O’Leary says Ryanair would provide third airport terminal

Ryanair chief executive, Michael O'Leary, told a gathering that included Government ministers that his airline would provide a third terminal at Dublin Airport for €200 million.

There is speculation that Dublin Airport will need a third terminal if growth continues at the pace that saw it handle a record 25 million passengers last year.

Mr O'Leary agrees that Dublin will need a third terminal but warns that the airport's manager, State-owned DAA, should not have any involvement in it.

Instead, in an echo of a proposal made by his company before DAA built its second terminal, Mr O’Leary said recently Ryanair could provide the third facility and would do it for €200 million.

The airline chief executive and DAA clashed regularly over the design and cost of the airport’s second terminal, which was completed in 2010. During that controversy, Ryanair several times said that it could build and operate a second terminal at Dublin itself.

Cabinet members

Mr O'Leary offered to build the third terminal when he was speaking to a Fine Gael business breakfast attended by several cabinet members, including Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, and his colleagues Leo Varadkar, Simon Coveney and Richard Bruton last week.

He repeated Ryanair's position that airlines should not pay any more for Dublin's proposed second runway than the collective €250 million agreed with the Commission for Aviation Regulation two years ago.

This would add about 59 cent to the airport’s current passenger charge, which is capped at €9.87 a head. DAA has estimated that the cost of the new runway is likely to be €320 million, which could increase passenger charges.

Mr O’Leary also told the political party that DAA intended to close Dublin’s cross runway once the second one was finished. However, an airport source said that the opening of the new runway would not require this.