Dublin Airport Authority holds first meeting

The inaugural meeting of the new Dublin Airport Authority took place this morning at the Great Southern Hotel at the airport.

The inaugural meeting of the new Dublin Airport Authority took place this morning at the Great Southern Hotel at the airport.

The 12 board members gathered for talks ahead of taking over from Aer Rianta, on October 1st, under the controversial restructuring plan.

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, speaking before the meeting, said: "The job now is to get down and look at how they can build on the very good success that Aer Rianta has built up over the last few years.

"Dublin Airport is arguably one of the busiest airports in Europe today so it needs intensive management, and I am convinced that this authority and this structure is the best structure going forward for the 21st century," Mr Brennan said.

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The board members appointed over the last few weeks will be chaired by Mr Gary McGann of Jefferson Smurfit and the former chief executive of Aer Lingus.

"The authorities are legally in place and they will be responsible for managing the airports once they take office at the end of the month," Mr Brennan said. "There won't be any hiatus in terms of day to day intensive management."

The board will take control of the airport assets, liabilities, contracts and obligations next month, when the State airports operator is broken up.

Under the Government plans Aer Rianta will be abolished and the three separate authorities will take over Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports. Mr Brennan said the board still needed to hold discussions with the trade unions.

The Government will sign the airports' assets over to the authorities under the three business plans.

Mr Brennan said the number of travellers coming through Dublin Airport was predicted to hit 20 million by 2010.

"I feel that a new structure is required so that each can focus on their own airports going into the future," he added. "This structure and the new authorities will bring us extra focus and extra drive."