Plans for a new €395 million terminal at Dublin airport have suffered a major setback following Ryanair's decision to lodge a planning objection to Fingal County Council.
The airline also intends to ask the Competition Authority to investigate what its claims is a fourfold increase in costs of the project. A complaint will also be made to the European Commission accusing the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) of abusing its monopoly position at the airport, according to the airline.
A complaint will also be submitted to the Commission for Aviation Regulation on the issue of passenger charges, which will be used to pay for the facility.
In his most trenchant criticism yet of the airport authorities at Dublin, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said the proposed terminal was too costly, badly designed and in the wrong location. The airline itself said it was offering to build a €250 million terminal of its own in the north apron area, near the north runway. Describing the DAA's plans as "lunacy" and its leading executives as "idiots", Mr O'Leary predicted it would be turned down for planning permission by Fingal County Council. He said every car would be funnelled into the same road, exacerbating existing congestion problems.
For its part, the DAA yesterday said "any unmerited objections or unnecessary delays" to the project would impact on passengers.
Mr O'Leary said airports all over the world were being built for much less than the DAA was proposing. He said the DAA benchmarked itself against monopoly airports at Paris, London and Frankfurt. But he said that, when compared to other British and European airports which built low-cost facilities, it was a different story. "Luton London built a new terminal three years ago, with a capacity for 14 million passengers, at a cost of €60 million. €4 million per million passengers." He said the DAA plan would cost €50.6 million per million passenger.
"We believe the DAA has a long record of incompetence in building awful facilities that don't work, in blowing enormous sums of money in developing those facilities and we think there is a better way."
Mr O'Leary said a major flaw in the new terminal was the amount of space given over to check-in areas. "This is a bit of a mystery given that, increasingly, passengers are not going to queue for check-in. They are going to check in on the website or at Aer Lingus kiosks."
He said check-in was "finished" and only bag drop points would be needed in future. He also said there was no access between terminals 1 and 2.
Describing his own plan, he said Ryanair would meet the €250 million cost. "The DAA will get a second terminal for free. It won't have to spend the €610 million they propose spending on the white elephant Taj Mahal they propose," he said. Mr O'Leary said Ryanair's plans would remove the need to scrap Pier C and Corballis House, a listed building. He said its terminal would result in no extra passenger charges.
He said one of the worst elements of the DAA plan was its proposed location. "The DAA's proposed second terminal is in a cul-de-sac. It's on the southside of the airport, which is the worst possible location for a second terminal in terms of access to the north runway. What we are effectively going to have is enormous traffic jams of aircraft crossing over each other, trying to get between the south and north second runway when its ultimately built some time around 2010".
