IRELAND: The Airbus A380 will not be able to land at Dublin Airport, but will be able to fly into Shannon. Dublin Airport does not have sufficient space available to allow the giant two-storey aircraft to land and turn safely on the runway, a spokeswoman for Aer Rianta, the airport's authority, confirmed yesterday.
Aer Rianta has applied to Fingal County Council for a second runway for the Dublin terminal, which would be able to accommodate the Airbus A380 and expects a decision within the next two months.
However, the spokeswoman said such large aircraft would rarely, if ever, use the airport.
"This type of aircraft," she said, "is generally only used on really long-haul flights of a distance from here to Asia, and at the moment we don't have any carriers that want to do direct flights from Dublin to Asia."
Shannon Airport regularly handles very large aircraft and would be able to accommodate the new Airbus, a spokeswoman at Shannon said.
"We have the longest runway in the country.
"We are designated as the site for an American space shuttle to land, in case anything ever goes wrong with one of them," she said.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/0bcd259b-2f01-4cec-ad76-961379866d32.png)