O'Leary slates new terminal plan

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary has described the funding plans for the new terminal at Dublin airport as "bizarre" and said only passengers using the facility should have to pay for it.

Mr O'Leary, who also questioned the need to extend the Metro to the airport, was speaking at an announcement of a new seat sale by the carrier. It also announced three new routes from Dublin to Malta, the Canary Islands and Stockholm.

Last week, it was disclosed that Aer Lingus was scheduled to be the main user of the new facility, leaving Ryanair in the old terminal.

The Dublin Airport Authority wants the aviation regulator to approve a new passenger charge of €7.50 to pay for the 75,000 sq m building.

"The notion that, just because you are building a second terminal, the charges for every other passenger should go up by 25 per cent is bizarre. They just sold the Great Southern Hotel Group for €275 million," said Mr O'Leary.

"Why isn't it the people who use the second terminal who pay for it? Why should the cost go up for every other passenger years in advance of it being built and when there is no need for it."

He said the DAA should sell its stakes in airports like Birmingham and Dusseldorf in Germany, which he said were worth €700-€800 million.

The DAA last week revealed that the cost of the new terminal would be €395 million. It said that, because of aggressive growth plans from Aer Lingus, earlier estimates of cost had been revised upward. Mr O'Leary strongly criticised this increase.

"The Government promised to give us a competing second terminal. It turns around three years later and says no, the same idiots who've made such a mess of Dublin Airport should now build the second terminal. Why? Well because they have proven to be world leaders in incompetence, muddle and fudge.

"And you shouldn't be surprised either the costs have doubled. How it can cost more before they even get to the planning stage is beyond me. Imagine what they are going to do by the time they get it built."

He refused to comment on whether the airline might object to the new terminal, but said a fuller statement would be released later in the week.

Mr O'Leary also rejected the idea of Metro linking up with the airport.

"The Dublin Airport Metro will be the greatest white elephant of the large number of white elephants commissioned by this Government."

He said it would only handle about 20 per cent of all air traffic in Dublin. "So we are going to piss away €1.5 billion . . . catering for 20 per cent of traffic at Dublin Airport who are perfectly well served at the moment by the competing coach services offered by Dublin Bus and Aircoach. It's a complete and utter waste of time."

He claimed the vast majority of incoming visitors were not going into the centre of Dublin, but down the country. "The €1.5 billion would be far better spent on an outer orbital roadway outside of the M25," he claimed.

Mr O'Leary said recent security restrictions in the UK meant the airline had missed out on between 50,000 and 60,000 bookings in the days after the terror alerts, but he said this business was now being recovered.

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, speaking in Westport at a parliamentary party meeting yesterday, defended Dublin Airport Authority's terminal plan. He said the cost over-runs and proposed passenger charges were understandable in the light of rapid population growth.