Ryanair objects to airport terminal

RYANAIR is to lodge an objection to the building of a second terminal at Dublin Airport.

The budget carrier says the €609 million development at the airport, with the terminal itself to cost €395m, is far too costly and it has offered to build the terminal at a cost of just €250m.

The airline is objecting on the grounds that the proposed terminal is in a poor location and is badly designed for airport users.

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) says the new terminal will be built by 2009 and capable of handling an additional 15 million passengers each year. The terminal will link up with the planned Metro and be situated on the approach road to the existing facility.

The DAA wants to increase passengers’ charges by at least 50% over the next few years to pay for the terminal, but Ryanair says this will unfairly penalise passengers not using the facility.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said the authority should pay for the new terminal by selling off investments in Birmingham, Dusseldorf and Hamburg airports — a move already ruled out by the company.

In a statement last evening, the airport authority said: “In response to inaccurate information broadcast by Michael O’Leary, the DAA wishes to reaffirm that the budgeted cost of the second passenger terminal at Dublin Airport is €395m at current prices.”