THE AVIATION commissioner Cathal Guiomard has sought to fast-track one of two challenges by Ryanair to his decision fixing the maximum charges the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) may levy at Dublin airport over a five-year period to 2014.
Ryanair is seeking to judicially review the charging decision and to appeal it to a panel set up by the Minister for Transport.
The DAA claims the effect of Ryanair’s proceedings, “if not their object”, is to create enormous uncertainty about charges to apply at Dublin airport’s Terminal 2, due to open in November.
While the DAA can apply the charges allowed by the commissioner, its counsel Paul Sreenan said Ryanair’s judicial review creates uncertainty for other operators on whether they go into Terminal 2, as Ryanair is essentially looking for orders compelling the commissioner to oppose differential pricing between Terminals 1 and 2.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly said the case highlights a “discrepancy” in the Aviation Regulation Act 2001, as the Act both allows for “leisurely” appeals to the Minister for Transport against decisions of the commissioner, while also prescribing a two-month limit within which applications for leave to seek judicial review of the same decisions must be brought.
The Act allows for parties, such as in this case, to ride two horses at the same time with a different time frame applying to both options, he said. The legislation should be looked at to avoid a recurrence of this, he added.
He suggested Ryanair’s judicial review was “a waste of public time” in the Commercial Court, while the airline continued to have its appeal in its “back pocket”.
If Ryanair lost its appeal, it could then seek judicial review of the appeal tribunal’s decision, he noted. Frank Beatty, for Ryanair, said his client was entitled to bring its proceedings.
The judge said it was “quite unacceptable” that Ryanair, although essentially seeking to quash the commissioner’s decision, had applied for 23 different reliefs in that regard, which were all “rehashes of the same thing”.
The “alphabet is insufficient” to provide for Ryanair’s grounds for judicial review, many of which – including a statement that Ryanair is a limited company providing low-cost air transport – were “not grounds at all” and amounted to “spraying the countryside” with claims, he said.
Mr Justice Kelly fixed April 15th next for the hearing of both the adjournment application and the leave application.
Ex-srt Staff March On Minister’s Office
Former SR Technics staff have called on Ryanair, the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), Aer Lingus and Minister for Enterprise Mary Coughlan to put petty prejudices aside and stop playing politics with their jobs.
About 100 of the maintenance firm’s former workers yesterday marched across Dublin to Ms Coughlan’s Kildare Street offices to protest at how a Ryanair offer to employ up to 500 staff at Dublin airport has now turned into a public relations exercise.
Chris Walker, who worked for SR Technics for 31 years, said Ms Coughlan’s decision to decline the offer and her failure to accept an earlier management proposal to save jobs beggared belief.
“Effectively we believe we are caught in a turf war between the DAA, Aer Lingus and Ryanair,” he said. “Obviously the DAA moved to put Aer Lingus in the hangar to keep Ryanair out . . . We want to know why two serious offers to save jobs were squandered.”
Mr Walker said many felt Aer Lingus using the hangar was akin to converting the M50 motorway into a cycle way. STEVEN CARROLL
