Ryanair action halts Aer Rianta renovation

The long-running dispute between Ryanair and Aer Rianta over facilities at Dublin Airport entered the High Court yesterday when the airline obtained orders blocking the airport authority's multimillion-pound redevelopment works.

Mr Justice Smith granted Ryanair interim injunctions restraining Aer Rianta from interfering with or carrying out any construction work at the airline's check-in desks and from removing any baggage conveyor belts servicing its check-in desks and baggage hall loading bays.

Mr Michael Collins SC, counsel for Ryanair, told the court Aer Rianta was a monopoly player in the provision of terminal facilities to all airlines of which Ryanair and Aer Lingus were by far the largest passenger carriers.

Mr Collins, who appeared with Mr Michael Howard, said Aer Lingus carried about two million passengers a year out of Dublin and provided check-in facilities for another 300,000 passengers of other airlines.

Aer Rianta had provided Aer Lingus with 56 check-in desks in the most prominent positions and three baggage belts for its exclusive use.

Ryanair was the second-largest passenger carrier and expected to carry 1.6 million this year. Aer Rianta, in contrast to the facilities it provided to Aer Lingus, had provided Ryanair with only 15 check-in desks and half of one baggage belt.

This gave Aer Lingus a ratio of one check-in desk for every 35,714 passengers while Ryanair had one for every 106,666. Aer Lingus had one baggage belt per 666,666 passengers as against Ryanair's half-belt for its entire passenger throughput of 1.6 million.

In addition, Ryanair, which carried 33 per cent of passenger traffic through Dublin, had been allocated only 15 per cent of baggage hall facilities. Mr Collins said Aer Rianta was favouring Aer Lingus to the detriment of Ryanair.

Aer Rianta was engaged in extensive redevelopments and planned to demolish Ryanair's check-in area and move it under and behind the main escalator in the airport. Changes were also planned to Ryanair's baggage belt facilities. He said Aer Rianta contractors intended starting work today and planned taking down Ryanair signs.

Mr Collins said his client was seeking an injunction restraining the work on the basis that it could never be adequately compensated in money terms for damage to the airline's image and loss of revenue through disruption.

He said Arthur Cox, solicitors for Aer Rianta, had asked that a letter be read to the court. It stated that any attempt to frustrate the proposed works by Aer Rianta would result in incalculable losses for the airport authority.

Mr Justice Smith said he was satisfied Ryanair had an arguable case to present to the court and that damages would not be a remedy because of the impossibility of calculating losses.

He believed the balance of convenience favoured the granting of an interim injunction until Monday next. Ryanair intends to seek a declaration from the court that the treatment of the airline by Aer Rianta constitutes an abuse of a dominant position under the Competition Act and a breach of Article 82 of the Treaty of Rome.