Covid-19 travel curbs left the operator of Cork and Dublin airports with a €284 million loss last year.
State-owned DAA, responsible for both airports and businesses in 15 overseas markets, said total passenger numbers fell 78 per cent to just 7.9 million last year from 35.5 million in 2019.
The company said it lost €284 million “due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Turnover tumbled 69 per cent to €291 million in 2020 from €935 million the previous year.
Dalton Philips said the airports were among the businesses hardest hit by the pandemic.
“Dublin and Cork airports lost 27.6 million passengers last year, which is more than 5.5 times the population of the State,” he pointed out.
“ The last time that Dublin and Cork airports had fewer than 8 million passengers in a calendar year was in 1994.”
