ABSTRACT
Ireland has had a strongly pro-contestability policy for airlines since 1986 when Ryanair entered the Dublin-London route. It was the first country in Europe in which a new market entrant, Ryanair, carried more passengers than the previously protected national airline, Aer Lingus. The extension of competition between airlines to the airport sector has beenmore difficult however. The European airport market is characterised bymultiple airport ownership by airport companies, which dominate the major city markets. This chapter examines three important policies to address the efficiency and contestability of airport markets in Ireland since 2001. These were (1) the establishment of an independent airport regulator, the Commission for Aviation Regulation, in 2001; (2) the dismantling of the national airportmonopoly in stages starting in 2004; and (3) a policy of competing terminals at Dublin Airport, announced in 2002 but scrapped in 2005.
