Ryanair challenge to T2 prevented

The High Court has prevented Ryanair from bringing a further legal challenge to the granting of planning permission for a second terminal at Dublin airport.

Mr Justice Frank Clarke ruled yesterday that the terms of settlement of a previous court action precluded Ryanair from bringing a fresh challenge to the permission for the T2 terminal.

He was referring to a settlement between Ryanair and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) in 2006 of a challenge by the airline to the second terminal. An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for T2 last August.

Ryanair launched a High Court challenge to the validity of that decision in September.

Last month, the DAA applied to the High Court to have that challenge dismissed. Mr Justice Clarke granted that application yesterday.

Ryanair had launched the first legal challenge shortly after the Government decided in May 2005 to grant permission for the second terminal. That action was settled almost a year later following correspondence between Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary and DAA chief executive Declan Collier.

The Government decision was based on passenger projections of 30 million by 2020 and it was envisaged that the second terminal should be built by 2009.

In its first challenge, Ryanair claimed the decision to allow the DAA to build T2 was an abuse of its dominant position and it breached EU treaties and competition law. Ryanair also argued it was done in order to allow "inefficient" trade union-controlled work practices to continue at the new terminal. The case was settled in March 2006 and struck out by the court on agreed terms.

Yesterday, the judge said the agreement arose after it appeared "peace had broken out" between Ryanair and the DAA following a long history of disputes between the two parties.

Dismissing Ryanair's proceedings, Mr Justice Clarke found that the recently approved planning permission was in keeping with a report commissioned by the DAA in September 2005 and upon which the agreement which led to the legal settlement was based.

On the basis of the agreement reached between Ryanair and the DAA in March 2006, the airline was precluded from taking any further legal action, he ruled.