Ryanair has called on the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) to either block the Dublin Airport Authority’s (DAA) plans for its €850 million second terminal at Dublin Airport — saying that it’s “the wrong size, wrong cost and in the wrong location” — or force Aer Lingus, who will occupy the facility, to pay for it.
“The CAR’s draft decision has now confirmed what Ryanair has been saying all along — DAA’s T2 is excessively large and grossly expensive. Despite this, the CAR is allowing DAA to proceed with this development and the regulator expects Ryanair’s passengers to subsidise this white elephant, which will never be fully utilised because of Fingal County Council planning restrictions,” said Ryanair’s head of regulatory affairs, Jim Callaghan.
Irish Examiner
Showing posts with label dublin airport terminal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dublin airport terminal. Show all posts
Friday, 22 June 2007
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
DAA urges T2 planning decision
DUBLIN Airport Authority (DAA) has warned it could miss its target of having a new terminal built by the summer of 2009 if it does not get final planning permission by the end of the month.
Fingal County Council approved the €1.2 billion expansion of the airport in October last year but an appeal to An Bord Pleanála by Ryanair and local residents has held up the beginning of construction.
An oral hearing by the board concluded several weeks ago and the DAA said yesterday that T2, as the new terminal has been called, needed the go-ahead as soon as possible.
DAA chairman Gary McGann said yesterday: “We must hope, given An Bord Pleanála’s many commitments, it is in a position to prioritise its deliberations on T2 — given Dublin Airport’s strategic importance for millions of passengers and the overall economy.”
There was, however, more certainty about the financing of the DAA’s expansion plans over the next few years. The DAA said it has been in discussions with the Commission for Aviation Regulation and was now confident that it would be able to recoup 95% of the cost of the expansion through higher passenger charges once T2 is finished.
The regulator is due to make a final determination on airport charges nest week.
DAA chief executive Declan Collier said the company would have to borrow €1.2bn to fund the expansion plans, which also includes a new runway and an extension to the existing terminal building.
The DAA yesterday released its annual report for 2006 showing pre-tax profits, including exceptional items, of €203 million, up from €63.9m.
Turnover at the DAA rose 12.5% last year to €591m. Excluding the Great Southern Hotel chain, which was sold off, turnover form continuing operations was 15% higher at €555.2m.
Around half of the company’s turnover was derived form its commercial activities, such as car parks and duty free shops, a rise of €22.5m on 2006, while revenues from aeronautical charges rose by €34.6m reflecting an increase in people using Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.
Passenger numbers hit a record in 2006, particularly at Dublin where growth was faster than at any of Europe’s 35 largest airports.
Irish Examiner
Fingal County Council approved the €1.2 billion expansion of the airport in October last year but an appeal to An Bord Pleanála by Ryanair and local residents has held up the beginning of construction.
An oral hearing by the board concluded several weeks ago and the DAA said yesterday that T2, as the new terminal has been called, needed the go-ahead as soon as possible.
DAA chairman Gary McGann said yesterday: “We must hope, given An Bord Pleanála’s many commitments, it is in a position to prioritise its deliberations on T2 — given Dublin Airport’s strategic importance for millions of passengers and the overall economy.”
There was, however, more certainty about the financing of the DAA’s expansion plans over the next few years. The DAA said it has been in discussions with the Commission for Aviation Regulation and was now confident that it would be able to recoup 95% of the cost of the expansion through higher passenger charges once T2 is finished.
The regulator is due to make a final determination on airport charges nest week.
DAA chief executive Declan Collier said the company would have to borrow €1.2bn to fund the expansion plans, which also includes a new runway and an extension to the existing terminal building.
The DAA yesterday released its annual report for 2006 showing pre-tax profits, including exceptional items, of €203 million, up from €63.9m.
Turnover at the DAA rose 12.5% last year to €591m. Excluding the Great Southern Hotel chain, which was sold off, turnover form continuing operations was 15% higher at €555.2m.
Around half of the company’s turnover was derived form its commercial activities, such as car parks and duty free shops, a rise of €22.5m on 2006, while revenues from aeronautical charges rose by €34.6m reflecting an increase in people using Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.
Passenger numbers hit a record in 2006, particularly at Dublin where growth was faster than at any of Europe’s 35 largest airports.
Irish Examiner
Monday, 23 April 2007
revor Sargent addresses Terminal 2 oral hearing.
Green Party Leader, Trevor Sargent, made an oral observation at the An Bord Pleanála oral hearing into Terminal 2 at the Radisson SAS Hotel (former Great Southern) at Dublin Airport on Friday 20 April 2007.
Mr Sargent said that as Leader of the Green Party and a Dáil representative for DublinNorth he was most concerned about the proper development of the area. He wanted to put his observations on the record because some important issues were not been given the consideration they deserved. He feared the airport decision was being made without a full knowledge and appreciation of the all the issues.
He felt, for example, that the Strategic Environmental Assessment that had been made of the development plans of Dublin Airport had not adequately addressed the issue of climate change, which was now an undeniable fact. "The best way that plan could contribute to reducing climate change would be to put a hold on the development of Dublin Airport. If there is an optimum size for Dublin Airport, what is it? As far as the people of St Margaret's and Portmarnock are concerned, we are already near that optimum," he said.
According to Mr Sargent, it was important for the country to meet its future needs to be carbon neutral. We had international responsibilities in that regard. This was no longer just a matter of the Kyoto protocol where aviation had managed to stay beneath the radar, but of the upcoming post-Kyoto agreement. This agreement will be more rigorous as far as aviation is concerned. He pointed out that: "we have only ten years in which to act to prevent the earth's temperature rising by 2 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels."
He said that no proper consideration was being given to unbalanced regional development. He noted that the proper development of Fingal should take account of the state of underdevelopment of the Western Seaboard as compared to the Eastern Seaboard. This should be done before proceeding with the further development of the Dublin area in a laissez-faire manner and exacerbating its many problems, including congestion and pollution.
He noted that: "there had been no Cost Benefit justification for these proposals. In
terms of 'Value for Money', it is not just an issue of government funds but of land and other resources that are in the custodianship of Dublin Airport. It should not be assumed that the land involved is a given, and is therefore free. Obviously we know that would not be so, if it were sold, given the price of land in the area."
Contacted later Mr Sargent said he believed that, on the evidence, the planned expansion of Dublin Airport was socially, economically and environmentally unsustainable. He also agreed with Professor Stern that climate change was the greatest market failure the world had seen, and that unless the costs of climate change were included in our assessment of development projects, this market failure would persist to the detriment of the humanity.
Mr Sargent said that as Leader of the Green Party and a Dáil representative for DublinNorth he was most concerned about the proper development of the area. He wanted to put his observations on the record because some important issues were not been given the consideration they deserved. He feared the airport decision was being made without a full knowledge and appreciation of the all the issues.
He felt, for example, that the Strategic Environmental Assessment that had been made of the development plans of Dublin Airport had not adequately addressed the issue of climate change, which was now an undeniable fact. "The best way that plan could contribute to reducing climate change would be to put a hold on the development of Dublin Airport. If there is an optimum size for Dublin Airport, what is it? As far as the people of St Margaret's and Portmarnock are concerned, we are already near that optimum," he said.
According to Mr Sargent, it was important for the country to meet its future needs to be carbon neutral. We had international responsibilities in that regard. This was no longer just a matter of the Kyoto protocol where aviation had managed to stay beneath the radar, but of the upcoming post-Kyoto agreement. This agreement will be more rigorous as far as aviation is concerned. He pointed out that: "we have only ten years in which to act to prevent the earth's temperature rising by 2 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels."
He said that no proper consideration was being given to unbalanced regional development. He noted that the proper development of Fingal should take account of the state of underdevelopment of the Western Seaboard as compared to the Eastern Seaboard. This should be done before proceeding with the further development of the Dublin area in a laissez-faire manner and exacerbating its many problems, including congestion and pollution.
He noted that: "there had been no Cost Benefit justification for these proposals. In
terms of 'Value for Money', it is not just an issue of government funds but of land and other resources that are in the custodianship of Dublin Airport. It should not be assumed that the land involved is a given, and is therefore free. Obviously we know that would not be so, if it were sold, given the price of land in the area."
Contacted later Mr Sargent said he believed that, on the evidence, the planned expansion of Dublin Airport was socially, economically and environmentally unsustainable. He also agreed with Professor Stern that climate change was the greatest market failure the world had seen, and that unless the costs of climate change were included in our assessment of development projects, this market failure would persist to the detriment of the humanity.
Wednesday, 18 April 2007
Plan for second terminal 'nonsense'
PLANS by the Dublin Airport Authority to build a second terminal are a "nonsense" and are designed to raise costs and passenger charges, Ryanair said yesterday.
Its history of "bad, excessively expensive development" means the total cost of developing the terminal - known as T2 - and associated works will be €842m, and not €610m as the DAA claims, the airline claimed.
Yesterday Ryanair's Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Jim Callaghan, told a planning hearing that the DAA had failed to include the €150m 'write-off' of the airport's Pier C when arriving at a final cost.
This had resulted in the cost of the terminal quadrupling from €170m-€200m when it was first announced in September 2005, compared with the €840m bill Ryanair expects the DAA to meet. And he said that if T2 is built, passenger charges could almost double because the airport regulator based passenger charges on the value of assets held by the airport.
The high-cost facility would be bad news for consumers, while Pier C would be "wasted", he added.
T2 could accommodate up to 40 million passengers each year which would be a "manifest breach" of the 30 million a year cap envisaged in the Fingal County Council local area plan on numbers going through the airport. Had the DAA decided to build a €200m facility to accommodate 15 million passengers as it first proposed in 2005, Ryanair would support the plans. But the €842m cost - which the DAA has refuted - could not be justified.
"Most cities in Europe have a low-cost airport or terminal which Dublin hasn't. Ryanair offered to build and pay for a second terminal, but the Government decided to go with the Dublin Airport Authority.
No consideration had been given to building a new terminal to the north of the airport, which would have been more convenient to the existing terminal. Louise Congdon, an airport planning specialist appearing on behalf of Ryanair, said: "If Ryanair assumes control of Aer Lingus it will not use T2 and the development will be abortive."
Paul Melia
Irish Independent
Its history of "bad, excessively expensive development" means the total cost of developing the terminal - known as T2 - and associated works will be €842m, and not €610m as the DAA claims, the airline claimed.
Yesterday Ryanair's Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Jim Callaghan, told a planning hearing that the DAA had failed to include the €150m 'write-off' of the airport's Pier C when arriving at a final cost.
This had resulted in the cost of the terminal quadrupling from €170m-€200m when it was first announced in September 2005, compared with the €840m bill Ryanair expects the DAA to meet. And he said that if T2 is built, passenger charges could almost double because the airport regulator based passenger charges on the value of assets held by the airport.
The high-cost facility would be bad news for consumers, while Pier C would be "wasted", he added.
T2 could accommodate up to 40 million passengers each year which would be a "manifest breach" of the 30 million a year cap envisaged in the Fingal County Council local area plan on numbers going through the airport. Had the DAA decided to build a €200m facility to accommodate 15 million passengers as it first proposed in 2005, Ryanair would support the plans. But the €842m cost - which the DAA has refuted - could not be justified.
"Most cities in Europe have a low-cost airport or terminal which Dublin hasn't. Ryanair offered to build and pay for a second terminal, but the Government decided to go with the Dublin Airport Authority.
No consideration had been given to building a new terminal to the north of the airport, which would have been more convenient to the existing terminal. Louise Congdon, an airport planning specialist appearing on behalf of Ryanair, said: "If Ryanair assumes control of Aer Lingus it will not use T2 and the development will be abortive."
Paul Melia
Irish Independent
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