RYANAIR CALLS ON DAA TO REVOKE CONTRACT AND INITIATE A FULL PUBLIC AND COMPETITIVE TENDER AS REQUIRED BY EU REGULATION

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (4 Jan) called on daa to explain why they breached EU regulation by awarding a €33m PRM (Person with Reduced Mobility) service contract without a tender or consulting airlines whose passengers are forced to pay the excessive airport charges at Dublin Airport which are funding this misguided contract.

daa have not been able to produce a single alternative quote before awarding this lucrative 3-year contract to the existing supplier (OCS) despite a recent significant 27% increase in price and their terrible performance over the last 2 years of contract, which resulted in almost 400,000 Ryanair passengers being delayed in 2023 alone due to performance delays by OCS. daa have not answered why they awarded a new lucrative 3-year contract without a tender less than 1 month before their former contract expired. daa’s own website states that: “daa is committed to the achievement of value-for-money in the acquisition of works, supplies and services.  Procurement practice is conducted with probity and integrity and conforms to the core principles of accountability, competition, equality of treatment, fairness, and transparency” yet daa has manifestly failed to meet these standards through its awarding of a 3-year PRM contract to the existing supplier without a tender.

This is the latest mismanagement by daa, who just like the 32m passenger cap failed to plan and lodge a planning application which will now mean that Dublin Airport’s gateway to grow and support the Irish economy is blocked.

Ryanair calls on daa to immediately revoke this 3-year PRM service contract and initiate an orderly and transparent process to ensure continuity of service while a competitive tender is carried out (as required by EU regulation) to find a fit-for-purpose provider that can actually deliver adequate PRM services to the most vulnerable passengers at Dublin Airport.

Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon said:  

“It is inexplicable that daa (a state-owned company) did not follow a tender process before awarding a €33m contract to a PRM provider who has repeatedly failed to meet the most basic quality of service standards for the most vulnerable passengers over the past 2 years.

This is simply the latest episode in a long series of daa mismanagement at Dublin Airport, who just as they did with the 32m passenger cap, have again failed to adequately plan to ensure a fair and diligent tender process for a PRM provider, and instead have breached regulation by hastily awarding this €33m contract without a tender or without consulting the airlines whose passengers are forced to pay for this service.

It seems passengers, airlines, and the Irish economy have to suffer the effects of daa’s mismanagement in their failure to lodge planning applications on time or now to award a €33m contract without a tender.”