Aer Rianta got High Court permission yesterday to amend proceedings it has taken against the Commission for Aviation Regulation.
The company claims the commission made revised findings on maximum levels of airport charges for Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports without it having an opportunity to put its views.
Aer Rianta has secured court leave to challenge the commission's revised decision, made last February. Aer Lingus and Ryanair have been joined as notice parties in those legal proceedings.
The airport company claims, as a matter of law, the commission did not have jurisdiction to make a decision which had the effect of preventing Aer Rianta embarking on a capital expenditure programme it believed was necessary.
Ms Margaret Sweeney, Aer Rianta's deputy chief executive, said when the commission issued its original decision last August, five parties, Aer Lingus, Air Contractors (Ireland) Ltd, Association of Flying Groups at Dublin Airport, British Midland (now brmi) and Ryanair appealed.
The Minister for Public Enterprise set up an Aviation Appeal Panel in November. Aer Rianta did not appeal the "original" [August\] decision but made observations on the appeals lodged before the appeal panel by the air companies. On December 20th last, the commission sent a letter to the appeal panel that it [the commission\] was considering the issues raised by the air companies. The letter stated that in certain issues raised there were "what might be considered as errors or miscalculations" in the original commission decision.
Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for Aer Rianta, argued the appeal panel wrongly referred the errors to the commission. He claimed the errors were only "computational" errors and that the commission was limited to correcting such errors.
His client had not been given proper representation on the commission's review.
Mr Justice Murphy said he would not allow the Aer Rianta amendment which claimed that the appeal panel acted in excess of its powers when it referred the errors to the commission. However, he would allow an amendment of the Aer Rianta judicial review proceedings to allow the company to argue that the commission improperly, without jurisdiction and precluding Aer Rianta from making proper representations, revised its original decision.