Problems that caused extreme congestion last summer in the terminal at Dublin airport will continue unless urgent action is taken, a draft report says.

Compiled for the Department of Public Enterprise by aviation consultants SH&E, it also says the successful co-ordination of aircraft movements will be secured if airlines behave "responsibly" in assisting the spread of air transport movement peaks.

The Assessment of Capacity of Dublin Airport report says some congestion difficulties at the terminal last year were caused by construction work, which is largely complete.

Other problems, however, such as access to stands - used by airlines to load passengers - were organisational "and will continue into summer 2001" without urgent action.

While noting that Aer Rianta had appointed IBM to provide stand management software, SH&E added that large numbers of passengers were crossing each other to reclaim baggage.

The airport terminal has three piers - A, B and C - at which passengers join and leave aircraft.

The report says: "Currently, passengers arriving in piers A and B will usually collect bags from the belts nearest pier C and vice-versa. This causes congestion as passenger flows cross each other. This has been compounded by reduced passage due to building works."

The consultants say "full co-ordination" of aircraft movements at the airport is not necessary in the short term. Only if airlines cannot comply fully with Airport Co-ordination Ltd and Aer Rianta, which manage demand and capacity at the airport, would such a system be required.

Air traffic is "co-ordinated" at present in a central management system which allows airlines to swap slots or move timings to off-peak from peak.

This was introduced last September by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, after serious congestion in the terminal buildings last summer caused what she described as "very real concerns in relation to public safety".

Before then, airlines submitted schedules to each other and sought agreement on timing amongst themselves.

SH&E was hired to assess Aer Rianta's request to have Dublin airport designated as a fully co-ordinated airport, which would impose tighter controls on the use of slots by airlines.

The consultants say the decision to designate Dublin airport as co-ordinated was "fully justified".

The success of the operation would be secured by airlines behaving responsibly. In addition, the Irish Aviation Authority should increase hourly runway capacity. The report also says refurbishment work on the old check-in area should not adversely affect operations.

The consultants say: "We believe that these conditions can be met and that if they are, three-four years' growth may be possible before there is insufficient slack in the system to allow self-management.

"This assumes that traffic grows by the `baseline' Aer Rianta projection. If growth continues at the rates experienced in the recent past, capacity could be reached as early as 2002. Beyond that there will be a need for firmer and more prescriptive control."

The consultants add: "As a note of caution, we must point out that at any airport, even with full co-ordination, there may still be serious congestion and poor quality of service at peak times because of unexpected problems and surges in demand.

"At airports like Dublin, which are operating near their absolute maximum capacity, this is highly likely."