Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary clashed with airports operator DAA on Monday over the State company’s €5.6-billion plan to expand Dublin Airport.
DAA recently set out plans to expand Ireland’s biggest airport between next year and 2031, allowing it to handle around 45 million passengers a year, from 36.4 million in 2025.
However, O’Leary branded the €5.6-billion bill for the work a “waste” and “regulatory gaming of the worst kind”, claiming it would double what Dublin charges airlines for passengers to €40 per person.
Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien “should tackle this by sacking the board of the DAA”, said O’Leary.
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He demanded that Department of Transport officials instruct the DAA to come up with a new growth plan for Dublin that lowered costs and grew passenger numbers to 45 million.
He said that the DAA plan amounted to twice the cost of the controversial national children’s hospital, for which the State could pay more than €2.5 billion.
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The airline chief argued that the proposals would not add any new passenger capacity.
O’Leary’s remarks prompted a DAA spokesman to say that Ryanair’s passenger figures showed it needed “a new calculator”.
“The maximum DAA is currently allowed to charge is €10.40, the same price as 15 years ago, despite 20 per cent-plus inflation in the intervening period,” he said.
“Our regulatory proposition for the next five years requests a modest increase to average €13, which will fund further improvements of facilities for passengers and our 40-plus airline partners,” added the spokesman.
Air travel regulator the Irish Aviation Authority must approve spending by DAA on expanding Dublin Airport while it determines the maximum that the company can charge airlines for the passengers they fly from there.
DAA set out its plans to the authority in a recently published submission. The regulator will conclude a process this year that will set passenger charges at Dublin from 2027 to 2031.
Ryanair maintains that the plan will not add to passenger capacity as it does not provide for new terminals and runways.
DAA plans two extra piers, the sections where departure and arrival gates are located, which the airport operator believes will allow Dublin take on up to 10 million extra travellers a year. Its proposed new pier 5 east could support up to three million additional travellers, the majority of which the company notes could be inbound US tourists. A new pier 1 east could allow it to take on a further seven million passengers a year.
DAA opted to add new piers instead of building a third terminal building when it first began working on its current expansion plan.
The Minister is due to publish legislation that will allow him to drop or amend a 32-million-a-year passenger limit on Dublin. Airlines including Ryanair have been urging politicians to pass the Bill into law quickly, or face serious loss of traffic at the airport.
Planners imposed the limit on the two existing terminals at Dublin in 2007 on the basis that further expansion at the airport would require a third facility. However, new technology and passenger processing systems mean Dublin no longer needs a third terminal.
