Cabinet warned about ‘illogical’ model

AN EXPERT in aviation yesterday warned of that the Cabinet’s agreed formula for competing terminals at Dublin Airport carried the risk of creating inefficiency and confusion.

David Learmount, operations editor of Flight International, said that having three different systems operating within one airport campus could give rise to inefficiencies that would be deleterious to airlines and passengers.

Yesterday’s Cabinet decision approved a model for Dublin airport incorporating three different types of terminal, all of which will compete against each other.

They are: a State-run Terminal One; a State-built and privately-operated Terminal Two; and a third terminal that will be privately-built and operated.

Mr Learmount said that the formula was a novel one that had no direct comparison elsewhere.

“I think there’s quite a lot of risk involved,” he warned.

“Terminals divide up according to dominant airlines or airline alliances, or the function that airline performs.

“Airlines move into terminals that either serve an airline alliance or a dominant airline.

“Otherwise, terminals serve a function. For example, airports are often divided into domestic and international terminals, or European and non-European terminals.”

Mr Learmount went on to point out that the function of each terminal was determined by logical reasons. But he said that if the competition between terminals which the Government’s decision suggested came into play, then that logic no longer applied.

“If one terminal is much cheaper everybody will fall over themselves to locate there. The other will respond by lowering its charges.

“If you have continuous competition, you are getting constant change not based on anything except chasing a fleeting price.”

However, Mr Learmont also said that passengers favour predictability in using an airport.

He said they get used to where they want to go to, either to catch a flight provided by a particular airline or to go to a destination.

That logic also applied when passengers were transferring from one flight to another (from an international flight to a domestic one, for example).

He said a cursory glance at the model proposed for Dublin airport suggested a “weird” outcome.

“An airport needs to be a logical working unit. It seems to me there is no logic to this system.

“Terminals within airports are usually decided in terms of the best functionality. If you distort that model, it becomes very difficult.

“It could lead to a situation where airlines will locate in terminals that are ill-fitted to their needs for reasons that are not based on rationality or logic.

“That can lead to inefficiencies and confusion.”