A planning application for a 90,000 sq m second terminal at Dublin Airport is expected to be lodged this summer, but the application is expected to also include reference to a smaller facility of 75,000 sq m. Emmet Oliver reports.
Debate between the main airlines and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) over the future capacity needed at the airport is continuing, with Aer Lingus in particular pushing for a larger facility.
Against this background, the DAA's planning submission to Fingal County Council is expected to include an application to initially build a 75,000 sq m facility, which will subsequently be extended to a 90,000 sq m building.
If such an application gained planning approval, the DAA would be able to start building the 75,000 sq m option and within 10 years could increase this to 90,000 sq m. Planning approvals for major projects such as this can last up to a decade.
The DAA issued a public statement last July pledging to build a facility of 50,000 sq m at a cost of €170-€200 million.
However, the company claims that in November Aer Lingus submitted more aggressive growth plans than previously flagged and since then the scale of the facility has been under review. Board members of the DAA were recently told that a bigger facility was likely to have an implication for passenger charges, but this has not been quantified yet.
The global architecture company Ove Arup is working with the DAA on the precise specification and design for the terminal.
Before the terminal is built, the DAA has asked builder Laing O'Rourke to build a 14-aircraft Pier D facility with departure gates and aircraft parking stands.
Pier D will only partly solve the traffic congestion problems at the airport because extra landside check-in desks will only come when the second terminal is built.
The other complicating factor is the high growth in passenger numbers at Dublin and the other two major airports.
The growth rate at most international airports normally runs at 3-6 per cent, but last year Dublin's passenger traffic was up by 7.7 per cent and by 8.1 per cent the year before. National passenger growth was up 12.4 per cent last year.
