A serious rift has opened up between the board of the DAA and Kenny Jacobs, chief executive of the State-owned operator of Dublin and Cork airports.
The rift centres on business matters in an organisation facing challenges to advance complex infrastructure and litigation over the 32 million annual passenger cap that limits airport growth.
The tensions have been brought to the attention of senior Government figures, prompting concern about the risk of disruption at the top of the semi-State company.
Multiple sources said the matter was the subject of ongoing board engagements, with a “large majority” of directors said to be unhappy with the emergence of divisions.
RM Block
Responding to direct questions about the rift, a DAA spokeswoman said: “Kenny Jacobs is and remains the DAA CEO. We cannot comment on board matters, which are confidential, however, robust discussions can and do occur which is the sign of a functioning board.”
Mr Jacobs did not respond to a phone call and text message from The Irish Times.
The DAA submitted a €2.4 billion investment plan to Fingal County Council in late 2023 but the application is far from a decision. The local authority has said the process is stalled because noise regulators await documentation from the DAA.
The proposed development includes upgrades to terminal one, a new pier at terminal two and a tunnel under the airport’s “crosswind” runway.
At the same time, the DAA is struggling to secure permission from the council to increase the annual passenger limit at Dublin Airport to 40 million from 32 million.
The cap was imposed by planners in 2007 as a condition for allowing the airport’s second terminal to proceed. It was breached last year when 33.3 million passengers came through the airport, leading the local authority to issue an enforcement notice to the DAA in July.
The DAA recently resolved to initiate a High Court judicial review over the enforcement notice.
The cap was supposed to allay fears over traffic congestion around the airport but roads have since been upgraded.
While Fingal has yet to decide on DAA’s application to lift the cap, the restriction has effectively been paused since April following various legal challenges. One aspect of the case now awaits a ruling from the European courts.
The Fingal enforcement order allows a two-year period to comply with the passenger capacity conditions, even as the cap suspension remains in place.
Mr Jacobs, from Cork, was named as DAA chief executive in late 2022 in succession to Dalton Philips. His seven-year term started in January 2023.
He previously worked for more than six years at Ryanair as its chief marketing officer, where he led the airline’s digital, customer service, marketing and communications operations.
He has also worked at the Metro Group, MoneySuperMarket and Tesco.
He told the Sunday Independent in May that he brought a “take-no-s**t” attitude from Ryanair.
“We’re high performing,” he said in that interview. “We’ve had two record years, back-to-back. Yeah, we’re sticking our elbows out – and I’m comfortable with us having an uneasy relationship – because of our ambition and because we are really, really performing quite well.”
Such comments irked some officials in the Department of Transport, according to sources.
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