The under-use of antigen testing, mandatory quarantine and some of the heaviest Covid restrictions in Europe, have all combined and taken an enormous toll on the industry here.

It is as if the Government and their health advisers have failed to appreciate the value of the industry to Ireland Inc.

Airline capacity isn’t just about seats on planes for Irish people to go and get some sun. It is also about connectivity for inward tourism and business.

As an island economy on the periphery of Europe, we have always punched above our weight when it comes to aviation.

In 2019 before Covid, Ireland was the 16th largest aviation market in Europe. This was a big achievement given that our population places us 26th.

Ireland’s position in that ranking has fallen dramatically, despite the fact that Covid hit every market.

According to the Centre for Aviation by the end of June 2021, Ireland ranked as the 23rd biggest aviation market in Europe by seats, which marked a huge slump.

The fact we have no real internal market has been a factor in helping to unwind decades of progress in the industry.

Ryanair and Aer Lingus account for 76pc of seats into and out of Ireland.

Ryanair has recovered faster, especially across Europe. But at home it is operating around 34pc of its 2019 seat capacity compared to Aer Lingus with just 14pc.

There are no guarantees that pent-up demand for flying will instantly turn the tap back on. Ireland’s loss of connectivity could take several years to reverse.

European aviation figures show that in April of 2020, flight movements across Europe were down 89pc compared with 2019. By July 5 this year they were down 39.9pc from the highs of 2019.

But in Ireland the situation is a lot worse. Irish Aviation Authority figures show that commercial movements of aircraft at Dublin Airport in May of this year were down 89pc on 2019. At Cork Airport they were down 89.8pc and 76.7pc at Shannon Airport.

As we approach the opening up of EU travel on July 19, there is little sign of a dramatic increase in flight activity yet. There were just nine flight departures from Cork Airport on Tuesday.

Strip out the UK destinations and there were just three.

At Shannon Airport on Tuesday there just five flight arrivals. Without the UK there were two. Obviously airlines will ramp up after July 19, but not if many people find it is still too prohibitive.

There is also evidence that Aer Lingus and Ryanair will be slower to bring back 2019 capacity levels, and why would they if they can generate some profit elsewhere, after heavy Covid losses.

Aer Lingus announced in June that it was cancelling a number of flights to European destinations due to poor demand from customers. These have been cancelled for the remainder of 2021.

The former state airline’s decision to close its Shannon cabin crew base came as another blow to that region. You don’t have to read between the lines to figure out what the airline is saying.

Aer Lingus has “too many resources and will need to adapt”, the airline said last month.

It blamed the lack of a Government restart plan for the sector and the ongoing severity of travel restrictions, saying these meant “airlines are unable to plan their business and the bookings for the summer are low”.

The Government made a decision to participate in the EU Covid Certificate travel scheme. It had little choice.

But it has been late to open it up and has so far failed to allow antigen testing for accompanying children, instead insisting on a €120 PCR test.

The UK-US aviation market has always been the biggest on the North Atlantic. For that reason it tends to attract more competitors. Four airlines have left the UK-US route since 2019, including Norwegian Air.

But three airlines are now lining up to enter it, including Aer Lingus and JetBlue.

The contrasting stories could not be more pronounced. Aer Lingus has been hamstrung out of Ireland so is gearing up to use aircraft out of Britain to the US.

As an island off an island off the west of continental Europe, Ireland has always had to work harder to win business.

Our tourism marketing had to be that bit better to convince visitors to go the extra distance to Ireland. Good marketing is useless without the supporting airline capacity to go with it.

Doing business in Ireland has been made easy, notwithstanding the additional challenges of getting to the island. Airline capacity is central to this success.

A CSO attitudes survey in February of this year found that a quarter of people said it would be 2023 before they took their next international flight. This was up from just 6.8pc four months earlier. 

Covid-19 caused havoc in the global aviation industry. Ireland was inevitably going to be affected that bit harder. But the story is now about recovery.

The internal US and Chinese aviation markets have completely recovered to 2019 levels.

International travel still has a long way to go but it is moving.

Unless the Government realises the potential long-term damage and truly embraces the opportunities that the EU certificate scheme can bring, decades of vital work in building connectivity will be thrown away.