Airport bosses demand inquiry into rival's runway plans

The bosses of Belfast International Airport (BIA) tonight demanded a full public inquiry into the application for a runway extension at the rival Belfast City Airport.

BIA managing director John Doran said the application last week was a “wholly retrograde step, entirely incompatible with the present and future economic interests of Northern Ireland”.

The George Best Belfast City Airport – designated as a regional airport – said it wanted to add 1,935ft (590m) to its 5,900ft (1,800m) runway.

It said the plan was not to increase flight numbers or operating hours, but to enable planes to carry more fuel, more passengers and to reach destinations across Europe including the Mediterranean.

But Mr Doran said a public inquiry was needed because of the wider economic and strategic implications of what was “easily the most important decision to come before the planners in many years.”

The decision could not be made in isolation, he said, nor in the narrow commercial interests of Belfast City Airport.

He expected the planning authorities to be openly rigorous in their deliberations.

“Our critics will of course slam our motives as gross self-interest but they are perhaps not wholly objective in their analysis of the situation and couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Mr Doran.

He added: “By means of context it is worth remembering that the 2003 UK Government Aviation White Paper advocates that Belfast International Airport is the only place where traffic can grow in order to benefit the region, its people and economy.

“It’s time our policymakers demonstrably understood the rationale behind this economic imperative.”

Residents’ action groups opposed to the runway extension have already called for a public inquiry into an application which they said would resulted in an “irreversible nightmare” for south and east Belfast.