Aer Rianta rejects Ryanair proposals

The chairman of Aer Rianta, Mr Noel Hanlon, has said there will be "no sweetheart deals" for Ryanair at Dublin Airport.

He was replying yesterday to questions about the proposals by Ryanair to build a £12 million (€15.24 million) terminal building at Dublin airport in exchange for special bargain facilities which would include a Shannon operation.

Mr Hanlon was at Shannon to announce Aer Rianta proposals for a further capital investment of £80 million at Shannon in airport facilities, making it capable of handling an expected three million passengers a year by 2005.

It would bring to a total investment of £123 million, including the £43 million spent up to this year on a new terminal building.

Mr Hanlon said the Ryanair proposals would be "incapable of delivery and would also be contrary to EU competition rules". It is seeking exclusive use of these facilities which neither the Government nor the EU could allow.

What Ryanair is looking for, he added, was a £1 per passenger contribution at Dublin which would mean just £6.5 million income a year to Aer Rianta in return for an effective transfer of £140 million.

"This would be in return for a £12 million terminal which we would have to maintain."

He said the Ryanair proposed contribution would not even meet the interest on the existing investment made at Dublin airport.

The capital investment projects at Shannon, he said, would begin straight away, to include a UPS maintenance hangar costing £9.6 million, a £5.7 million hangar project for Aer Lingus and the first phase of the business park, costing £3 million.

He said the developments, coming at a time of record traffic growth for the airport, would underpin Shannon airport as the major engine for growth in the west of Ireland and a catalyst for balanced industrial and tourism growth in the whole region.