around Europe, Ireland has largely ignored EU guidelines for safely restarting international travel.ā
Instead of going for the scientific, business friendly and diplomatically sane approach; we went for one to appease NPHETās secret zero Coviders and the bed wetters who wanted the airports fully closed.
