Michael O'Leary slams ‘€70m cost hike’ in Dublin runway plan

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has strongly criticised the €70m cost increase for the second parallel runway at Dublin Airport.

Mr O’Leary, speaking in Trinity College Dublin, where he was endorsing Sean Barrett’s re-election to the Upper House, said the Dublin Airport Authority should pay the excess.

A 2014 report put the cost of developing the second parallel runway at €250m but last week’s announcement about the planned development put the price tag at €320m.

Mr O’Leary described the cost increase as “nonsense” and without justification.

“A second runway is a good idea and hopefully we will need it,” he told the Irish Examiner.

“It was approved by the aviation commission in 2014 at a cost of €243m. So we are somewhat taken aback that it has spiralled by 30% to €320m within 12 months without a sod being turned

“We have a meeting with the Dublin Airport Authority to find out what the other €70m is for. If the regulated cost of the project is €250m then we will fully support it.

“We are not paying for another round of DAA badly designed gold-plated, badly located facilities.”

Mr O’Leary said there is no justification for the IAA wanting to add another control tower.

“You only need one tower,” he said. “They have come up with some nonsense if they don’t build one that is 300m taller then they won’t be able to see the first 10 yards of one end of the runway.

I’ve asked them what do you do at night or in bad weather, and they say they use radar. So my attitude is put up a few video screens and away you go.

“It is this sort of wasteful expenditure, much beloved of the quangos of this country, and we can’t afford this sort of nonsense. Look at the damage the €10 travel tax did here for six years.

Mr O’Leary said Ryanair supports the runway but only at a cost of €250m.“

We don’t want a rerun of Terminal 2, which is a shambles,” he said. “Massively over-costed and functionally useless. Aircraft coming in the morning, there is nowhere for them to park because they blew all the money building two terminals up the front for shopping and they don’t have enough money for parking stands.”