Old Cork Airport terminal to be demolished in 2026

The old air traffic control tower and terminal building at Cork Airport. Picture: Larry Cummins

The first of six major capital projects to allow Cork Airport to grow and accommodate 5m passengers annually gets under way this summer.

Daa chief executive Kenny Jacobs said the projects, including the demolition of the old terminal, should be completed by the end of 2027.

After reaching a record 3.1m international passengers last year, Cork is expected to reach 3.3m this year and Jacobs said that 5m passengers per year is achievable within three years.

The first is a major project to extend the security screening mezzanine to accommodate new C3 screening machines that will eliminate the need to remove liquids from carry-on bags.

This will be followed by work to build a new carpark close to the existing multi-storey carpark, a new solar farm to help power the airport, and then work to build two new forward boarding gates at the current terminal.

The final element will be the demolition of the old airport terminal, which will likely take place at some point next year and be followed by the construction of a new pier for more aircraft.

“They are the six building blocks for the future of Cork Airport that will start work in the second half of this year and construction will finish in 2027. Then that gives you capacity for Cork Airport to take over 5m passengers.”

Figures from Daa this week show Cork grew passenger numbers in January by 7% while numbers through Dublin were flat due to the cap at Dublin Airport.

Mr Jacobs said Cork is on course to be Ireland’s fastest-growing airport for the second year running but said the increase was not because of the Dublin cap.

“Is Cork and other regional airports benefiting from the Dublin CAP? Not to a degree that you keep it. And if you lifted the Dublin cap you’ll get even more benefit. I am all for rebalancing aviation across Ireland, but the way you do it is you come up with a regional airports development programme. You don’t hurt Dublin.”

Kenny Jacobs, Daa chief executive, said Cork is on course to be Ireland’s fastest-growing airport for the second year running. Picture: Brian Lougheed

“I had an airline CEO in America ring me yesterday who asked if everything in Ireland is capped or just Dublin airport, so people are just going ‘I’ll just go to Gatwick. I’ll just go to Manchester.’ So we still have that negative hanging over us that we need to get fixed.”

Despite traffic growth slowing through Dublin, Jacobs said he still believes overall passenger numbers will grow by 1m through Dublin this year, with a surge in flights between March and November when the cap is temporarily lifted due to court proceedings.

“We do expect growth in Dublin in 2025, but it will be crammed into the seven months of the summer. But the CAP hasn’t gone away,” he said.

Mr Jacobs believes rapid legislative action from the new Government is the fastest way to remove the cap as it also seeks out a legal and planning solution. 

Daa has lodged a fresh application to Fingal County Council to lift the cap but believes the planning process could take up to three years.

Separately, Daa has joined airlines in legal action to lift the cap which has been referred to Europe by the High Court, a process Jacobs believes will take a year, at best.

“There’s a real risk now that airlines are looking at the winter in Dublin and saying, well, there’s still a cap in the winter and they may be pulling flights. So we need to get the cap removed 100%. It needs to be gone in 2025. Ideally, it needs to be gone over the summer so that we airlines can plan their winter properly.”

On short-term growth for Cork, Mr Jacobs repeated his wish that Cork’s priority to to build out its winter schedule to European destinations rather than focusing on trying to secure transatlantic flights. 

He said securing year-round routes to Berlin, Copenhagen, Madrid, Lisbon, and Warsaw were the priority.

He said the decision by Aer Lingus to drop its flight to Amsterdam was predictable but said their loss was KLM’s gain. 

“Amsterdam hasn’t come off the map. All that’s happened is that one particular tailfin has stopped serving it there.

Mr Jacobs said another pressing issue on the cap was also strong competition for routes from British airports.

“The Labour government in Britain now has backed investment and capacity expansion at five London airports, Heathrow, City, Luton, Stansted, and Gatwick, so they’re all going to get more runways, more terminal capacity and the government is backing that. 

"So that’s the competition. That should further fuel the sense of urgency to get the cap lifted at Dublin because, trust me, that American Airlines CEO that rang me yesterday to ask if there cap is on everywhere in Ireland or just Dublin, he’s thinking ‘Gatwick next, so’.”

Cork Airport accommodated a record 3.1m international passengers last year and is expected to reach 3.3m this year.

He said Britain has also shortened the time it takes for planning to be secured. 

“Gatwick will go from submitting a planning application to spades in the ground in about 13 to 14 months and that’s that’s for a 16m capacity increase. 

"We are looking for half that, an 8m capacity increase and I think would take us a minimum of three years. So we need planning to go faster.”

On the potential for local competition through efforts in Waterford to secure commercial flights from their airport, Mr Jacobs said it was a difficult case to make. 

“It’s a real long shot. I know Ryanair came out and pooh-poohed it. The number one airline that you’d want to be supporting it would be Ryanair. So if they’re saying it’s not viable for them. Then it’s hard.”

“We have a lot of airports in Ireland already. It could absolutely work a dream on cargo. It might work a dream for general aviation. It might work for people with their own aircraft and for training and those kind of things. 

"Do I think it’s wise for taxpayers’ money to go into that to just dilute the same travelling population in another area? 

"I don’t think it’s necessary. Good luck to them, but it’s a long, long shot with the biggest airline that would fill your schedule and it would be a fairly small schedule is saying no, we’re not going to do it."