Ryanair has called on the UK and German governments to get rid of their departure taxes on flights.
The Dublin-based carrier said that air traffic in Ireland has grown by 11 per cent in 2015 to 29.8 million passengers and added that this was mainly due to the government’s decision to scrap its air tax in April 2014.
Ryanair said it had carried an extra 2.2 million passengers this year as it added new routes and frequencies from Irish airports such as Cork, Dublin, Knock and Shannon.
Spokesman Robin Kiely said: “Ryanair on its own delivered 70 per cent of the growth at the main Irish airports this year, thanks to the government's decision to scrap the air travel tax.
“After five years of decline at Irish airports, the welcome repeal of the air travel tax has resulted in record traffic and tourism growth, demonstrating to our counterparts in the UK and Germany the enormous economic benefits removing APD brings.”
Ryanair currently accounts for around 44% (13.1 million passengers in 2015) of all Irish airline passengers and expects this to increase to 14 million next year as it adds routes from Dublin to Amsterdam, Athens and Copenhagen.