The number of passengers using Dublin airport continues to rise sharply, with this year's overall total likely to exceed original estimates by more than one million people.
Ciarán Scanlon, programme manager with the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), said yesterday that there had been a 15 per cent increase in passenger numbers in July compared with the same month last year.
He forecast that the overall total could reach 21½ million by the end of the year.
The authority predicted last year that about 20 million passengers would use the airport this year. However, this estimate was compiled before the announcement by Ryanair of a significant expansion of its route network from Dublin.
Mr Scanlon said that the authority expected two million passengers to pass through the airport this month and the about same number in September.
The director of services at Fingal County Council, David O'Connor, said yesterday that the local authority anticipated receiving a planning application for the second terminal at Dublin airport next week.
The Dublin Airport Authority expects the new terminal to be be open by October 2009. In the meantime, a new pier, providing 14 extra boarding gates, is expected to be completed by late 2007.
Mr O'Connor also said that the county council would be making a "very strong case" at an oral hearing due to be held by An Bord Pleanála next month into appeals against the decision of the local authority to grant permission for a second runway at Dublin airport.
"You are going to hear all sorts of terrible things said about us and about how we are trying to destroy the amenity of north Dublin," he said.
"We do not want to destroy anybody's amenity. Aircraft are far less noisy and far less intrusive than they were even 10 years ago, and we believe that we have done our best to mitigate the downsides that are undoubtedly there for living close to the airport, and we are confident that we can deliver that as well."
Mr O'Connor said that parallel runways were a "proven model" for optimising operations at airports.
The development of the planned metro to north Dublin would make a big difference, although it would not provide a "magic bullet" in relation to traffic issues at the airport, he added.
He envisaged that the planned metro station at the airport would be close to both the existing terminal building and the proposed second terminal.
There has been speculation in recent months that some plans drawn up by the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) for the metro envisaged the new station being located some distance from the terminal buildings and close to the main entrance to the airport complex from the M1 motorway.
A spokesman for the RPA said yesterday that a final decision on the location of the metro station at the airport had not yet been taken.
Mr O'Connor and Mr Scanlon were speaking at a reception yesterday to mark the completion of refurbishment work at the Clarion Hotel at Dublin airport.
