ONE MORE THING:WHAT IS rare is beautiful, so, having lost a number of jousts with aviation regulator Cathal Guiomard, Ryanair executives must have taken great joy from a determination just before Christmas by the Aviation Appeals Panel on the construction of terminal two (T2) at Dublin airport.

In relation to Ryanair's appeal on the Commission for Aviation Regulation's determination on the scale and cost of the terminal, the panel was critical of the way in which the airport's overall capacity was assessed and raised questions about how the costs of the new terminal should be borne.

Ryanair has argued that the costs of T2 should be carried by passengers and airlines using the facility, but this was rejected by the regulator in his 2007 midterm review of airport charges.

These and other items relating to an appeal by the Dublin Airport Authority have been referred back to Guiomard, who has two months to carry out a review of his original decision. What that review will yield is anybody's guess. On Wednesday, the regulator kicked off a consultation process in relation to the points made in the panel's determination.

Ryanair director of regulatory affairs Jim Callaghan is in no doubt about what action the commission should take.

"Ryanair calls on the aviation regulator to confirm publicly that it will not allow this waste and oversizing [at T2] to be passed on to current and future passengers [at Dublin airport] in the form of higher airport charges," he said.

At the end of the day, Guiomard might decide his original determination in relation to T2 is sound and take no action.

Meanwhile, the process to decide airport charges for the five years from 2010 has already started and will conclude this year, thereby making redundant the decisions on charges made to date.

Who said aviation was boring?