Airport plans to build 50m dedicated low-fare facility

DUBLIN Airport management yesterday announced a 50m euro plan to vastly improve low-fare passenger facilities within the next two years.

Aer Rianta said it was seeking planning permission to build a new 50m dedicated low-fare facility and hoped work could be completed by 2004. The State-owned airport authority plans to build a 150,000 sq ft pier with disembarkation facilities for 12 planes to cater for 10 million passengers per year.

“The new pier will facilitate low-cost traffic and will contribute significantly to developing passenger facilities at Dublin Airport,” Aer Rianta chairman Noel Hanlon said.

The Government approved the idea of the pier in principle last February after a consultant’s report effectively ended efforts to build a dedicated terminal which could be run independently from the rest of Dublin Airport.

Ryanair boss, Michael O'Leary, had campaigned for such a development and it was understood he had some support in Government circles but was opposed by former Public Enterprise Minister, Mary O’Rourke.

But the consultant, US-based Professor Rigas Dioganis, said the idea of a separate terminal would create more problems than it solved and risked increasing costs by duplicating overheads. Aer Rianta welcomed the report as vindicating its assertions that its landing charges were among the most competitive in Europe.

However, an earlier design for a Pier D, dating from 1997, ran into difficulties with the gardaí and the Justice Department because it allowed arriving and departing passengers to mix, creating security and immigration clearance problems.

The board of Aer Rianta has since cleared a revised planning application.