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The Dublin Airport Authority has withdrawn its Supreme Court appeal against the decision of the High Court to uphold the Commission for Aviation Regulation's approach to setting airport charges at the Company's airports.
The Company has discontinued the legal challenge in the light of positive amendments to the aviation regulatory process, brought into place recently by the State Airports Act, 2004.
These amendments mean that for the first time, the Company's concerns about the existing regulatory decision may now be considered comprehensively and addressed by the Commission. These concerns include the limited scope employed by the Commission to date in determining maximum levels of airport charges, particularly with regard to the significant capital expenditure requirements of the Company's airports.
The most important of these amendments obliges the Commission to ensure that any future determination on airport charges enables the Company to operate and develop Dublin Airport in a sustainable and financially viable manner.
The Commission is also obliged to protect the reasonable interests of future as well as current users of the Airport and to take into account the levels of capital expenditure needed to sustain continued strong growth in aviation and passenger traffic.
Having regard to the ongoing restructuring of the Company, the Act also provides that Shannon and Cork will no longer be subject to economic regulation.
The Dublin Airport Authority welcomes the statutory requirement on the Commission to issue a new determination on airport charges at Dublin Airport as soon as possible and no later than October 2005. The Company looks forward to working closely with the Commission, the airlines and other stakeholders to ensure that the most appropriate pricing levels are put in place to meet the needs of all the Airport's users, over the short and longer term.
Ends
8th October, 2004
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