A new privately owned terminal at Dublin Airport could accommodate up to 20 million passengers each year within a few years, Desmond and Ulick McEvaddy predicted yesterday.

The brothers, who own Omega Air, said a new terminal would initially handle between 8 and 10 million, but capacity could eventually rise to 20 million.

The brothers yesterday showed the media the 140-acre site where they want to locate the terminal. Mr Ulick McEvaddy said planing permission should not be a major problem.

He said the land was zoned for airport usage and there was virtually no housing in the area. He said the buildings themselves would need planning permission but Fingal County Council had in its the south Fingal planning study lent its support to a new terminal east of St Margaret's golf club.

The company behind the McEvaddy terminal, Dublin Airport Terminal 2 Limited (DAT 2), said the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan had adopted a "progressive and open approach" to the concept of a second terminal.

The McEvaddy terminal would be located to the west of the existing airport. The facility would be designed, built, financed and operated by DAT2 and would not require any State funding. It would cost about € 450 million.

"The location of our proposed terminal will mean no disruption to the existing airport terminal," said Mr Ulick McEvaddy at the presentation.

When the second runway is built at Dublin Airport, DAT2 would be strategically located between the parallel runways, he said.

"International experience shows this to be the prime location for terminals servicing parallel runways as it reduces airline costs and improves scheduling."