An Bord Pleanála's hearing gives opposing sides the chance to outline the pros and cons of Dublin airport's planned second terminal, writes Ciarán Brennan
An Bord Pleanála's hearing next week into Dublin Airport Authority's (DAA) plans for a new second terminal at Dublin airport will give the DAA and Ryanair an official forum to outline the pros and cons of the development.
Until now, both sides have been engaging in verbal sparring matches with each other on the merits - if you're in the DAA - or the drawbacks - if you're Ryanair - of the controversial plans for the much-needed piece of infrastructure.
Ryanair, which is the airport's largest customer, believes the terminal is too big and too expensive. It is behind the appeal to An Bord Pleanála of the decision to give the terminal planning permission.
As part of his latest salvo against the DAA, O'Leary was on a whistlestop tour of low-cost terminals in Germany yesterday, extolling the virtues of Frankfurt Hahn's proposed new terminal and Bremen's recently opened new terminal.
"Frankfurt Hahn airport's second terminal will be built at a cost of €60 million and will have a capacity for 15 million passengers per annum. This is 12 times less than the €750 million which the DAA monopoly proposes to squander on T2, with the same passenger capacity," said O'Leary.
In Bremen, a maintenance hangar at the airport was bought by Ryanair and developed at a cost of €10.4 million with a capacity of three million passengers a year. Ryanair argues that this is the same passenger capacity as the second terminal that the DAA built in Cork, but cost 18 times less.
Both examples are designed to highlight what O'Leary has termed the DAA's wasteful "gold plating" and Ireland's flawed regulatory regime. But the DAA has argued that O'Leary's comparison is misleading, meaningless and does not compare like with like.
"Dublin airport is a major capital city airport, and a key economic gateway for Ireland," said a DAA spokesman. "It is comparable to other large European airports such as Copenhagen, Zürich and Oslo. Comparing it to minor regional airports such as Hahn, Bremen or Marseille is like comparing Arsenal to Accrington Stanley. Such comparisons are totally meaningless and without merit."
It disputes the €750 million figure being used by O'Leary in relation to the second terminal, saying the figure is €395 million, although it says the construction of related facilities will bring the figure up to €610 million.
"The new terminal is designed to handle long-haul and short-haul traffic," said the spokesman. "Independent, Government-appointed consultants have stated that the cost of T2 and its associated facilities is fully in line with similar terminal developments at comparable European airports."
For his part, O'Leary has rejected the use of Dublin's capital city status as a basis for comparison. "Frankfurt is a much bigger city than Dublin. The fact that Dublin is the capital is immaterial. Hahn is a much larger city airport run by Fraport, one of the world's leading airport owner-operators," he said.
But the DAA said that Hahn is not the main city airport for Frankfurt and that Fraport is also building a new terminal at Frankfurt's main airport which will cost approximately €900 million to cater for 25 million passengers.
"This more appropriate comparison shows yet again that the DAA's costs for T2 are in line with comparable international norms," said the spokesman.
"Fraport is building a utilitarian terminal at its Hahn subsidiary because it is a small former military airport in a remote location that is only used by no-frills airlines."
Whatever about the merits of either side's arguments to date, the real debate will take place next week. O'Leary said he is confident that An Bord Pleanála will reject the plans for T2 which he argues are in breach of Fingal County's guidelines.
But even if An Bord Pleanála finds in favour of the DAA, the issue will not end there. O'Leary says Ryanair will take a judicial review against the terminal and, if that is not successful, will go to the European courts.
He argues that Ryanair had supported the DAA's original plan for a €200 million terminal which he says has "exploded in costs by four fold".
"The fact that the DAA is now looking to double charges at Dublin airport because of this massive cost over-run is an abuse of its monopoly power."
That said, O'Leary is still holding out an olive branch of sorts. "Fundamentally, it is still not too late for the DAA to come to their senses, build the €200 million terminal and we would support that."
