Control of airports - Decision on their future is crucial

ONE of the services important to an island economy is easy, frequent and value-for-money access to all its markets.

In the 21st century that means reliable, frequent and cheap air access to major airports and significant regional airports.

For an island struggling to retain economic independence that basic infrastructure becomes an absolute essential. However, there is a growing feeling that our aviation policies and our centralised airport authority are not the best models to realise the potential of Irish airports to facilitate business growth, develop tourism and, hopefully, create jobs.

The issue of who will ultimately control our airports has been in play for some years but still none of us are any the wiser. Confusion and conflict undermine services and some argue that, in the absence of a clear decision, or any decision at all, development is stymied.

And there’s debt obligations measured in the hundreds of millions – at least €113 million for Cork Airport alone. In Cork, there are also questions surrounding independence as the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) still calls the shots. It has long been argued that this hinders Cork, though the situation has been complicated by debt liabilities, even more so as the economy contracts. As long as the DAA calls the shots, it pays the bills, so winning independence as passenger numbers collapse might not be good enough an argument to take on the huge debts incurred to build the terminal at Cork Airport.

In January and February Cork’s passenger numbers dropped 11% though the figures for the Cheltenham festival week – 50,000 – remained unchanged.

This downward trend is repeated at Dublin and Shannon. During the last 18 months activity at our three main airports fell. Passenger volumes in Cork and Dublin fell 15%, in Shannon by 12%.

How quickly things change. When Cork’s new terminal was opened in August 2006 the ambition was palpable, nothing was impossible or too far-fetched. Today the airport’s 30 check-in desks, because of automation and declining passenger numbers, are mute testimony to the build-it-and-they-will-come optimism that dominated the early years of the last decade. There were plans to bring five million passengers through the terminal.

In a vicious circle of decline, airlines left the airport too, saying it was too expensive and that passenger numbers did not justify the investment.

There is little new or startling in any of these confusing, conflicting hierarchies – the real challenge lies in how quickly we can reshape them to make them relevant to today’s critical circumstances. To date, progress has been debilitatingly slow. Experience suggests that change, if it comes at all, drops slowly from these authorities. That is not good enough today. Decision- making followed by clarity of purpose is needed in the immediate future because our airports cannot fulfil the role we all need them to play right now. We can’t afford the timetables, much less the excess of the past any more.

Confusion and conflict reign and because of this, jobs are at stake so, minister, let’s have a resolution one way or the other, sooner rather than later.